{"id":1557,"date":"2008-12-01T09:05:04","date_gmt":"2008-12-01T16:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=1557"},"modified":"2008-12-03T20:27:16","modified_gmt":"2008-12-04T03:27:16","slug":"the-snowman-dianne-jackson-1982-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=1557","title":{"rendered":"The Snowman (Dianne Jackson, 1982): UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Richard Feilden<\/a>. \u00a0Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"\"I\u2019m going to start this holiday season of film reviews with a film that, for me, is <\/em>the holidays. \u00a0I can remember the year it was released, the stories on children\u2019s television shows about the choirboy who lent his vocal talents to the soundtrack and the excitement with which we awaited its premiere. \u00a0That film is the twenty seven minute short, The Snowman<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Based on a book by Raymond Briggs, The Snowman is a deceptively simple tale. \u00a0It recounts the story of a small boy who, excited by the snow he discovers outside his window, builds himself a snowman which, late at night, comes to life. \u00a0The boy introduces the snowman to his world, and then his frosty friend returns the favor. \u00a0Superficially straightforward then, but looks can be deceiving.<\/p>\n

Looks are the first thing that you will notice about The Snowman. \u00a0In an age of hyper-realistic computer generated animation, The Snowman\u2019s hand drawn images are a welcome change. \u00a0Flickering like fairy lights or an open fire as they are redrawn from frame to frame, they carry a charm in their inconsistency which is missing from many more sterile, modern productions.<\/p>\n

Something that this film is missing is the spoken word. \u00a0Apart from the introduction by the book\u2019s author (replaced inexplicably by David Bowie when the short was shown on American TV) the film contains no dialogue. \u00a0Even the soundtrack is wordless, save for the magical flying scene during which choirboy Peter Auty lends his voice to the proceedings. \u00a0Reminiscent in this way of this year\u2019s WALL-E, this silent picture feel only adds to the nostalgia that the film manages to evoke.<\/p>\n

All this talk of simplicity may have you thinking that this is a sentimental child\u2019s animation and frankly not worth your time. \u00a0You could not be more wrong. \u00a0True, this is a story of an innocent love and of a child\u2019s ability to succumb to a world of magic and make believe, but it manages to avoid descending into schmaltz quite brilliantly. \u00a0It has moments of suspense and surprise and manages to develop its characters over its short, silent running time quite brilliantly. \u00a0It also refuses sentimentality by ending in the only way that a tale featuring a snowman can; the final shot might be upsetting for small children \u2013 be warned, even the most hardened viewer might find that the room has become \u2018a little dusty\u2019 when the credits roll.<\/p>\n

My other holiday reviews might take a more tangential approach to the season of good-will, but I have started with the film which my family always ends up watching come Christmas Eve. \u00a0My normal, cynical reviews will resume shortly, but for now I commend to you a moment from my childhood. \u00a0If you can find a copy, give half an hour to The Snowman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Richard Feilden. \u00a0Viewed on DVD. I\u2019m going to start this holiday season of film reviews with a film that, for me, is the holidays. \u00a0I can remember the year it was released, the stories on children\u2019s television shows about the choirboy who lent his vocal talents to the soundtrack and the excitement with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animation","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}