The Snowman and the Snowdog

[kalowski]

Never seen this before. No-one told me about the racist Chinese snowman.

[Mister Six]

Every time I'm reminded of The Snowman, I remember this CaB post from 2012:

'The Snowdog' sounds like a shit rapper from Canada.

Tears all round.  But then - oh joy!  Happiness!  He'll be surprised by a real puppy, complete with floppy mismatched ears, for his Christmas present! 

To tie it all up the kid should also get his very own fat, mute, red nosed, overly affectionate white guy who only wears a hat and scarf and lives in the garden, creeping about the house while everyone is asleep for the remainder of his life.

11 years and counting. Lovely.

[idunnosomename]

absolute dogshit. the animation on the original 1982 short is incredible, constantly changing landscape all done manually. the sequel was appalling how it blatantly used CG for the plane etc. awful in so many other ways too of course

the irn-bru ads were much better, even though Raymond Briggs got pissed off at them
original 2006
https://michaelkinlan.co.uk/irn-bru-snowman

the sequel 2018
https://lupusfilms.com/commercials/irn-bru-phenomenal-christmas-2-advert-2018

these are probably done with some CG help (nothing wrong with that) but they look a lot better than Snowdog which didn't even bother to redraw the CG elements so they stick out like a proverbial sore thumb.

here's an interesting piece on the original and how ambitious it was
https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-specialness-of-the-snowman

edit: notice im in the 2012 thread saying there is some good animation in Snowdog. well there is some. but at least i dunked on the score thats done by some cunt from Razorlight. terrible. they shouldn't be showing this anymore.

[Midas]

The original picture book is peak imo (no Father Christmas shoehorned in)

[idunnosomename]

it certainly is, as it better portrays the fleeting joy of life and death of all things, but the animation stands up by itself as its own good thing, with the song and all that.

[Midas]

absolute dogshit. the animation on the original 1982 short is incredible, constantly changing landscape all done manually. the sequel was appalling how it blatantly used CG for the plane etc. awful in so many other ways too of course

I remember thinking the sequel was too clean compared to the original. Parts of it looked like they'd tried to use digital textures to simulate pencil shading (possibly in an effort to blend in the horrid CG lighting effects).

[perplexingprocrastinator]

Fucking absolutely sucks. I feel like they waited until briggs was super-old and easily bamboozled and got him to sign off on a stink-turd doodoo. Awful. 

I really loved briggs and i took that film personally. What the hell did those crass... oafs think they were doing? That wasn't just any IP - The Snowman book is a classic. Understated briggs brilliance, so subtle and affecting. The original animation is timeless, captured all the sadness and wonder through sheer graft at the animation desk.

That snowdog reboot is... irrelevant and ought to be forgotten. It would be more magical to watch fifteen episodes of The fucking Shoe People end to end.
 

[idunnosomename]

yeah i'd just ignore it but the fact it's still being shown and was packaged on DVDs with the original is just upsetting. it's like having Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure held on a par to the 1955 film

[Icehaven]

Not seen it before, thought there's no way the snowman will melt at the end again, because

A) One of his snowmates followed them in a plane, so he could have taken him back to Lapland.

and

B) It'd be EXACTLY THE SAME FUCKING ENDING AS THE FIRST ONE.

But they did.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Maybe they should have gone to some sort of ice haven

[thr0b]

A shaved ice haven? A shaven haven?

[Icehaven]

Maybe they should have gone to some sort of ice haven

They did, then the silly bastard came back and melted again. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

[greencalx]

Although I was exactly the right age for the original Snowman, it somehow didn't make a huge impression on me at the time (although Walking in the Air was everywhere, and we played it on xylophones at the following year's school concert). So it turns out I've only sat through the whole thing as an adult with a child of my own, and this in the post-sequel era. The child thinks the original is brilliant, and the sequel a stinking turd (not his words). We spend far too much time in the original fretting about the fact that the protagonist is going commando throughout, and in the sequel trying to figure out whether the shots of the house are consistent, somehow being in the middle of a development at the front but in open countryside at the back.

The animation of the sequel is cacky, and The Song utter shite. I could see they had a bit of a problem on their hands - WitA is so iconic, that any attempt to recreate something similar would look like a pale imitation, and anything too different would be different for the sake of being different. So they just went for bland. To be honest, if they had to do a reboot, they should have just used a slightly different arrangement of the original song.

But anyway, as said on a different thread, we now have an established Christmas Eve tradition of watching the original with misty eyes, and then shouting at the screen throughout the sequel. Maybe that was the intention?

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

Why does the snowman in the original one fly over Brighton? Where can the boy possibly live that that going south over it is the fastest route to get to Norway or wherever it is that Lapland is? I think I read somewhere it's mean to be Sussex and that the big hills are the downs, which makes sense. I guess you could say he's taking the boy on a magical scenic journey, but as cool as the pier and pavillion are, two seconds of aerial fannying about over them is not really enough to justify a hundred mile detour. Much as the sequel is a cynical reeking gelatinous cube of dog cum, it does at least get that right by having them go over London instead.

[shiftwork2]

Citizen Kane and the Snowdog.

Bin.

[Midas]

London landmarks and Union Flags and racial stereotypes

[Senior Baiano]

The fucking shard

[Midas]

song lifted off a jet2 advert

[Theoretical Dentist]

Why does the snowman in the original one fly over Brighton? Where can the boy possibly live that that going south over it is the fastest route to get to Norway or wherever it is that Lapland is? I think I read somewhere it's mean to be Sussex and that the big hills are the downs, which makes sense.

Raymond Briggs lived in Westmeston, which is about 10km north of Brighton just over the South Downs, so I guess they were meant to live somewhere near there. Flying over Brighton would be the wrong direction (the shortest route for a long journey can be counterintuitive if you're looking at a 2D map, but still wouldn't be south) but not much of a detour and maybe even justified if the snowman needs to circle to gain altitude or something.

[Senior Baiano]

The Desoman and the Desodog

[popcorn]

I haven't seen this since it came out, but I remember thinking they missed an opportunity to have their cake and eat it for the ending. The snow dog should have sat down by the fire to go to sleep, then the lad wakes up and it's melted. Oh no sadness, but then mum and dad give him a real dog for his christmas prezzie. It would have to be an obviously different dog, to avoid the implication that the snow dog was magic and came back to life. The thing of the snow dog turning into a real dog to me sort of undoes the whole thing of the snowman melting — the point is it's just a snowman, it melts, but life goes on.

[Jerzy Bondov]

The snow dog turn into real dog because Santa give it magic collar. Make perfect sence

[Beagle 2]

maybe even justified if the snowman needs to circle to gain altitude or something.

Love the idea of Briggs being summoned to an enquiry to explain why the snowman made a pass over Brighton, pointing at maps and diagrams. "It's basic aeronautics".