Andy Griffith, one of the most recognizable voices in acting in his day, was the narrator Frosty’s Winter Wonderland. It’s hard to imagine anyone else doing such a memorable job at presenting this great tale. The twenty-four minute film is about a group of children in a small town wondering when, or if, Frosty would ever return. Sometime before, Frosty said he would be back again someday, as the song goes, but the children weren’t so sure.
Meanwhile, in the North Pole, Frosty is alive and well, and ponders his return to the town as well. Just then a newspaper blows his way, and it reveals that winter has set in and therefore it’s essentially ‘safe’ for Frosty to travel there.
He arrives in the town and he and the children have a wonderful time. Jack Frost attempts to ruin things, but, the spirit of the town and of Frosty eventually win the heart of Jack Frost and all is well. It’s a basic, if not predictable story, but it’s a children’s movie afterall, and a really special one at that.
This Deluxe Edition DVD is straight-forward, including a remastered version of the movie, although it understandable maintains the fullscreen ratio and 1.0 mono audio that the original film had. English, and Spanish spoken audio is included, as well as English, Spanish, and French subtitles. As far as image quality, well, I can’t say I have seen every other version of this film released to date, but this Deluxe Edition looks fine. I was neither impressed or disappointed in what I saw, it was just on par for what I was expecting I suppose.
As for extra features, you get one, “The History of Snowmen” which runs 9m21s, and has the author of the book “The History of Snowmen” talking as well as cartoonish Scott Shaw. Both talk about snowmen in hollywood’s past and so forth. It’s worth a look, but something children probably won’t take an interest in.
To the summary…