What do you think of the Snowman? Moving or melancholy? I love it and watch it every year - just wouldn't recommend it after a breakup or when feeling emotionally fragile. 😂
There's quite a few melancholy endings are in British light entertainment and comedy. The classic is probably the last scene of Blackadder Goes Forth but also the final edition of the Fast Show featuring an acting tour de force by Paul Whitehouse as his "Rowley Birkin" character morphs from comedy drunk to tragic figure mourning a lost love.
I remember the first time the Snowman was screened on British TV. Watching it you felt you felt you were one of millions having the same astoundingly profound experience at the exact same time. Unique
I think the idea in the British Snowman is the lonely child creating a fantasy world for himself, having a moment of happiness, but finally returning to his reality.
I always thought the family lived out in the countryside and were possibly farmers. That's why the parents were not afraid to let him play out near the house in the dark.
@@Rhianalanthulaback in the 80s and even 90s parents weren't afraid to let their kids play out once it got dark especially close to home/in their garden like in the snowman
My children were each in turn harrowed by their first viewings of The Snowman because I did not tell them what the ending would be. They still watch it every year and pretend they aren't crying. (They are now 40, 38 and 33.)
8:54 There's a haunting moment when they're flying home, and the Snowman looks over towards the rising sun with a sad look on his face, knowing their time together is nearly up.
The snowman is now a British treasure. It’s on every Xmas, I think it’s the music and atmosphere, that makes it so memorable. Love your humorous take on both the snowmen.🎅🎄
My children watched The Snowman in the 80's and now my grandchildren watch it, along with Snowman and Snow Dog, which is also a tearjerker. Both films are incredible.
There is a strain of darkness running through all of Raymond Briggs' work. From 'The Snowman', right through to the apocalyptic 'When the Wind Blows', via a very grumpy and fed up 'Father Christmas'. His illustrative technique is exquisite and the story lines always present us with an unexpected twist on the everyday. 'Fungus the Bogeyman' is full of the sort of humour beloved of small children - much of it about bodily functions - and then there is 'Ethel and Ernest', a sympathetic and loving telling of his parents' life together. They are short pictorial novels, or novellas, rather than comic strip books and deal with a host of human situations and emotions and complex themes. A child may read them for the story; an adult will probably read the story and appreciate the deeper references. They are not without joy, though but, as you say, they present both sides of the coin and loss, regret and sadness are portrayed as an integral part of the human condition. As William Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet, 'Parting is such sweet sorrow,' - 'sweet', the love Juliet feels for Romeo and 'sorrow' at the thought of their being apart. But then, that's life and, perhaps, the pain in parting is a measure of one's love for another. I can do nothing better than to recommend you read the other works of Raymond Briggs. You'll find it worth your while.
Raymond Briggs is superb. The books I had as a kid were Father Christmas, Father Christmas Goes on Holiday, Fungus the Bogeyman, Gentleman Jim and When the Wind Blows. I also got Fungus the Plop-up book. I only watched The Snowman on TV.
Re: end of the snowman uk. It's not the end. You must immediately watch or read Father Christmas for the happy news the same snowman came back to life when rebuilt.
Kalyn back to her best, very funny, not sure what it says about me, but I've not seen either film, not even heard of Frosty, did not know what the other one was about either. :) and now thanks to Kalyn I won't need to watch it either, excellent, thank you. 😊 Happy Christmas to you and Electric kettle. 😅
About a decade later, Briggs wrote another graphic novel "Where the Wind Blows" it's another mildly traumatic film, but this time about an atomic bomb. My spouse said he remembers watching it as young primary school child.
He wouldn’t have seen it in school, it was immediately banned from schools and there were attempts to suppress it elsewhere. Overall it is incredibly peaceful and quiet film, which is part of what made so deeply traumatic. The couple in the movie follow the guidelines of a pamphlet that was produced by the government - this was a genuine publication. They follow it carefully, calmly and completely passively. They have faith in the government who published it. It is that calm acceptance, mixed with the utter futility that make it so powerful
David Bowie gave a brief introduction of the Snowman , he represents the boy as a grown-up and produces the scarf as evidence to prove the event happened
spiderboris79-The intro with David Bowie was definitely shown here in the UK. Everytime I saw The Snowman as a kid in the 90s, it had that intro, so that's the version I grew up with.
The great thing is the the bike reg is from the early sixties, a Honda CB 160, I had one, and I could have been the boy, it's definitely the south downs. One reason this is so loved, is it's so many people's memory of less commercial Christmas.
I absolutely love the snowman. I'm in my 50s and I still cry when I watch it. Fun fact: it wasn't Aled Jones singing on the film, it was Peter Auty but then his voice broke so Aled Jones took over n was the one who got famous
@@stevelknievel4183 It has now, but it hadn't when the record was made. "Auty claimed in an interview with BBC Breakfast News on 2 December 2022 that his voice had not broken and he was never contacted for the recording."
One of my (now adult) child’s favourite memories is of going to a nearby concert hall round Christmas & watching The Snowman on a big screen with a live orchestra playing the soundtrack. Absolutely magical. Another great video, thanks
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial I was welling up, too, in anticipation! Ha! You should look at the new Aardman 'Wallace and Gromit' animation this Christmas... Us Brits are already planning the day around its scheduled broadcast time! And the National Grid are planning for the load on the electricity supply for when everyone puts the kettle on for a cup of tea!
I remember watching The Snowman when i was in Nursery. The whole class was bawling. The teachers did their best to comfort us but ultimately they found it amusing and yes, life lesson was taught to us little English kids. Life sucks. Get over it. Lol
I was amused by your mentioning of the American desire for constant narration while listening to you summarize both movies and barely taking a breath. 😏
It really is a tricky high-wire act to get a perfect mix of sarcasm, tongue-in-cheek humour, praise & ridicule; there's no recipe for it and A.I. wouldn't even come close. They say everybody has a book in them - which no doubt is true, but unfortunately 99% of them are just really bad books. I suspect that were Kalyn ever to write a book it would definitely be in that top 1%. In short - great video.
Another thing to mention about the Snowman is that "Walking in the Air" is performed as a very formal choral piece by a trained choir boy. It has the comfort of watching "Carols from Kings" - which should be the subject of another of your excellent videos.
Yes. There's a great BBC short documentary called A Year at Kings, made to recognise the centenary of Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings. It's great. In the animation The Snowman, however, the choir was St Paul's Cathedral.
And that choir boys balls dropped by the time the Snowman was released so couldnt reach the high notes anymore. So in steps another choir boy Aled Jones to record the official single version of the song. Everyone things it was Aled in the Snowman but it's actually someone else.
While you pointed out the alcohol references in "The Snowman", I couldn't help noticing that Frosty appears to be constantly smoking a pipe (admittedly with no smoke coming out) - also not a good example for children! It seems the kids in the cartoon apparently had access to smoking equipment!
When I was very young my best friend Freddie had an audio tape of The Snowman and we used to play it and act it out, taking it in turns to be the boy and the snowman. At the end the one of us who was the snowman had to pretend to melt while the other one grieved 😢😢🤣🤣
After watching this video, I rewatched the snowman on youtube. And idk whether it was the nostalgia, the hand-drawn art style, the memories of family I only used to see at Christmas, the beautiful music, but whatever it was, I cried like a little bitch and that's thanks to you, so genuinely, thank you
I got a different message from the Snowman myself. I always saw it that we were supposed to see it as the boy dreams the whole thing and he’s disappointed when he wakes up . ,Right down to the last minute when he finds the scarf and realises it wasn’t a dream after all so then there is something happy because as soon as it’s snowing again the magic could potentially come back because now he knows magic is real. There is an audio narration track read from the book which my family quote endlessly. In particular, ‘steam! It was too hot for the snowman’ whenever someone turns on the hot tap in a cold kitchen. It’s really good.
Dry your eyes. In the animated version of Raymond Briggs Father Christmas, the Snowman and James have a cameo. Turns out he comes back to life every year.
If you're watching British animated classics that are very emotional, I have a suggestion for you - Watership Down. It's a real tear jerker of a movie about the challenges faced by a family of bunny rabbits.
Oh wow. I remember watching that in the cinema with my mum. Despite being a brave 7 year old boy I couldn't stop crying. I had a little black bunny as a pet back then called Busby.
It’s a topic i frequently bring up, but relevant to an awful lot in UK culture. Raymond Briggs was born in 1934 in Wimbledon - a suburb of London. He would have lived through the war and the Blitz and would have been twenty by the time the time wartime rationing ended. Friends, family, buildings, foods - everything in life could be lost, and that was part of the national psyche. I really do urge you to talk to a boomer about their childhoods. Especially things like the strange adults in their lives, violent teachers, bus conductors, park keepers, maudlin aunts etc. they were raised by a truly damaged wartime generation. No bomb ever fell in America, not real rationing, no loss of houses, or cinema or school. - the US actually had the opposite problem, where only those who served were really traumatized, and when they got back home, they weren't understood. But in UK/ European literature and media, childhood loss in post war era was either taken for granted, or was the explicit storyline of a great many stories. - it actually begins earlier, after the First World War, but even into this century the acknowledgement of childhood loss is very prevalent
Just googled Briggs, he was evacuated during the war and sent to Dorset. Although studies done have largely focused on children sent to boarding school, psychologists say that for a child being sent away from home home, the results are just about the same as bereavement - except the child loses their whole family and home at once. And unlike a true breavement, the kids are generally chided or even punished for behaviour that could be regarded as grieving. I’m not saying the Snowman wasn’t a snowman, but sometimes snowmen can be allegories.
That's an interesting take on the ending of the Snowman. I was 4 when it came out and already a fan of the fantasy genre, and as I grew up I think that reading Enid Blyton may have influenced my interpretation. The ending seems sad until you think of it as the start of a coming of age story. Like the Narnia Chronicles each child returns for a new story until they grow up and stop believing. So the snowman can come back each year. In my teens it turned into an allegory for reading. Escaping into magical worlds and loving it until you have to close the book. But knowing that world's still there if you want to go back. Which probably says more about childhood optimism than it does about the story! 😁
@claregale9011 And that's fine for what he wanted to put across. But the thing about art is that what's meant and what the audience perceives don't necessarily bear any resemblance to each other. The idea that it returns the following year to enchant and entertain again is (I would say) a pretty obvious point for an infant school aged child to read into it that the story isn't necessarily over. But if the author never meant it then obviously pre-teen Ethan *couldn't* have read anything else into it. 🤷
Your US extrovert v UK introvert point is very well made and calls back to the point made in a previous video about small-talk: US is an extroverted way to make friends and UK is an introverted way of not getting too close. The snowman and small-talk show the same point!
I always saw 'The Snowman' as his magical dream But the scarf was there at the end to be like 'was it really a dream or does magic really exist?' And it is known that a magic snowman only lives for one night :)
Brilliant! Thanks Kalin, this problem of the transatlantic snowmen differences has been bugging me for years!!😜😂🤣. You've spent just the right amount of time over here, to have both UK and US culture sussed. 11 out of 10, cheers.
The 'confused guy looking at his drink' was a homage to Stan Laurel (of Laurel and Hardy fame), who wore the same expression in every film as a trademark of sorts.
Look at you in your patch of Sunshine! I remember my first viewing - & being very unwilling to make eye contact with anyone else in the room in case they detected my emotional weakness. Had the same a few years later with the animated film of the book 'Watership Down' but was a little more prepared having read the book. You should give that a whirl - guaranteed emotional rollercoaster, both the book & the film. Love your stuff. Keep up the good work.
If you want to see the British understated/Keep calm and carry on attitude in a piece of our media you should watch ‘When the wind blows’ from 1986. The short film is done in the same art style as The Snowman due to the book also being written by Raymond Briggs. Its also a good example of the differences in the level of emotional maturity is considered normal from UK children at younger ages in comparison to the US. I was shown it at the age of 10 during class in school.
The superb artwork in the Snowman coupled with the gorgeous music - a real work of art. Aled Jones singing "I'm flying through the air" in a clear boy treble still surfaces on Radio 3 from time to time
Hi , The snowman is definately a tradition to watch in my house , its stunning music is what brings it to life , yes it's a sad ending but lifes not just full of happy endings and I think it's acgood lesson to learn 😊.
It must have been over 20 years since I watched The Snowman and you were bringing back some vivid memories and feelings... Man. Now I need to make sure I watch it again this year. It truly is a masterpiece, and every single frame created in lovingly hand-drawn 2D animation, which takes SUCH a long time. On another note - In the UK this is one of those things that has been so well known and so well beloved that it's referenced and made fun of quite frequently.
The original opening to The Snowman has a live action introduction by David Bowie. His son, movie director Duncan Jones, recreated this recently on his social media.
As a David Bowie fan, i always loved that opening introduction to The Snowman when I was growing up. I remember being disappointed to see they'd changed the opening when I finally rewatched the film as an adult, but luckily you can still find the film with it's original introduction on youtube.
@@kirstyfairly4371 I think this is slightly back to front. The introduction wasn't on the original broadcast, but was added a few years later for the VHS release I believe and on some overseas broadcasts. It has however been shown on TV at least a few times. So different people have different views on whether it 'belongs' at the start, depending on when and which version they first watched. Edit: Looking it up, it was recorded in 1984 to appeal to US network sponsors! "The original introduction on Channel 4 features Raymond Briggs walking through a field in rural Sussex describing his inspiration for the story, which then transitions into the animated landscape of the film (the idea being that he is doing so in character as an older version of James). The film's executive producer Iain Harvey had received interest in the film from U.S. networks and for a VHS release. However, he noted that "in the US programmes were sponsored, and to be sponsored you needed a big name". Various names such as Laurence Olivier and Julie Andrews were suggested, but a request for a rock star led to David Bowie being involved. He was a fan of Briggs's story _When the Wind Blows_ and later provided a song for its animated adaptation. In the sequence, Bowie was filmed in the attic of 'his' childhood home and discovering, in a drawer, a scarf closely resembling the one given to James towards the end of the film; he then proceeds to narrate over the opening with his own small variation of Briggs' monologue." I for one had never actually seen that version until the Christmas 2015 broadcast, which remains the only time I've seen that version. I remember the date specifically because it was - coincidentally - just weeks later that Bowie died, so that would have been the last time I saw him on anything during his lifetime.
I know it doesn’t need saying but I still feel insulted that you didn’t mention the snowman was all hand drawn with coloured pencils. The work and care that went into the movie shows.
I watched the first airing of The Snowman in 1982. I was three. And I have watched it at least once every year since. It is one of the most beautiful pieces of art I have ever experienced.
The Snowman is about the balance of love and loss, celebration and grief. The whole ying and yang of it all. Always celebrate life, because nothing is forever. Also, the Snowman is a family film, not just for kids that’s why there’s little nuggets for the adults in the room. A snuggle up together on a cold winters night kind of film. Oh, you didn’t mention the bit before the opening credits where David Bowie sets the scene by finding the scarf in the attic. I have fond memories of watching this with my children. ☺️
The snowman is my favourite childhood Christmas film and every year I watch it at least once and as a kid the time slot it was on was booked and we had to fit everything else around it (same with doctor who). Nothing says Christmas like a charming film about death, one with a great song to aing along to. It's also just really great animation, which it mimicking the art atyle of the storybook. It's just a beautiful piece of art, one full 9f charm, joy, humour, sadness and everything else that happens in life.
Then the snowman and the snowdog finished us all off, I cried all the way through it! I genuinely haven’t seen Frosty but it seems fun and the style very much in line with 60s cartoons
Love it - mind you, if you want to see an animated film that will bring you to tears, try "Watership Down" - a nice story of fluffy bunnies..... Someone on Channel 4 thought this would be a great programme for Easter. Cue hordes of traumatised children... 🙂
Kids are very resilient, teaching kids lifes all roses and nice is not good in my opinion , like the snowman it's about loss and how kids can accept its a part of life .
Very interesting cultural points you raise. I was 17 when I saw The Snowman and believe me it was very difficult to choke back the tears as I watched it with my family. Teen boys don't cry except at losing cup final!!
our kids TV and movies generally go to darker places than the US ones, programs like Dr Who, Sapphire and Steel or movies like Watership Down and Plague Dogs
The soundtrack on the Snowman was central to the film. It's for children of all ages and is very emotional. I remember myself how I felt upon waking up in the morning to find that my Snowman had disappeared.
I watched Father Christmas for the first time last week with my toddler. James and his Snowman feature in it and it is implied to be set the following Christmas to The Snowman. So James builds his Snowman again and he comes to life again. You get your happy ending you just need to wait for the next film to get it...
The difference between British and American culture! We Brits take a beautiful work of art and music and accept it for what it is - an entertaining child's story. Americans have to psychoanalyse everything!
I describe your channel as 'pretty decent' so you are aware enough of British culture to take that description as a sincere English compliment.p.s. I 'quite like' how you avoid the usual clichés about rain and tea and fish and chips.
Now for a new year cultural show you should check out "Dinner for One" I first encountered it in South Africa nut I believe it is huge in many European countries but I know mainly from Germany
I first heard of The Snowman back in the 1990’s when clips of it and the tune of “Walking In The Air” were made into a small demo for the Atari ST. Years later I found it on DVD and gave a copy to my sister’s family for Christmas. That’s still one of my favorite Christmas melodies.
The Snowman isnt per say just for kids, its a family animation. it also has two companions Father Christmas, and Snowman and the Snow Dog. Thing is we did actually do toast in the fire like that
Irn Bru had a parody of The Snowman as an ad. They flew all over Scotland passing all the famous sights. They fall out when the boy refuses to share his Irn Bru with the Snowman who then lets him fall to the ground in George Square Glasgow. Even Irn Bru couldn't have the death of a child in an ad so they addes a shot of the boy climbing out of a snowdrift to show he was alive
I had the book back in 1978 and used to read it to my younger cousin Kate making up my own narrative - there's no dialogue in the book either. In the book they only go as far as Brighton and then back up to Ditchling/Clayton/Hassocks way. Notice the geographical error in the film - they must've gone via Antarctica as there aren't any penguins in the arctic.
The Snowman is a landmark beautiful short animated film, which is a treasure to behold. I've never even seen Frosty the Snowman before, and I'm 53 now, haha, but it looks just like a little kiddie's Christmas cartoon. No harm in that, but The Snowman is on another level, and as you say at the end, they shouldn't be compared really. Also, was the bad wizard in Frosty suffering acute liver failure or something? Very yellow fellow :D
What do you think of the Snowman? Moving or melancholy? I love it and watch it every year - just wouldn't recommend it after a breakup or when feeling emotionally fragile. 😂
Moving!!!!
Not necessarilly, sometimes a good cry is exactly what you need.
From the moment your vid dropped on others stealing your content they hove been vocal mentioning your vids! Fair play to you👍👌👏
Moving .... I love it! I also really like the snowman and the snow dog. Have you seen it?
True
There's quite a few melancholy endings are in British light entertainment and comedy. The classic is probably the last scene of Blackadder Goes Forth but also the final edition of the Fast Show featuring an acting tour de force by Paul Whitehouse as his "Rowley Birkin" character morphs from comedy drunk to tragic figure mourning a lost love.
The thing that hits you after watching The Snowman is they achieved the emotional impact with not a single line of dialog.
I remember the first time the Snowman was screened on British TV. Watching it you felt you felt you were one of millions having the same astoundingly profound experience at the exact same time. Unique
It is fantastic. Apparently the lovely choir boys voice on the original was not Aled Jones, but Peter Auty. I feel bad for that young lad.
@@Drew-Dastardly
Yes. Alud did the album version
It is worth remembering that the British Snowman was an Oscar nominee and BAFTA award winner. Happy Christmas.
I think the idea in the British Snowman is the lonely child creating a fantasy world for himself, having a moment of happiness, but finally returning to his reality.
aw, that's a good take on it. Sad, though!!!
I always thought the family lived out in the countryside and were possibly farmers. That's why the parents were not afraid to let him play out near the house in the dark.
@@Rhianalanthula and also why he's playing alone instead of with a group of kids.
@@Rhianalanthulaback in the 80s and even 90s parents weren't afraid to let their kids play out once it got dark especially close to home/in their garden like in the snowman
That loneliness is the starting point for many stories - Harry Potter under the stairs.
My children were each in turn harrowed by their first viewings of The Snowman because I did not tell them what the ending would be. They still watch it every year and pretend they aren't crying. (They are now 40, 38 and 33.)
If you think The Snowman is sad watch Raymond Briggs "When the wind blows"
oh no, I don't know if I need more tears! Will do, though!
I didn't know that had been televised, but it's a real piece of social history.
Boom!
a brilliant but brutal film
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial It is not a children's film and if you do watch it you probably better to know what you are getting yourself into.
Now you need to watch the Irn Bru Snowman advert
adverts!
Was going to say that!
Agreed the Irn-bru snowman advert is fantaatic
Yes, both of them. Perfect irony (joke) about emotion.
@@Jason_L10 And why does UA-cam suggest "Translate into English" for this fantaatic comment on a Scottish icon! 😂
The sequel to the Snowman, "The Snowman and the Snow dog" broke me in the opening sequence.
8:54 There's a haunting moment when they're flying home, and the Snowman looks over towards the rising sun with a sad look on his face, knowing their time together is nearly up.
The snowman is now a British treasure. It’s on every Xmas, I think it’s the music and atmosphere, that makes it so memorable.
Love your humorous take on both the snowmen.🎅🎄
My children watched The Snowman in the 80's and now my grandchildren watch it, along with Snowman and Snow Dog, which is also a tearjerker. Both films are incredible.
I came here to say that 😇
The Snowman is beautiful, a very special film and it's lovely how it means a lot to people regardless of age.
Wonderful stuff. The sequel, The Snowman and the Snowdog is a tearjerker as well.
Yeah, the snowman gets screwed over in that one. The dog gets it but he doesn't?
@@charlestownsend9280 It's lovely isn't it!
I thought it was terrible
I think we appreciate melancholy, more in UK perhaps?
There is a strain of darkness running through all of Raymond Briggs' work. From 'The Snowman', right through to the apocalyptic 'When the Wind Blows', via a very grumpy and fed up 'Father Christmas'. His illustrative technique is exquisite and the story lines always present us with an unexpected twist on the everyday. 'Fungus the Bogeyman' is full of the sort of humour beloved of small children - much of it about bodily functions - and then there is 'Ethel and Ernest', a sympathetic and loving telling of his parents' life together. They are short pictorial novels, or novellas, rather than comic strip books and deal with a host of human situations and emotions and complex themes. A child may read them for the story; an adult will probably read the story and appreciate the deeper references. They are not without joy, though but, as you say, they present both sides of the coin and loss, regret and sadness are portrayed as an integral part of the human condition. As William Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet, 'Parting is such sweet sorrow,' - 'sweet', the love Juliet feels for Romeo and 'sorrow' at the thought of their being apart. But then, that's life and, perhaps, the pain in parting is a measure of one's love for another.
I can do nothing better than to recommend you read the other works of Raymond Briggs. You'll find it worth your while.
Raymond Briggs is superb. The books I had as a kid were Father Christmas, Father Christmas Goes on Holiday, Fungus the Bogeyman, Gentleman Jim and When the Wind Blows. I also got Fungus the Plop-up book. I only watched The Snowman on TV.
Just my thoughts exactly. Life isn't just a bed of roses. Roses have thorns. He was a brilliant author, even if there are no words.
Now when the wind blows was really traumatic!
Re: end of the snowman uk. It's not the end. You must immediately watch or read Father Christmas for the happy news the same snowman came back to life when rebuilt.
Of course he did. He needed to rob an American magician's hat.
When anyone mentions 'The Snowman', there's a requirement to sing the line "We're walking in the air..." in the highest pitched voice you can muster.
you'll be happy to know that I do in fact do this offline!
"We're walking in the air.... without our underwear..."
We're walking in the moonlight sky is optional 😂
Kalyn back to her best, very funny, not sure what it says about me, but I've not seen either film, not even heard of Frosty, did not know what the other one was about either. :) and now thanks to Kalyn I won't need to watch it either, excellent, thank you. 😊 Happy Christmas to you and Electric kettle. 😅
@@simonmeadows7961. 😂 thank you !
About a decade later, Briggs wrote another graphic novel "Where the Wind Blows" it's another mildly traumatic film, but this time about an atomic bomb. My spouse said he remembers watching it as young primary school child.
Yup that one was terrifying. Teachers explaining all the radiation sickness
Me too, I was around 9/10 and saw it on the block telly the teacher would wheel in on the little cart 😂
I think we are all traumatised by that. I remember my husband had the book.
He wouldn’t have seen it in school, it was immediately banned from schools and there were attempts to suppress it elsewhere. Overall it is incredibly peaceful and quiet film, which is part of what made so deeply traumatic. The couple in the movie follow the guidelines of a pamphlet that was produced by the government - this was a genuine publication. They follow it carefully, calmly and completely passively. They have faith in the government who published it. It is that calm acceptance, mixed with the utter futility that make it so powerful
@@adrianmcgrath1984 The other commenters remember seeing it in school too. Maybe it's just you that didn't see it in school?
9:18 Welcome to Britain. That's how long snow lasts here.
I always cry watching the snowman, but is quite cathartic.
David Bowie gave a brief introduction of the Snowman , he represents the boy as a grown-up and produces the scarf as evidence to prove the event happened
Yeah, the intro with Bowie was never shown in the UK and was filmed for American broadcast.
@ it’s been shown in the U.K. in recent years
Bowie's son, the director Duncan Jones, has the scarf now. There's a cute video clip of him wearing it on his blue sky account.
@@spiderboris79 The Bowie intro was on the UK VHS, because that's the version I grew up with. (in the 90s)
spiderboris79-The intro with David Bowie was definitely shown here in the UK. Everytime I saw The Snowman as a kid in the 90s, it had that intro, so that's the version I grew up with.
The great thing is the the bike reg is from the early sixties, a Honda CB 160, I had one, and I could have been the boy, it's definitely the south downs.
One reason this is so loved, is it's so many people's memory of less commercial Christmas.
Raymond Briggs lived in a village, Westmeston, not far from Lewes, just north of Ditchling Beacon. His illustrations are full of views of the Downs.
I absolutely love the snowman. I'm in my 50s and I still cry when I watch it.
Fun fact: it wasn't Aled Jones singing on the film, it was Peter Auty but then his voice broke so Aled Jones took over n was the one who got famous
Peter Auty denied that his voice had broken.
@@Poliss95 Surely it must have broken by now.
@@stevelknievel4183 It has now, but it hadn't when the record was made.
"Auty claimed in an interview with BBC Breakfast News on 2 December 2022 that his voice had not broken and he was never contacted for the recording."
That's more of a tragedy. Aled Jones gets all the credit and Peter Auty is forgotten..
@@slytheringingerwitch Pete's snowman melted very early in his career.
The differance is The Snowman is cultured. It also has a hauntingly beautiful song.
One of my (now adult) child’s favourite memories is of going to a nearby concert hall round Christmas & watching The Snowman on a big screen with a live orchestra playing the soundtrack. Absolutely magical. Another great video, thanks
The Snowman holds so much nostalgia for me I blubbed even through your description of it...and not even just the ending
aw, it's a great one! I'm glad to have been introduced to it when moving to the UK. :)
same, why am i crying right now
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial I was welling up, too, in anticipation! Ha! You should look at the new Aardman 'Wallace and Gromit' animation this Christmas... Us Brits are already planning the day around its scheduled broadcast time! And the National Grid are planning for the load on the electricity supply for when everyone puts the kettle on for a cup of tea!
I remember watching The Snowman when i was in Nursery. The whole class was bawling. The teachers did their best to comfort us but ultimately they found it amusing and yes, life lesson was taught to us little English kids. Life sucks. Get over it. Lol
Life sucks, get over it, lol, basically sums up British attitude and media.
@@charlestownsend9280 you dim or something?
I was amused by your mentioning of the American desire for constant narration while listening to you summarize both movies and barely taking a breath. 😏
It really is a tricky high-wire act to get a perfect mix of sarcasm, tongue-in-cheek humour, praise & ridicule; there's no recipe for it and A.I. wouldn't even come close.
They say everybody has a book in them - which no doubt is true, but unfortunately 99% of them are just really bad books.
I suspect that were Kalyn ever to write a book it would definitely be in that top 1%.
In short - great video.
Another thing to mention about the Snowman is that "Walking in the Air" is performed as a very formal choral piece by a trained choir boy. It has the comfort of watching "Carols from Kings" - which should be the subject of another of your excellent videos.
Yes, Christmas starts officially for me when (as they say) a choir boy steps forward and sings "Once in Royal David's City".
Yes. There's a great BBC short documentary called A Year at Kings, made to recognise the centenary of Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings. It's great. In the animation The Snowman, however, the choir was St Paul's Cathedral.
And that choir boys balls dropped by the time the Snowman was released so couldnt reach the high notes anymore. So in steps another choir boy Aled Jones to record the official single version of the song. Everyone things it was Aled in the Snowman but it's actually someone else.
@@rogerkangaroo6118 Peter Auty, I believe. He became an opera singer (tenor) - and is now fifty-five years old!
While you pointed out the alcohol references in "The Snowman", I couldn't help noticing that Frosty appears to be constantly smoking a pipe (admittedly with no smoke coming out) - also not a good example for children! It seems the kids in the cartoon apparently had access to smoking equipment!
There's also a sort of spin-off by Briggs/Ch4 called simply 'Father Christmas', voiced by the late, great Mel Smith.
It's not really a spin off- it's another of Briggs existing books.
"Realises he's on national television" ahahahahaha
When I was very young my best friend Freddie had an audio tape of The Snowman and we used to play it and act it out, taking it in turns to be the boy and the snowman. At the end the one of us who was the snowman had to pretend to melt while the other one grieved 😢😢🤣🤣
After watching this video, I rewatched the snowman on youtube. And idk whether it was the nostalgia, the hand-drawn art style, the memories of family I only used to see at Christmas, the beautiful music, but whatever it was, I cried like a little bitch and that's thanks to you, so genuinely, thank you
Little boy and Snowman flies over Brighton Pier
"Life is sometimes tough" - UK "Life is a just a bowl of cherries" - USA
I got a different message from the Snowman myself. I always saw it that we were supposed to see it as the boy dreams the whole thing and he’s disappointed when he wakes up . ,Right down to the last minute when he finds the scarf and realises it wasn’t a dream after all so then there is something happy because as soon as it’s snowing again the magic could potentially come back because now he knows magic is real.
There is an audio narration track read from the book which my family quote endlessly. In particular, ‘steam! It was too hot for the snowman’ whenever someone turns on the hot tap in a cold kitchen. It’s really good.
Dry your eyes. In the animated version of Raymond Briggs Father Christmas, the Snowman and James have a cameo. Turns out he comes back to life every year.
If you're watching British animated classics that are very emotional, I have a suggestion for you - Watership Down.
It's a real tear jerker of a movie about the challenges faced by a family of bunny rabbits.
also Plague Dogs which is uh. worse. still good! but. hoo boy.
@@Psy1402 Did they make Plague Dogs into a film? It's a great book.
NOOOOO! I still have ptsd from watching that as a kid!
If you watch it book a therapist ASAP after
That’s an EVIL suggestion! A generation was traumatised!
Oh wow. I remember watching that in the cinema with my mum. Despite being a brave 7 year old boy I couldn't stop crying. I had a little black bunny as a pet back then called Busby.
It’s a topic i frequently bring up, but relevant to an awful lot in UK culture. Raymond Briggs was born in 1934 in Wimbledon - a suburb of London. He would have lived through the war and the Blitz and would have been twenty by the time the time wartime rationing ended. Friends, family, buildings, foods - everything in life could be lost, and that was part of the national psyche.
I really do urge you to talk to a boomer about their childhoods. Especially things like the strange adults in their lives, violent teachers, bus conductors, park keepers, maudlin aunts etc. they were raised by a truly damaged wartime generation. No bomb ever fell in America, not real rationing, no loss of houses, or cinema or school. - the US actually had the opposite problem, where only those who served were really traumatized, and when they got back home, they weren't understood.
But in UK/ European literature and media, childhood loss in post war era was either taken for granted, or was the explicit storyline of a great many stories. - it actually begins earlier, after the First World War, but even into this century the acknowledgement of childhood loss is very prevalent
Just googled Briggs, he was evacuated during the war and sent to Dorset. Although studies done have largely focused on children sent to boarding school, psychologists say that for a child being sent away from home home, the results are just about the same as bereavement - except the child loses their whole family and home at once. And unlike a true breavement, the kids are generally chided or even punished for behaviour that could be regarded as grieving.
I’m not saying the Snowman wasn’t a snowman, but sometimes snowmen can be allegories.
The film A Matter of Life and Death fits neatly into this...
That's an interesting take on the ending of the Snowman. I was 4 when it came out and already a fan of the fantasy genre, and as I grew up I think that reading Enid Blyton may have influenced my interpretation.
The ending seems sad until you think of it as the start of a coming of age story. Like the Narnia Chronicles each child returns for a new story until they grow up and stop believing. So the snowman can come back each year.
In my teens it turned into an allegory for reading. Escaping into magical worlds and loving it until you have to close the book. But knowing that world's still there if you want to go back.
Which probably says more about childhood optimism than it does about the story! 😁
Raymond Briggs wanted to convey loss , it was about teaching children it's OK to feel loss
@claregale9011 And that's fine for what he wanted to put across. But the thing about art is that what's meant and what the audience perceives don't necessarily bear any resemblance to each other.
The idea that it returns the following year to enchant and entertain again is (I would say) a pretty obvious point for an infant school aged child to read into it that the story isn't necessarily over. But if the author never meant it then obviously pre-teen Ethan *couldn't* have read anything else into it. 🤷
@EthanKristopherHartley I take your point
Your US extrovert v UK introvert point is very well made and calls back to the point made in a previous video about small-talk: US is an extroverted way to make friends and UK is an introverted way of not getting too close. The snowman and small-talk show the same point!
I always saw 'The Snowman' as his magical dream
But the scarf was there at the end to be like 'was it really a dream or does magic really exist?'
And it is known that a magic snowman only lives for one night :)
On recommendations I have watched the Iron Bru Snowman adverts. There have been several over the past 15 years. Very clever and truly professional
Brilliant! Thanks Kalin, this problem of the transatlantic snowmen differences has been bugging me for years!!😜😂🤣. You've spent just the right amount of time over here, to have both UK and US culture sussed. 11 out of 10, cheers.
I knew it's been on top of mind for most people! Glad to sort it all out for you, thanks for watching. 😁
You might want to check out Father Christmas. A connected film about Father Christmas taking a holiday.
The 'confused guy looking at his drink' was a homage to Stan Laurel (of Laurel and Hardy fame), who wore the same expression in every film as a trademark of sorts.
Look at you in your patch of Sunshine!
I remember my first viewing - & being very unwilling to make eye contact with anyone else in the room in case they detected my emotional weakness. Had the same a few years later with the animated film of the book 'Watership Down' but was a little more prepared having read the book. You should give that a whirl - guaranteed emotional rollercoaster, both the book & the film.
Love your stuff. Keep up the good work.
Thank you Kalyn! What a wonderful account and analysis of both stories ♥️
thank you very much for watching!
I do love your quirky leftfield analyses of random stuff. Never know where you're going next!
If you want to see the British understated/Keep calm and carry on attitude in a piece of our media you should watch ‘When the wind blows’ from 1986. The short film is done in the same art style as The Snowman due to the book also being written by Raymond Briggs.
Its also a good example of the differences in the level of emotional maturity is considered normal from UK children at younger ages in comparison to the US. I was shown it at the age of 10 during class in school.
The superb artwork in the Snowman coupled with the gorgeous music - a real work of art. Aled Jones singing "I'm flying through the air" in a clear boy treble still surfaces on Radio 3 from time to time
It wasn’t Aled Jones in the film it was Peter Auty. Aled Jones did the record as Peter’s voice broke.
"When the wind blows" is a quiet little masterpiece by Mr. Briggs. Then watch "Threads" straight after.
You have done a fantastic job of this comparison.
Hi , The snowman is definately a tradition to watch in my house , its stunning music is what brings it to life , yes it's a sad ending but lifes not just full of happy endings and I think it's acgood lesson to learn 😊.
The music is the most important point without that there is no comparison.
yes, I agree. Unfortunately couldn't include it due to copyright, but I think we're all singing it in our heads!
The snowman really brings back memories for me when I was young watching and enjoying it while Christmas season was happening! 🎅☃🎄🎁✨
It must have been over 20 years since I watched The Snowman and you were bringing back some vivid memories and feelings... Man. Now I need to make sure I watch it again this year. It truly is a masterpiece, and every single frame created in lovingly hand-drawn 2D animation, which takes SUCH a long time.
On another note - In the UK this is one of those things that has been so well known and so well beloved that it's referenced and made fun of quite frequently.
Great video, I must admit that I like the Snowman and Snowdog that was done a few years ago. Always make the kids watch it at Christmas
I'll have to check it out!
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial It is on Channel 4 on demand
It's The Snowman for me! We watch it most years and my 27 yr old niece and 20 yr old daughter still have their Snowmen plushies from babies.
The original opening to The Snowman has a live action introduction by David Bowie.
His son, movie director Duncan Jones, recreated this recently on his social media.
As a David Bowie fan, i always loved that opening introduction to The Snowman when I was growing up. I remember being disappointed to see they'd changed the opening when I finally rewatched the film as an adult, but luckily you can still find the film with it's original introduction on youtube.
@@kirstyfairly4371 I think this is slightly back to front. The introduction wasn't on the original broadcast, but was added a few years later for the VHS release I believe and on some overseas broadcasts. It has however been shown on TV at least a few times. So different people have different views on whether it 'belongs' at the start, depending on when and which version they first watched.
Edit: Looking it up, it was recorded in 1984 to appeal to US network sponsors!
"The original introduction on Channel 4 features Raymond Briggs walking through a field in rural Sussex describing his inspiration for the story, which then transitions into the animated landscape of the film (the idea being that he is doing so in character as an older version of James). The film's executive producer Iain Harvey had received interest in the film from U.S. networks and for a VHS release. However, he noted that "in the US programmes were sponsored, and to be sponsored you needed a big name". Various names such as Laurence Olivier and Julie Andrews were suggested, but a request for a rock star led to David Bowie being involved. He was a fan of Briggs's story _When the Wind Blows_ and later provided a song for its animated adaptation. In the sequence, Bowie was filmed in the attic of 'his' childhood home and discovering, in a drawer, a scarf closely resembling the one given to James towards the end of the film; he then proceeds to narrate over the opening with his own small variation of Briggs' monologue."
I for one had never actually seen that version until the Christmas 2015 broadcast, which remains the only time I've seen that version. I remember the date specifically because it was - coincidentally - just weeks later that Bowie died, so that would have been the last time I saw him on anything during his lifetime.
I know it doesn’t need saying but I still feel insulted that you didn’t mention the snowman was all hand drawn with coloured pencils. The work and care that went into the movie shows.
I watched the first airing of The Snowman in 1982. I was three. And I have watched it at least once every year since. It is one of the most beautiful pieces of art I have ever experienced.
The Snowman is about the balance of love and loss, celebration and grief. The whole ying and yang of it all. Always celebrate life, because nothing is forever. Also, the Snowman is a family film, not just for kids that’s why there’s little nuggets for the adults in the room. A snuggle up together on a cold winters night kind of film. Oh, you didn’t mention the bit before the opening credits where David Bowie sets the scene by finding the scarf in the attic. I have fond memories of watching this with my children. ☺️
She is right, this is a tear-jerker.
There's a fun one though, called "Granpa" that's wholesome for the whole family, have your kids watch it.
the first time I watched Granpa (on my husband's request), I didn't even know what to say! 😂
The snowman is my favourite childhood Christmas film and every year I watch it at least once and as a kid the time slot it was on was booked and we had to fit everything else around it (same with doctor who). Nothing says Christmas like a charming film about death, one with a great song to aing along to. It's also just really great animation, which it mimicking the art atyle of the storybook. It's just a beautiful piece of art, one full 9f charm, joy, humour, sadness and everything else that happens in life.
I still book a slot for Doctor Who 😂😂
Then the snowman and the snowdog finished us all off, I cried all the way through it!
I genuinely haven’t seen Frosty but it seems fun and the style very much in line with 60s cartoons
Love it - mind you, if you want to see an animated film that will bring you to tears, try "Watership Down" - a nice story of fluffy bunnies.....
Someone on Channel 4 thought this would be a great programme for Easter. Cue hordes of traumatised children... 🙂
It's not a British childhood if you aren't traumatised by something on TV, the snowman, watershed down, doctor who, safety ads, Margaret thatcher.
Kids are very resilient, teaching kids lifes all roses and nice is not good in my opinion , like the snowman it's about loss and how kids can accept its a part of life .
@@claregale9011 Yeah sometimes you get quality street
Briggs always said it was about death. Cheery guy and awesomely talented.
Very interesting cultural points you raise. I was 17 when I saw The Snowman and believe me it was very difficult to choke back the tears as I watched it with my family. Teen boys don't cry except at losing cup final!!
Pixar's Wall-E is something American that actually does embrace the silent movie aesthetic for a fairly extended period at the beginning.
Have a look for the Irn Bru/Snowman parody advert. 😁
No words in the Snowman, but the narrator of this video managed to squeeze in enough words to make up for it.
One has a little girl freezing in the snow. The other has a boy not freezing flying in the winter sky.
haha, very true!
our kids TV and movies generally go to darker places than the US ones, programs like Dr Who, Sapphire and Steel or movies like Watership Down and Plague Dogs
My young nephew nearly had to seek counselling when the snowman melted! 🤣🤣🤣
The soundtrack on the Snowman was central to the film. It's for children of all ages and is very emotional. I remember myself how I felt upon waking up in the morning to find that my Snowman had disappeared.
Loved the sarcastic summaries of the two films.
UK kid movies of the 70's and 80's era didn't flinch from hard emotions.
I watched Father Christmas for the first time last week with my toddler. James and his Snowman feature in it and it is implied to be set the following Christmas to The Snowman. So James builds his Snowman again and he comes to life again. You get your happy ending you just need to wait for the next film to get it...
I can recommend the follow up 'The Snowman and the Snowdog'. Once again a great musical score and an absolute tear jerker.
The difference between British and American culture! We Brits take a beautiful work of art and music and accept it for what it is - an entertaining child's story. Americans have to psychoanalyse everything!
you think this is bad, you should try Briggs most seminal work "When the wind blows"
It's utterly devastating
Love the humour in this one (British spelling). Keep up the good work.
I describe your channel as 'pretty decent' so you are aware enough of British culture to take that description as a sincere English compliment.p.s. I 'quite like' how you avoid the usual clichés about rain and tea and fish and chips.
Now for a new year cultural show you should check out "Dinner for One" I first encountered it in South Africa nut I believe it is huge in many European countries but I know mainly from Germany
another good example of how we go darker is the difference between The Day After and Threads two tv movies about the third world war
I first heard of The Snowman back in the 1990’s when clips of it and the tune of “Walking In The Air” were made into a small demo for the Atari ST. Years later I found it on DVD and gave a copy to my sister’s family for Christmas. That’s still one of my favorite Christmas melodies.
The Snowman isnt per say just for kids, its a family animation. it also has two companions Father Christmas, and Snowman and the Snow Dog. Thing is we did actually do toast in the fire like that
Irn Bru had a parody of The Snowman as an ad. They flew all over Scotland passing all the famous sights. They fall out when the boy refuses to share his Irn Bru with the Snowman who then lets him fall to the ground in George Square Glasgow. Even Irn Bru couldn't have the death of a child in an ad so they addes a shot of the boy climbing out of a snowdrift to show he was alive
We're raised on films with a melancholy twist, for example try watching Watership Down, it had 6 year old me in tears
I had the book back in 1978 and used to read it to my younger cousin Kate making up my own narrative - there's no dialogue in the book either. In the book they only go as far as Brighton and then back up to Ditchling/Clayton/Hassocks way.
Notice the geographical error in the film - they must've gone via Antarctica as there aren't any penguins in the arctic.
I was a six year old ginger boy just like James at the time and my parents found it all hit too close to home.
The Snowman is a landmark beautiful short animated film, which is a treasure to behold. I've never even seen Frosty the Snowman before, and I'm 53 now, haha, but it looks just like a little kiddie's Christmas cartoon. No harm in that, but The Snowman is on another level, and as you say at the end, they shouldn't be compared really. Also, was the bad wizard in Frosty suffering acute liver failure or something? Very yellow fellow :D
I'm now going to have to watch both back-to-back.
Thanks
My better half drew some of the backgrounds for The Snowman and others. Love the Snowman more. More moving