The Snowman ***** (1982, voice of David Bowie, Raymond Briggs) – Classic Movie Review 550

The famous must-see 1982 animated adventure The Snowman is about a young English boy who makes a snowman one Christmas Eve. ‘Walking in the Air’ is sung by Peter Auty.

Apart from narration of the film’s opening sequence and the haunting song ‘Walking in the Air’, sung by Peter Auty, there are no words in directors Dianne Jackson and Jimmy T Murakami’s famous 1982 animated adventure. It’s a must-see perennial on UK TV every year at Christmas. The beloved story is about a little young English boy who makes a snowman one Christmas Eve. It comes to life that night and takes him on a magical adventure to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus.

This is one of the best renditions of Santa ever on film. He’s exactly the right charming, warm, kind, whiskery grandfather type you imagined Father Christmas would be when you were little. Some soft-focus animation and mild writing slightly mar this otherwise delightful and deservedly much-praised cartoon about a flying snowman. But there are many standout scenes, such as the snowman having fun in the boy’s bedroom. And, overall, it’s quite magical.

It’s the flight sequence that’s set to the song ‘Walking in the Air’. This is a lovely, classic sequence with wondrous views of city lights, cruising ships, penguins, the aurora borealis and so on.

The Snowman was made mostly for children but adults can easily succumb to its charm. It won the Bafta award for Best Children’s Programme (Entertainment/ Drama). The author of the Snowman illustrated book, Raymond Briggs, was the original narrator of the film’s opening sequence as Older James but his voice is replaced by David Bowie’s in the Re-Released Version, which was newly filmed when the 30-minute film first aired on PBS stations in the United States. Briggs is also known for When the Wind Blows (1986) and Father Christmas (1991).

Aled Jones sang the chart release hit single of Walking in the Air (music and Lyrics by Howard Blake) in 1985 when the song was re-recorded for an advertisement for an English toy store’s Christmas campaign. The boy’s has no name in Briggs’s book, but the film-makers needed a name for the child’s gift tag and selected ‘James’ after the boyfriend (later husband) of one of the animators.

Mel Smith voices Father Christmas (1991) in a charming Briggs companion piece.

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© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 550

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