Let's Watch This: "Jack Frost" (1979)

Happy Holidays, people of the internet! Apologies for the fact that I didn't post a single review throughout all of November - I was planning to, but computer troubles reared their ugly head again. But everything's been fixed up, so I can now begin with the Christmas reviews that I do every year around this time. First up? 1979's Jack Frost!

Rankin-Bass loved taking characters from Christmas songs and making specials out of 'em (both Rudolph and Frosty immediately come to mind), so making a special about the guy who "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" mentions has a habit of nipping at peoples' noses was right up their alley. Plus, Jack Frost had previously appeared in their 1976 special Frosty's Winter Wonderland (which focuses on Frosty trying to find a wife). It's not one of Rankin-Bass' more well-known specials, but as we've established on this blog, just because something is obscure doesn't automatically mean that it's bad. Of course, just because something is obscure doesn't automatically mean it's GOOD either. Remember Zoo Wars?

But how exactly DOES one make a television special about Jack Frost? I mean, a half-hour of him going around chomping on folks' schnozzes would likely make for a very lame special. So they decided to make it a love story of sorts, narrated by a singing groundhog. Why don't we get the review started so you can see for yourself?

The special begins with a montage of various magazines like People, the TV Guide, TIME, and Reader's Digest, a groundhog named Pardon-Me Pete featured on the cover. Not every day you see product placement in a Rankin-Bass special. After the montage, we cut to this guy who I swear is just a redressed version of S.D. Kluger from Santa Claus is Comin' to Town:

It's the chin and the lines around his mouth that are doing it. Maybe this is S.D.'s brother
or something?

The reporter (voiced by Dave Garroway) gives some exposition - it's Groundhog Day, and everyone is waiting for Pardon-Me Pete, the world's most revered groundhog, to poke his head out of his hole. For those that don't know what Groundhog Day is, if the groundhog sees his shadow, it means that there's gonna be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn't, spring will be coming our way. Considering that there's a guy holding a gigantic light in the crowd, I'm guessing Pardon-Me Pete will have no problem seeing his shadow this Groundhog Day.

I like the guy's expression, too. He's got ATTITUDE.

We head inside Pardon-Me Pete's den, and it's here that we're introduced to this revered groundhog that everybody's talking about. He sings a song called "Me and My Shadow" as he does a little dance routine with his shadow, which appears to be sentient.

I'm not sure how they did the shadow effect here. It moves like the stop-motion puppets so I'm guessing it wasn't traditionally animated, but it doesn't LOOK like a stop-motion puppet (it's solid black. If it were a stop-motion puppet, shouldn't we see some highlights or something?). Maybe it was rotoscoped?

I bet Peter Pan wishes that HIS shadow was all buddy-buddy like Pete's.

Pardon-Me Pete is voiced by comedian Buddy Hackett. If you're an animation fan like me, you probably know him best as the voice of Scuttle from The Little Mermaid.

Pete emerges from his burrow, sees his shadow, and zips back inside. The reporter asks how Pete could've possibly seen his shadow when it's a cloudy day. Well, there IS that one guy holding a giant light. Plus the flashing cameras. Maybe THAT'S how.

Back inside his den, Pete explains to us that his shadow belongs to Jack Frost. "It's a MAGIC shadow!" he says. "See, Jack and I have this deal, every year I pop out, see the shadow, make believe I'm frightened and pop back in again. Then he gets six more weeks of winter fun and I get a bit more shut-eye."

"I've got a lovely collection of dinglehoppers and snarfblatts to show you."

As he climbs into bed, Pete adds that Jack Frost is invisible, except for his shadow. "Nobody's EVER seen Jack Frost," the groundhog claims. "Unless you count that one time... when he became human... even if you never saw him, you HAVE seen his work."

Pete sings another song, this one about Jack Frost and his handiwork, as we see people playing in the snow, unaware that Jack Frost is watching them. That sounded much creepier than I intended for it to be.

But what about that time Jack Frost became human? I demand more information about that. Well, according to Pete, once upon a snowflake there was a little town called January Junction. One November day, two peasants (Larry Storch and Dee Stratton) were harvesting their crops, and they have stereotypical Yiddish accents which makes me wonder just where exactly this town is located. But their harvesting is suddenly interrupted by the villain of the special, Kubla Kraus. He's voiced by Paul Frees using his Boris Badenov/Burgermeister Meisterberger voice. He's also a big Russian stereotype. And yet I still don't find this as offensive to Russians as the Animaniacs reboot...

"I will get moose und sqvuirrel!"

Kubla Kraus rules over the people of January Junction with an iron fist (literally), taxing them dry because he's one of those "all your money belongs to us" villains. I bet he'd get along really well with Prince John. And after swiping the male peasant's "kaputnik" (which is a coin worth less than a penny, if that's even possible), he has his mechanical horse stomp all over their pumpkins just to be even more of a jerk.

Fortunately, winter soon arrives in January Junction, which is good news for its residents because winter brings icicles, and the peasants slice those icicles up into "ice coins", which they then use for currency until the warm weather returns. I would make a "frozen assets" joke, but Pardon-Me Pete does it for me.

"Counterfeiting is a wonderful thing, isn't it?"

And nobody has more fun than Jack Frost, voiced by Robert Morse. Since he's invisible, he can hang out among the folks of January Junction and be part of their fun.

This is another effect that I'm not one hundred percent sure how they pulled off. Was the puppet made of glass or something?

"I always feel like... somebody's watchin' me..."

That's how Jack first met Elisa (Debra Clinger), the daughter of the two peasants we met before. And is it just me, or does she look eerily like Elsa from Frozen? Similar name, too... and since a lot of people pair Elsa up with the Rise of the Guardians version of Jack Frost, that makes it all the more eerie.

If she uses the phrase "let it go" at any point during this special, I'm going to start
asking questions...

Elisa is heading out into the countryside so she can partake in all of Jack Frost's work. She admits that she's in love with Jack, which makes Jack's hat briefly go rigid. Uhhhhhhhhhhh...

Elisa is in the countryside channeling Snow White (no pun intended) when suddenly Kubla Kraus shows up and rides his mechanical horse onto the ice. The horse's weight and the heat of its boiler causes the ice to crack, and the floe that Elisa is standing on heads towards a nearby waterfall.

All ponds in animation lead to waterfalls. It's just common knowledge.

Jack saves Elisa by using his ice breath to freeze the waterfall, and as a result Elisa harmlessly floats to the ground. Yeah, I'm calling wombat poop. I'm pretty sure that if you went over a frozen waterfall on an ice floe, you wouldn't just harmlessly float to the ground. You'd be horribly injured. Then again, why bring realism into a special with a talking groundhog in it?

"Jack Frost, not only are you a magician," Elisa claims, "You're a hero!" Yes, despite the fact that Jack Frost is widely considered to be a mythical figure (except in animation, obviously), Elisa seems to believe that he actually exists. I'm starting to wonder if Elisa is a tad delusional.

Jack has the hots (ironic, since he's all about COLD things... sorry, the joke was just too tempting) for Elisa and decides that he must become human to hook up with her. He heads up towards his home, the Kingdom of the Winter Clouds, while singing about how being Jack Frost isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Side note, Robert Morse's voice for Jack sort of sounds like Jiminy Cricket.

Pardon-Me Pete explains that the Kingdom of the Winter Clouds is ruled by Father Winter (also Paul Frees), who has lots of assistants to help him bring winter to the world. For example, there's Snip the Snowflake Maker (Don Messick), who's in charge of making snowflakes (and yes, he makes sure that no two are exactly alike). It seems kind of unfair to just force this one guy have to make all the snowflakes, considering how many are needed to make a snowfall. Shouldn't Snip have some co-workers?

He kind of looks like Mr. Smee, doesn't he?

And then there's the Snow Gypsies, who are literally just the elf puppets from The Year Without a Santa Claus spray-painted a very light shade of blue. Their job is to make sure each snowflake is carefully flipped and lands exactly where Father Winter wants it. Jeez, I had no idea that snow was so high-matienence.

"Hey, guys, I bet I can hit that dweeb with the pocket protector and the Star Trek
t-shirt."
"You're on!"

Every so often, Snip creates a snowflake that's just PERFECT for a Christmas snowfall. He has the one female snow gypsy of the bunch, Holly (Dina Lynn), put these snowflakes in a vault to make sure they stay safe until the 24th. For whatever reason, Holly looks different from the other Snow Gypsies. She looks less like a Rankin-Bass elf and more like a Muppet.

Then there are the Sleet Sisters, who create sleet, and the Hail Fellow, who's in charge of hail. I assume that Snow Miser and the Winter Warlock are in league with Father Winter too. These Rankin-Bass Christmas specials are all in the same continuity, right? Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July alone should be proof of that. Heck, Jack Frost was even in that one!

Jack meets up with Father Winter and tells him that he wants to be human. Father Winter, who's for all intents and purposes the King Triton of the special, doesn't like the idea of Jack becoming a human. Not because he hates humans, mind you, but because Jack is very important.

He's even got King Triton's beard.

"You'd be a stranger to their ways," Father Winter tells Jack. "Nobody down there really wants to know Jack Frost." Jack tells him about Elisa and sings some more, and eventually Father Winter relents. He tells Jack that he may become human temporarily. "I will give you a winter of humanity. And if by the first sign of spring, you have accumulated the basic human essentials - a house to shelter you, a horse to bare you, a bag of gold to sustain you, and a wife to make it all worth the while - then, you will be truly human, and may stay so, with my blessing, forever," he says.

So Jack heads down to Earth, becoming a human on his way down. Upon landing, he comes across Elisa.

Here we see Jack performing his mime act. He's trapped in an invisible box.

Jack, going by the name of "Jack Snip" now, immediately charms Elisa with his clumsy ways. Snip and Holly watch this go down from the Kingdom of the Winter Clouds. Don't they have jobs they need to do?

"Jack sure has a thing for that girl Elisa."
"I hope she doesn't give him the COLD SHOULDER."
"D'OOOOOOOOOOOOOH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HOOOOO!"

Father Winter decides that to prevent any harm to come to Jack, he'll turn Snip and Holly human and send them down after him. Uh, isn't turning Snip human a bad idea? With him human, who's doing the snowflakes? I suppose Holly might be able to squeak by since there are a bunch of other Snow Gypsies, but Snip's the only one we see making snowflakes.

Anyhow, we see Jack back at Elisa's house, having dinner with her and her parents. Elisa's dad allows Jack to stay for the night, then Jack learns that A) there aren't any free houses left in January Junction and B) he can't build one because Kubla Kraus owns all the timber and bricks. Getting a bag of gold and a horse might be difficult too, since Kubla Kraus also owns all the gold and the only horse in town (though that horse is mechanical anyway). Oh, and despite being the Cossack King, there aren't any Cossacks around in January Junction - apparently, even the Cossacks couldn't stand Kubla Kraus, so they all left. Now, he lives alone in his castle, high atop the cheerfully-named Miserable Mountain.

Speaking of which, it's time for the Villain Song! Kubla Kraus gets a catchy ditty called "There's the Rub" about how it's lonely at the top. He's a Cossack king with no Cossacks to be king of. And he can't be a Pharaoh because there aren't any pyramids around (also, it's not Egypt). He can't be a Rajah, because there aren't any elephants around either. He wonders why, if he's rich and powerful, he isn't happy. That it might stem from the fact that he's not a very nice guy doesn't occur to him. Or maybe the REAL reason why nobody can stand to be because Kubla Kraus is because he smells really bad. I wouldn't be surprised.

WARNING: once this song enters your head, it won't leave.

After the song, Pardon-Me Pete tells us that Kubla Kraus is such a scoundrel that no humans or animals wanted to live with him. So Kubla Kraus had to build humans and animals out of iron to keep his sanity. I've already mentioned his mechanical horse, Clang-Stomper...

I'll give him this, Kubla Kraus is pretty mechanically-minded...

There's also his clockwork-powered butler, Fetch-Kvetch...

And even the robot looks like he hates being around the guy.

And an army of robotic knights, the Kah-Nights...

Their names include Kah-Noot, Kah-Nick, and Kah-Nathan. Surprisingly kah-nice
of Kubla Kraus to give them kah-names instead of just treating them like mindless
soldiers.

Even the mice that infest Kubla Kraus' castle are basically wind-up toys.

I assume that he also invented a mechanical cat to deal with his mechanical mouse
problem.

And then there's his little robotic puppet, Dommy. Yes, Kubla Kraus is a regular Jeff Dunham. Only Dommy isn't as creepy-looking as Jeff Dunham's characters.

Methinks Kubla Kraus isn't all there. Sanity-wise, anyway...

We cut back to Jack and Elisa's family, as Jack announces that Kubla Kraus has got to be overthrown. Why is Kubla Kraus the king of this town, anyway? Pretty sure this special doesn't take place in Russia. Did he overthrow the previous king? Can we get some exposition on THAT? Anything at all? No? Okay, just thought I'd ask.

There's a knock at the door, and it turns out to be Snip and Holly. Jack has to make up some bullcrap explanation when Elisa's parents point out that Holly is teeny-tiny. Which makes me wonder, Father Winter couldn't have also made Holly bigger when he turned her into a human? If I were in her position, I would've been feeling a bit annoyed.

Jeez, Snip looks even more like Mr. Smee now...

The next day, Jack and his pals head over to Miserable Mountain and attempt to climb it so they can beat Kubla Kraus up. While Jack is trying and failing to climb it, Kubla Kraus notices Elisa through his telescope and is smitten by her. He tells Dommy through song that he shall woo her and make her his Cossack Queen. Ah, the "villain has the hots for the hero's love interest" cliché. Maybe Elisa, Belle, and Esmerelda should start a support group.

As for Jack and his friends, they realize that it's futile to try and climb the mountain, so they give up and go home. It never occurs to them to just go find a really, really, really long ladder. Heck, surely there's a place in town where you can get some mountain-climbing gear.

Jack sets up a tailor shop at Elisa's house. On the day before Christmas, a knight in shining armor (not a Kah-Night, a flesh and blood one) stops by looking for "Jack Snip". This is Sir Ravenal Rightfellow (Sonny Melendrez), and he's unintentionally going to throw a wench in Jack's plans to make Elisa his wife.

He spent a few years searching for a princess in a dragon-guarded tower. When he
got there, he found out that she'd already gotten married to an ogre.

According to Elisa, Sir Ravenal left town and joined King Arthur's round table, but he's home for the holidays! Speaking of which, the next day is Christmas, and everyone is happy. Oh, sure, they don't have the money to go out and buy presents, but that's no big deal. They give each other "dream presents" - empty boxes that they PRETEND include awesome presents. I suppose my heart should be warmed by this, but I just find it incredibly depressing.

Is EVERYBODY in this town delusional or something?

They sing another song about how great their "dream present" is as they pass around the box and act like they got something great. And for whatever reason, Snip and Holly don't get a turn with the special empty box. Maybe they forgot Holly because she's so pointless in this special.

No, really, why DID Father Winter send Holly after Jack? She's been useless throughout this whole special. I think she's only had, like, three lines so far...

Sir Ravenal gives Elisa a rose and asks her to accompany him to the Christmas Dance that night. I like that they don't make Sir Ravenal a bad guy just for also being attracted to the girl that Jack is attracted to. Nor does Jack treat him like a bad guy over it. Unfortunately, there's a THIRD guy in this little love square that wants to marry Elisa, and he's not nearly as nice a guy as Jack or Sir Ravenal...

You ever notice that Kubla Kraus kind of looks like Stromboli from Pinocchio?
It's weird how my mind keeps going to Disney characters when I'm watching this.
This character looks like Elsa, this character looks like Mr. Smee, THIS character looks
like Stromboli...

Fortunately, Elisa's family's pet duck spots Kubla Kraus abducting her and alerts Jack and the others as to what's going on (yeah, apparently Jack can understand ducks. Oddly convenient). They head to the castle to go save her.

There's a secret entrance? I bet when Jack and the others find out, they're gonna feel
really stupid.

Sir Ravenal manages to climb into the castle and start dueling with the Kah-Nights. He saves Elisa, but winds up getting wounded. Meanwhile, Jack, Snip, and Holly get captured.

Kubla Kraus decides to have his Kah-Nights destroy the village just because he didn't get a girl. Now that's what I call not being good with rejection.

"Tell me where moose und sqvuirrel are hiding so I can bring them to Fearless Leader!"

He has the good guys thrown in the dungeon. Jack decides that maybe he can "whistle up" a winter snowstorm to stop the Kah-Nights, but since he's human now, he can't do that. So he decides to give up his humanity and become a snow fairy or whatever it is that he was before again, just to save the people of January Junction. Such sacrifice.

Is that a real sky behind the castle? Doesn't look like a painting or whatever at all
to me...

And since Jack isn't human anymore, there's no need for Snip and Holly to be human, so they're changed back to normal and whisked back up to the Kingdom of the Winter Clouds. Jack whistles up a winter snowstorm, one so powerful that it prevents the Kah-Nights from laying waste to the town.

Jack: one. Kubla Kraus: kah-nothing.

The snow keeps falling for five whole weeks. Elisa and Sir Ravenal start making wedding plans, and Elisa says that she wishes Jack Snip could be there. And suddenly, Jack's snowstorm-making powers aren't working - an early spring is on its way, and Jack knows that when the snow melts, there'll be nothing stopping Kubla Kraus from destroying the village.

Out of context, it kind of looks like Father Winter is going to eat Jack. Would that
be considered cannibalism?

Jack begs Father Winter not to let spring come early. However, Father Winter doesn't call the shots on when winter has to end - that honor goes to Nature. Presumably, he means Mother Nature from The Year Without a Santa Claus. See my previous point about how these specials are presumably all in the same continuity. And according to Nature, when a groundhog stops hibernating, emerges from his hole, and doesn't see his shadow, spring's gotta come. But if he DOES see his shadow, it's six more weeks of winter.

So, I guess that means Pardon-Me Pete is the most powerful character in this special.

"I'm basically a god! The master of seasons! I might just be a groundhog, but I'm also
unbelievably powerful! Hail to me, audience!"

Jack notices that the clouds are covering the sun, meaning there's no way Pardon-Me Pete will see his shadow. But he can work around that. He sneaks up behind Pardon-Me Pete and shapeshifts into a magic, evil shadow.

Does this really count as Pardon-Me Pete seeing his shadow when it isn't actually HIS shadow?

"ZOINKS!"

Upon seeing the giant evil shadow, Pete flees back into his hole. And since he saw his shadow (sort of), that means six more weeks of winter. According to Pete, he loved getting some extra sleep so much that he continues to let Jack scare him every Groundhog Day since then.

Alas, eventually winter has to end, which means Kubla Kraus won't be snowbound anymore and he can destroy January Junction. Jack begs Father Winter to let him be human again so he can save the day, and Father Winter allows it - he'll be human until noon, unless he can get that house, horse, bag of gold, and wife. But first, he'll have to stop Kubla Kraus.

Or maybe he won't have to do that. The melting snow collapses the rotting castle roof, and it knocks Kubla Kraus unconscious. Then Jack uses Dommy to trick the Kah-Nights to go down the mountainside instead of using the secret entrance to get to the town. Since the mountain is very steep and slippery, they all fall down and are smashed to pieces. Thus, the Kah-Nuckleheads are defeated.

After Kubla Kraus comes to, he tries to attack Jack Frost, but winds up flying out the window, and Father Christmas creates a gust of wind to carry him and Dommy away. Where the wind takes them, I don't know. Maybe they wound up in Oz.

Or maybe it took them back to Russia or something?

Well, now Jack has a house (a castle, technically, but it still counts), a horse (a mechanical one, but a horse nonetheless), and enough gold for a hundred bags, so he heads out to find Elisa and make her his wife. There's just one small problem with that...

The clock strikes noon, and Jack turns back to normal. He heads back up to rejoin his friends in the Kingdom of the Winter Clouds, and Pardon-Me Pete bids us farewell before dozing off to sleep.

The moral, basically, is that sometimes things just don't work out with the one you have the hots for. And to be proud of who you are. Unless you're a crazy Cossack King with a big bushy beard.

What's the verdict?

Like most of Rankin-Bass' specials, it's pretty corny, but that's just part of the fun. The songs are pretty good, the characters are likeable, and there's a feeling of sincerity to it that only the 1970s can bring you. Plus, it's got a Buddy Hackett-voiced groundhog. You can't go wrong with THAT.

I'm not sure why Jack Frost is one of the company's lesser-known Christmas specials. Perhaps it'll eventually catch on. Surely Freeform has room on its "25 Days of Christmas" schedule to air it in-between its fifteenth airings of Home Alone and that awful live action Grinch movie.