I can’t believe its October already. With the holiday season fast approaching, it’s just about time to start watching all of those Thanksgiving and Christmas themed specials that help mark this time of year. Warner Brothers recently released Jack Frost as a deluxe edition, to help get the ball rolling. The special originally aired on December 13, 1979 and currently runs annually on the ABC Family network.
The special was the brainchild of stop-motion animation wizards Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass. By 1979, Rankin and Bass had produced at least one holiday special nearly every year, starting with 1964’s Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Rankin and Bass were well known for their love of holidays and the mythology surrounding them, stop motion animation and musical format. On Jack Frost, Rankin and Bass served as producers and directors from a teleplay by Romeo Muller, with Bass also writing lyrics to songs composed by Maury Laws.
Groundhog Pardon-Me-Pete (the voice of Buddy Hackett) explains why he always sees his shadow on Groundhog Day. He has an arrangement with the invisible winter sprite Jack Frost (the voice of Robert Morse), who gives Pete a magical shadow in exchange for six more weeks of winter. As the story flashes back, we learn how all of this came about. Jack, hearing the pretty Elisa (the voice of Debra Clinger) commenting that she loved Jack Frost (meaning “winter”) falls head over heels in love with her and asks Father Winter (the voice of Paul Frees) if he can become human. Father Winter is apprehensive but agrees, allowing Jack to return to earth. There’s a catch: he has to find a home, a horse, a bag of gold and a wife by the arrival of spring. Only then can he remain human forever. Otherwise, it’s back to being a sprite.
Meanwhile, times are tough for the people of January Junction. The citizens can’t wait for winter so they can cut up icicles and pretend that their “ice coins” have real value. What little money they have is usually taken by Kubla Kraus (the voice of Paul Frees, again) a nasty Cossack king who rides a mechanical iron horse, Klangstomper, and who has similar mechanical friends, such as his ventriloquist dummy, Dommy because no humans can stand to be around him. He takes one look at Elisa and declares that she will be his queen. This decision puts into motion a series of events that gets Jack and his friends Holly Holiday (the voice of Dee Stratton) and Snip (the voice of Don Messick) in big trouble with Kubla Kraus.
There’s no denying that Rankin and Bass are very talented people. As a matter of fact, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer remains a holiday favorite for me. However, I can’t help but feel like the twosome was running short of ideas by the time Jack Frost rolled around. Groundhogs? Using the same set that was used in Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, it all feels very warmed over.
All of which could have been forgiven if the songs – the absolute key to the success of the best of the Rankin/Bass productions – had been even half-way decent. Unfortunately, Jack Frost’s songs are barely memorable and frequently down-right awful. Robert Morse, the veteran Broadway singer and actor, appears game enough with his songs, but that distinctive Morse warble seems to suggest drowning rather than elation with the tacky tunes he’s saddled with here.
So with bad songs and a so-so story, you have a fairly forgettable holiday special. Those among us who are diehard Rankin/Bass fans will definitely want to add this title to their DVD collections; others should stick to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
Warner Bros. has delivered a nearly faultless full-screen, 1.33:1 video transfer for Jack Frost: Remastered Deluxe Edition, Colors are beautifully restored to their cool winter whites and soft pastels, while the image clarity is quite sharp. Brightness levels are solid, while no compression issues manifested themselves.
The Dolby Digital English audio track is in mono. The dialogue is crisp with no noticeable hisses or crackles. English subtitles and close captioning are available for the feature film.
For a “Deluxe Edition” the special features (or should I say feature) are slim.
• Totally Cool Crafty Creations – (8:39) Francine “Flakey” Flake shows your child how to make three holiday-themed crafts: a snow globe, fake snow, and a paper cut-out snowflake.
• Snip’s Snowy Sing-A-Long – (5:38) gives us three songs from the feature (“Jack Frost”, “Just What I Always Wanted”, and “The Groundhog Song”) with onscreen lyrics.
