Cheap The Snowman & Father Christmas (DVD) (Dave Unwin) Price
CHEAP-PRICE.NET ’s Cheap Price
$11.95
Here at Cheap-price.net we have The Snowman & Father Christmas at a terrific price. The real-time price may actually be cheaper — click “Buy Now” above to check the live price at Amazon.com.
This charming British animated short film (it's just 23 minutes long) is a 1982 production of London's Channel 4, based on the classic children's book by Raymond Briggs and crafted with a colored-pencils-on-paper look, like fluffy, hand-drawn illustrations. Small children should be entranced by the story of a small boy in rural England whose lovingly constructed snowman comes to life and takes him flying over the white-blanketed landscapes, in a beautiful rotoscoped (traced) sequence based on live-action flying footage. Part of the charm of the film is the gentle, everyday quality of its fantasy adventures: the snowman is invited in to try on clothes and play with the Christmas decorations, then plays host to the boy at a party in the woods, at which his snowy relatives do English country dances. This is one of the very few Christmas tapes on the market that really deserves to be a holiday perennial, a gentle fable of friendship and the power of imagination. --David Chute
Father Christmas
This irreverent Santa breaks from tradition in many ways. He has no Mrs., owns only four reindeer, and decides to convert his sleigh into an airborne motor home for a pre-Christmas vacation. He finds France too snooty, Scotland too cold, and Las Vegas just right. Tanned and rested, he returns to the North Pole in time to sort through the mail, pack up the toys, and hit the skies. Like the Santa of the Raymond Briggs book on which this 24-minute video is loosely based, he narrates his own story (splendidly voiced by Los Angeles stage actor William Dennis Hunt). But fans of the 1973 book will find the animated version far less cranky than the original. Although the book was aimed at ages 4-8, the video may have a wider appeal, depending on how you feel about the children seeing Santa gambling at the casino tables, dreaming of bikini-clad babes, and suffering a bout of diarrhea. --Kimberly Heinrichs
| CATEGORY: | DVD |
| DIRECTOR: | Dave Unwin |
| MANUFACTURER: | Columbia/Tristar Studios |
| MPAA RATING: | G (General Audience) |
| FEATURES: | Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Animated |
| TYPE: | Christmas |
| MEDIA: | DVD |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 043396032279 |
Related Products
Customer Reviews of The Snowman & Father Christmas
Half The DVD is Good I bought this DVD mainly for Father Christmas, as I had almost worn out my VHS version, taped off PBS years ago. As others have said, the version on this DVD is a travesty, with the gruff, but loveable Mel Smith's voice replaced by a much too benign voice that rather resembles Sebasitan Cabot's as Mr French from the old "Family Affair" show. This feature definitely got the "PC" treatment, as all Santa's witticisms were cut, and phrases like "happy bloomin' Christmas" were changed to "Merry Christmas".
On the flip side, I was quite pleased with "The Snowman", which was a beautiful and haunting little film, with a fine musical score. If you get this DVD, get it ONLY for The Snowman. Don't even watch Father Christmas! What are you doing? I said don't watch it! Not even once!
If you have a DVD player or computer capable of playing region 2 DVDs, you can order the British version and hear Mel Smith in all his bloomin' glory.
Beautiful story...broken DVD
I have purchased this DVD twice and have tried to play them on our regular DVD player as well as on two laptops. No matter what I've tried, The Snowman has never played. Only the very different and very awful Father Christmas will work. I finally gave up and bought the VHS tape of The Snowman, so that my children could see the most wonderful and haunting Christmas movie ever made.
Sanitized American version
First, the DVD is defective. Only the Father Christmas story plays. This version is a sanitized American version which eliminates the British Engllish expressions that give life to the story. SKIP THIS DVD! If you ever have a chance to see a British PAL video, you'll see why.