BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Irishchatter i don't understand why Raymond Briggs had to add another sequel to "The Snowman". I didn't think it would've needed another sequel because like, the original was better and it had better music. Whereas this sequel didn't have that spark to become successful. I don't understand why IMDb gave this a 7 rating because I think it would've been best to give it a 5.4 rating. That could've done the job better with a true rating!I've seen the sequel last year on Channel 4 and yes, I prefer "The Snowman" on his own. Its just not the same feeling or that same love just like I had with the original. If I have kids in the future, Ill let them watch this but I will say to them that it isn't better than the original. I'm being honest here and again, they should've left the original where it was, no more........

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) 30 years after the Oscar-nominated "The Snowman", it was finally time for a sequel. Now given how popular and beloved the original was, this was quite a risky endeavor. However, in my opinion they did everything right here. Let me start by saying that I like "The Snowman", but it's not among my favorite Christmas movies or anything. They made a good job with the animation here. The style resembles "The Snowman" obviously, but they also brought in new elements and made it more fitting for today's generation, mostly by making this a much more colorful watch. The music is another great aspect. Just like with the original, they used a nice song for the flying scene, but also in other moments you will like what you hear.Hilary Audus was the director of this 25-minute Christmas short film 3 years ago and she also already worked as an animator on the 1982 film. It's a bit sad that John Coates died shortly before this film here got released. Oh well, maybe they showed him a copy beforehand. Who knows. Anyway, it is one year later and the protagonist, the little boy from the old film, is sad because his snowman friend is not with him. So he builds him and he also builds a snowdog for him and of course the two come to life the next morning. Nice idea with the socks on the dog's ears. That certainly made it more memorable. The Snowman takes his 2 new pals on a journey during which they meet a whole village of snowmen and even, briefly, Santa Claus.This is such a harmonic movie with wonderful animation style and it goes very well with the music. Not even the competitive penguin tries something fishy during the skiing contest in order to win. The ending is very well done too. It is happy with the dog and sad with the Snowman and, even if it was slightly predictable, I think this was absolutely the right way to go in terms of emotion. I don't care about grumpy people who complain about this lacking the charm of the original. I think this is a wonderful little movie, excellent watch during the holidays and in my opinion all the more modern aspects added to it make it an even better work than the 1982 original. Highly recommended and it is also a good watch for non-English speakers as there is no text or dialogue in here.

Anssi Vartiainen At the same time a sequel and an homage to the original Christmas classic, The Snowman, this film takes place years after the events of the original film and once again the events of that magical night will repeat themselves.What I like about this film is how they tried to capture the magic and uniqueness of the original film. The animation, though bit crisper around the edges, still looks very authentic and is easily the best part about this film.Unfortunately the rest of the film feels like a cheap mimic of the original classic. The biggest problem is that I don't really want the story of The Snowman to continue. When that movie ended, it was painful, it was sad, but it was also something that felt right. I learned something from it, yet the story of this sequel completely undermines and cheapens that ending. It has no meaning, no impact, if you can just fashion yourself a new one the next day or year.Furthermore, there's very little originality or creativity on display here. Sure, there's a snowdog, but it feels like a cheap gimmick, meant to awe the little children in the audience. I guess the sequel needed something extra, but come on guys, you could have done better than this. The rest of the story sticks pretty close to the original formula, with a few deviations, but if you really want to see a story about a boy and his snow companion(s), well, we already had the original film.Even the music is just bland. A trendy pop tune with not a single thread of the magic of the original Walking in the Air.In the end, I cannot find it within myself to completely damn this film because, as stated, it is an homage and tries to pay respect to the original film. But it's just so bad at it. I honestly would have been happier if I never saw this in my life. Hopefully I can still watch the original with same enthusiasm as I've done before, come next Christmas.

nsimmonds In one of 2012's best horror flicks, boy is mourning the loss of his canine friend when he finds an ensorcelled hat and scarf under his bed. Innocently, he builds a snowman, only to find that at night the hat and scarf bring it to terrifying life. The bizarre snow demon and its dog- homonculus kidnap the boy, subjecting him to all sorts of terrors; in one of the more frightening moments, he sees other snow-demons flying through the air all around them as his own tormentor drags him into a run down a steep hill, seemingly about to crush him against a fence and at the last moment pulls him into a flight among the other creatures, which laugh and cavort at the boy's terror. Truly frightening, and reminds one of the wendigo of Algonquian myth which would drag people to their death, forcing them to run the whole time to survive.The demon then steals a plane from some unsuspecting aviator (why? When it can fly? I can only assume to sow the seeds of more disappointment, as planes are very expensive). The boy is dragged to some far off place where the demons have built a mockery of human society, dancing in outfits clearly meant to parody various social positions. Toward the end of the film, they make the boy race for his life against an evil bird while they dash themselves to pieces on the rocks nearby, careless of their own bodies which are, after all, merely snow shells for the horrifying spirits within.Valiantly, the boy wins, and they are forced to return him home. Seemingly with the coming of the sun the demons lose their powers, and he'll be free, but at the last moment they use their magic to create an amulet which turns the dog-homonculus into a creepy facsimile of the boy's own sadly-departed pet, directly mocking the child's pain. The creature then goes to live with him, watching him sleep, the child's mother knowing nothing and welcoming the new "pet" into the family.Truly, truly scary, in ways almost no short film can aspire to be. Ten out of ten, I recommend to all horror fans.