Frosty's Winter Wonderland

Frosty's Winter Wonderland is an animated Christmas television special produced in 1976 by Rankin-Bass. It is a sequel to the 1969 Frosty the Snowman special, also written by Romeo Muller, with narration provided by Andy Griffith. Jackie Vernon reprised his role as the voice of Frosty.

Plot

Lonely at the North Pole, Frosty returns to meet his friends. Jack Frost (voiced by Paul Frees) sees the fun that the children are having with Frosty and becomes jealous. Despite the fun he has, Frosty ends up feeling lonely again. His friends make him a wife (suggested names included Cleopatra and Corn Flakes) named Crystal (voiced by Shelley Winters) for him, but she is not alive like he is. The children try placing a ladies' hat on her head, but to no avail. Late that night, Frosty presents his stationary sweetheart with a bouquet of frost flowers. His gift of love brings her to life, and she immediately says his trademark line: "Happy Birthday". The two joyously frolic through the snow, until Jack Frost uses a gust of icy wind to blow off Frosty's hat, which lands into Jack's icy hand. As he taunts Crystal with cries of "No more Frosty! No more Frosty!", she refuses to believe that her frozen fiance is truly gone for good. Sculpting a corsage out of snow, she places it on Frosty's chest and gives him a kiss which immediately brings him back to life with his usual cheerful birthday cry.

Jack Frost is befuddled at Frosty's reanimation, and the snow-couple begins to slide down the slope of the hill they were on. Angered, Jack throws Frosty's hat, which returns to its rightful place on the snowman's head. Frosty and Crystal run through the town shouting their wedding announcement to the children. The children gather together with Parson Brown, the local preacher, in town to marry the snowpersons. Parson Brown says that he can't perform the ceremony, as he can only legally marry REAL persons. Everyone is dejected until Parson Brown suggests they build a "snow parson" with his assistance. After the minister is constructed from snow, Parson Brown states that "A parson is not a parson 'til he holds the Good Book in his hand." He places a Bible into the snow parson's hand, and he is immediately vivified (and once again, stating the "Happy Birthday" line). Jack Frost witnesses this and decides to spoil the wedding with a blizzard. Crystal decides to reason with him and pleas for him to stop the blizzard. He complies, and she asks for him to be the best man at the wedding (after all, the whole wedding should be wintery, and so it would only be appropriate for him to be the best man). Finally feeling appreciated, Jack Frost agrees and even he calls out "Happy Birthday!" The wedding goes on without a hitch, to the song "Winter Wonderland".

The snowpersons and Jack Frost have fun with the children all winter, but they notice the weather is starting to grow warm again. Jack Frost decides to make it so that winter never ends and Frosty and Crystal can stay. As the overly long winter continues and worries adults, Parson Brown decides to talk with everyone. He tells that winter can never last forever, or the trees will never sprout leaves and flowers will never grow. Jack Frost and the Snowpersons are saddened, but acknowledge it's time for them to leave. They once again head for the train to the North Pole (But not before one last skate through town and one more scare for the local policeman). All traces of winter melt away, but with the promise to return next year.

Trivia

Karen, the protagonist from the original Frosty episode, was neither shown nor mentioned in this special, nor do Professor Hinkle or Hocus Pocus the rabbit. However, one recurring gag did return: in coming up with a name for Frosty's wife, one of the children suggests "Cornflakes;" in the original special, a child recommends "Oatmeal" as a name for Frosty.

Television rights

The rights to this special are held by ABC and ABC Family. The latter airs the special annually on its "25 Days of Christmas" marathon.

CBS, which owned (and continues to own) the rights to the original, replaced this sequel with an in-house production, "Frosty Returns", in 1992. "Frosty Returns", despite having far more continuity errors than this version, is now more commonly recognized as the sequel Fact|date=September 2008 to the original special than this show.