The Snowman

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The Snowman is a children's book by the English author Raymond Briggs , published in 1978. The film adaptation, broadcast for the first time in 1982, was nominated in 1983 for an Oscar in the category “ Best Animated Short Film ”.

action

The Snowman tells the story of a little boy who builds a snowman on a winter's day . This comes to life the following night. Since the little boy has to explain a lot of things from the human world to the snowman that the snowman doesn't understand, the two quickly get closer. They explore the area around the house on a motorcycle and frighten many animals.

In the following, the snowman takes the boy on an airplane trip. They cross the roofs of the city and then fly further and further north until they come to a snow-covered forest. There is a festival there, at which many other snowmen are present. Finally they get to Santa Claus , who gives the little boy a scarf with a snowman motif.

Then the two return home. When the boy wakes up the next morning and looks out the window, he notices that the sun is shining and the snowman has melted as a result. He wonders if he has only dreamed it all, but then finds the scarf in his pocket that Santa Claus gave him.

filming

In 1982, a 26-minute cartoon adaptation of the book was produced for the British television station Channel 4 . The director was the Englishwoman Dianne Jackson , producer was John Coates . It was first broadcast on December 24, 1982. The film manages without spoken words, the only exception being the piece Walking in the Air, composed by the English composer Howard Blake . All of the rest of the music in the film was made by Blake.

computer game

In 1984 Quicksilva published a game programmed by Rob Harris for the Commodore 64 called "The Snowman", which refers to the novel. It is a representative of the platforming genre. The title melody comes from the cartoon version.

reception

At the 1982 BAFTA Awards , the film was named “Best Children's Film”, and at the 1983 Academy Awards , it was nominated in the “ Best Animated Short Film ” category. In 1984 she won the Best Picture Award at the Tampere International Short Film Festival .

The film music and a version of the film released on video cassette became bestsellers. To date, The Snowman is broadcast annually on Channel 4 on Christmas Eve. The film is considered a British Christmas classic.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b http://www.howardblake.com/biography.php
  2. ↑ http://www.bafta.org/awards/television/nominations/?year=1982
  3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.awn.com
  4. ↑ http://www.toonhound.com/snowman.htm

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