Horst in Translation ([email protected]) 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.

studioAT Did the classic film The Snowman need a sequel? The answer for me is probably no but in Christmas 2012 came this inevitable sequel in which roughly the same thing happens only this time with the addition of a dog.It isn't bad though don't get me wrong and if you bought the DVD box-set with both films in you probably wouldn't be disappointed. In years to come people might be just as nostalgic about 'Snowman 2' as it will end up being called as they are the original. The pencil drawing is lovely and it has the same feel as the original though the new piece of flight music is going to take some time to grow on me.Overall a well made heartfelt sequel but I do hope the makers stop now before we have a 'Snowman and the snowgirl' or some other rehash that tarnishes what up to now has been two quality films.

Tweekums Thirty years have passed since the classic animation 'The Snowman' first aired on Channel Four; now it is time to return. This sequel opens with a new family moving into the house one summer; as well as another young boy there is a dog but it soon dies and is buried in the garden. When winter comes the boy discovers a package hidden under the floorboards in his bedroom; it contains the scarf, hat and coal-buttons of the Snowman along with a picture of him and the original boy. That night it begins to snow and the next day the boy remakes the snowman and from the left over snow he fashions a little snowdog. As he gets into bed he looks out of the window and is shocked to see that they have come to life. As happened in the original, this boy is taken on a magical journey, flying over London they head north and meet Father Christmas. Anybody who has seen the original will be anticipating a tear inducing ending but this time the sadness is reduced as one last magical thing happens when they get home!'The Snowman' was a hard act to follow but this certainly comes close. Like the original it shares a distinctive animation style that gives a real warmth to the characters… even those made of snow. The setting is quintessentially English but the lack of spoken dialogue means that this could be enjoyed by people everywhere. The song used here sadly doesn't have the ethereal charm of 'Walking in the Air' but it isn't bad. People who enjoyed the original are sure to enjoy this and once again they should be prepared to shed a tear or two but expect to be smiling at the same time… I wouldn't be surprised if this one is still being shown in thirty years as well; perhaps we'll get part three in 2042!