Review of The Snowman and the Snowdog (2012) by Blah E — 24 Dec 2016

I was a little hesitant about this sequel at first. Why make a sequel to The Snowman at all really. But really, from the start, I was sold. It's been about 30 years since that last snowman (in our time and the film's time) and a new boy has moved into the same house and stumbles across that apparently magical scarf and hat and recreates The Snowman.

From there, it follows basically the same path as the first one. They play, they fly through the city, end up at a snowman party, meet Santa, and in the end he melts. The big addition here is the titular Snowdog, a sort of recreation of the new boy's deceased pet.

May seem cutesy and unnecessary, but it actually works. There's even a point near the end where it seems the Snowdog is gone, and I was genuinely concerned for a moment and even got a lump in my throat.

That's pretty impressive for a 22 minute short to pull off. If I have criticisms of this sequel, they're pretty minor. What ends up happening to the Snowdog is a bit too magical and overly sentimental and sort of took me out of things for a bit.

It contrasts a bit with the originals total downer ending and felt a little like they were worried to make things too sad. Having said that, the ending still has enough melancholy to it, and I really didn't mind throwing the audience a bone so to speak in giving us a little cheer.

The other thing is the new song. I like it a lot, but it doesn't quite fit with the tone of the film. It feels just a bit too poppy, especially compared to the original classic song. These are ultimately nitpicks though, things I noticed but came nowhere near ruining the experience for me.

This really is a nice addition to The Snowman story that tries very hard to match the look and feel of the original. As a huge fan of the original, it's really all I could ask for, and I hope maybe in another 30 years will get a part three (just hopefully not in CG).