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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 415523" data-attributes="member: 23">I also had a quadruple helping of Raymond Briggs. The Snowman (1982) / Father Christmas (1991) / The Bear (1998) / The Snowman and The Snowdog (2012) <img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fs4.thcdn.com%2Fproductimg%2F960%2F960%2F11344022-7704423687200861.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=dbf95471c1d1ed7fd80424bb391c5d084dbdb7dac3e83970e55ddda8b1459cea&ipo=images" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 323px" /><img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FM%2FMV5BYTI1YTJjOWYtMzgyMS00MWM2LTlkOTctMDVkZGRkMWI3Zjc0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzY1NDgwNjQ%40._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=b879704b9ee4897b276c0ba97180a384d5c59e9aa1301e319237b46198ddeb1a&ipo=images" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 305px" /> <img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.hmv.com%2Fr%2Fw-640%2Fhmv%2Ffiles%2F99%2F999de761-b374-4a47-b26d-53da884865b0.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=a4fc9960004ee7808ed48ab3da3f83fd7ca74e38a1a932caf76db2d5f5ec50f8&ipo=images" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 316px" /><img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fs1.thcdn.com%2Fproductimg%2F0%2F960%2F960%2F08%2F10836308-1382364151-168125.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=19311e251b63a1f894da67be9414082c867e48baca6e0794444dc9f3f382773e&ipo=images" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 317px" /> I think The Bear is new to me, and I probably haven't watched Father Christmas since around the time of its original airing. I watched in chronological order by film (but not book, since Father Christmas was published years before The Snowman) and this gratified with a few little crossovers. In The Bear, the family watched The Snowman. During The Snowman and The Snowdog, I think we spotted the broken gate at the park, damaged by the titular bear in the earlier film. Father Christmas had, of course, already appeared in The Snowman, and in his own film we see the snowman and the boy from the earlier film.  I was completely on board with this crossover until some dialogue suggested that this wasn't actually the same night as seen in The Snowman, but another later date. Which  took away the poignant power of The Snowman's ending. This is, in fact, my biggest gripe with all the later films. Both Father Christmas and The Snowdog dilute The Snowman's strong ending, while The Bear recognises The Snowman as a work of fiction, and so is meta in a bad way. The Bear and The Snowdog also feel like a retelling of the same story already seen in The Snowman. The Bear does it more effectively, while The Snowdog feels like a lazy cash-in. It even has the same ending, but with a 21st Century twist that softens the blow. But that's just being pernickety. The fact is that each of these films looks beautiful and tells a magical story that captivates. Father Christmas feels like the odd one out since it's dialogue-heavy and has more of a comical tone, but it's none the worse for it and this gives it a USP. It's incredibly refreshing not only to have him named Father Christmas ("Santa" would have sounded very alien to British ears forty years ago, and I can hear my parents drawing their breath at the Americanisation of our nation's version of Saint Nicholas), but also that he's portrayed as a grouchy old bugger, weary at the whole Christmas business which, as he says, arrives earlier each year. Mel Smith does the voice, but I did wonder as I watched if it was Warren Mitchell as he was very Alf Garnett in tone. The Bear is a touching little film, that has a worthy ecological message. The titular polar bear has been taken from his family and placed in a zoo, and it took me back to visiting zoos when I was young and registering on some level how sad and tired the polar bears appeared in their concrete pit. Interestingly, a similar message was in last night's Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, where the "gag" was that Feathers McGraw's prison turned out to be a zoo. The Snowdog might be The Snowman Redux, but there are still rewards from watching as it subtly touches on overdevelopment of precious green spaces (which is the only really interesting aspect of this film for me). In the original film, the boy lives in a house that is clearly isolated and surrounded by land and fields. The Snowdog sees a new family move into the same distinctive house, only this time it's simply one house surrounded by others on a housing development. I also liked the idea of the new boy finding the snowman's hat and scarf under the floorboards, along with a photo that prompted him to do the same thing. Somehow the main character borrowing someone else's idea went a little way towards excusing the film's creators doing the same thing. It must be said, though, that the pop music section are horribly jarring, and the diction is so poor that the lyrics are quite indistinguishable, which makes for quite an unpleasant contrast to Peter Auty's crisp, clear, traditional rendition of Walking In The Air. Adding insult to injury, thesinger affects an American accent, further detracting from the film's British charm. The Snowdog looks very nice and cosy and it's a well-made film. Really, though, it adds very little to the original. In almost all things, it's true that the original is always best. The Snowman isn't perfect (it actually felt longer than its 26 minute running time, and could have done with being 5-10 minutes shorter in my opinion), but on reflection it certainly feels perfect. The version I watched on Channel 4's player included a live introduction from David Bowie playing a grown-up version of the boy, which I felt bad for not remembering... until I read it was shot for the American audience.</blockquote>

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