Rent The Snowman (1982)

Simply Magical - The Snowman review by GI

A magical and delightful animated film that is a Christmas classic. It has an aura of mystery, fantasy and an 'englishness' that makes it nostalgic and quite wonderful. Based on the children's book by Raymond Briggs it is the story of a little boy who awakes one winter morning to discover a heavy snowfall has occurred overnight, in his excitement he plays all day in the garden and builds a snowman. That night, unable to sleep he goes outside to look at his creation to suddenly find the snowman magically comes to life and takes him on an adventure to visit Santa. The animation, grand orchestral soundtrack, the story and of course the song Walking In The Air (not sung by Aled Jones in the film by the way) makes for a lovely film that has a poignancy and a real feel for Christmas's past, present and future. Originally presented without any introduction scenes three different ones were added over the years including one with David Bowie. For me it didn't need any of them and the original version is the better for being without one. This is a film to show your children because it's actually something quite special, but then again I'm a bit of an old softy!