Western Animation / Frosty Returns

Let there be snow!
Let there be snow!
This kind of weather brings people together
So friendships can grow!

Frosty Returns is a 1992 Christmas Special and semi-sequel to Frosty the Snowman. It is co-produced by Bill Meléndez, made famous for animating the Peanuts specials. It features narration from Jonathan Winters, and features the voice talents of Andrea Martin, Brian Doyle-Murray, Jan Hooks, Elisabeth Moss, Michael Patrick-Carter, and John Goodman as Frosty himself.

Frosty visits the town of Beansboro, where he meets lonely kid magician Holly DeCarlo who only has one friend. The two soon discover the town has a dislike against snow and winter, and the power-hungry tycoon Mr. Twitchell invents Summer Wheeze, an aerosol spray which makes snow disappear upon contact. Frosty and Holly must work together to convince the town that winter is a special season and everyone should do their part in keeping it alive.

CBS airs it several times every holiday season in tandem with the original Frosty.

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Frosty Returns has examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Jonathan Winters sits on a CGI snowflake at the start and end of Frosty Returns. This was later removed completely on later airings, instead just showing an empty blue night sky background with Winters' disembodied voice.
• Agent Scully: Charles is set up as one, although when he does meet Frosty, it seemingly only takes a quick failure to find batteries to convince him that talking snowmen are real in his universe.
• Alternate Continuity: Universal's acquisition of Classic Media allowed the former to formally push this into a different continuity from Frosty the Snowman, when they omitted it from the older special's 2018 Deluxe Edition DVD and Blu-ray.
• And Starring: The opening cast roll ends with "and John Goodman as 'Frosty the Snowman'".
• Art-Shifted Sequel: The animation style is different than that of the original. As is often noted, it resembles the Peanuts specials, which is handily explained by the fact that the animation was done by Bill Melendez Productions.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Ms. Carbunkle on snow while digging it to Holly.
  Ms. Carbunkle: When there’s slush there’s ice, and when there’s ice there’s broken hips, and when there’s broken hips there’s substitute teachers!
• Artistic License – Music: Just before the Triumphant Reprise of "Let There Be Snow", Frosty requests, "Can someone give me a B-flat?"; however, the trumpet player produces a note in G. Also, the song itself is sung in D major.
• Award-Bait Song: "Let There Be Snow".
• Bald of Evil: Mr. Twitchell has no head hair and is the main villain who wants to take over the world after he takes over the town.
• Big Bad: Mr. Twitchell wants to be beloved after selling his product and being honored the King at the Winter Carnival.
• Big Damn Heroes: With Frosty close to melting from the Summer Wheeze and there's almost no snow left, Charles arrives with a bag of snow he saved for an experiment, knowing Frosty needed it more than him, and with that, Holly and Charles save Frosty.
• But Now I Must Go: Frosty tells Holly he has to leave after saving winter (for no particular reason), though he does keep the promise he'll be back.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Holly says this to Frosty upon meeting him outside the amusement park:
  Holly: When I try to speak my mouth gets all dry and my hands get all clammy. I let you down, didn't I?
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: When one of the board members raises environmental objections, she gets dropped through a trapdoor.
• Continuity Snarl: A few scenes feature Frosty either taking off his hat or without it without him reverting back into an inanimate snowman.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Unlike Winterbolt who is an irredeemable wizard and wants to cover the world in snow and ice, Mr. Twitchell is an immoral businessman who wants to get rid of snow but redeems at the end.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mr. Twitchell, who wants to use his product Summer Wheeze to eliminate snow without a care about how this would affect the environment; he even drops a board member through a trap door when she raises concerns about the environmental impact the product will have.
• Creepy Changing Painting: When the camera shows a close-up of a Summer Wheeze bottle and we hear Mr. Twitchell's voiceover, his face on the can changes from a Slasher Smile to a more exaggerated happy one.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After Mr. Twitchell fails to destroy Frosty, he accepts the offer to wear the Carnival King's cape and crown, riding in the float.
• Digital Destruction: Current airings use an HD remaster that was seemingly created by re-scanning the film negative like any other Classic Media Christmas special, which normally wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for all the digital effects that weren't part of the film but rather added directly to tape. As a result, current airings lack the beginning/ending sequence of Jonathan Winters' character riding on a CGI snowflake (leaving only a barren night sky in its place,) and snowfall is missing from numerous other shots. The only digital effect they restored was the credits (but even those are a little different; closer to the traditional 1980s/90s Peanuts-style credit scroll.) The 2014 video release also adds two commercial fade-ins where there weren't any before.

• Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: When Holly first sees Frosty wearing her magician's hat, he promptly stops her.
  Frosty: Oh no you don't! You wanna take something? Take the tie! Unless you think I need it. How do you well dress for this Winter Carnival anyway? I mean...I don't want to under dress. But if I could get away with a tank top or something more "caz".
• Ecocidal Antagonist: Mr. Twitchell is a business man who sells Summer Wheeze, a product that can instantly remove snow. He doesn't really care about the consequences of the environment, he's only in it to become king.
• Freak Out: By Frosty as he and Holly watch snow melt everywhere with thanks to Summer Wheeze becoming popular.
• A God Am I: During Mr. Twitchell's Piss-Take Rap, he directly challenges Mother Nature to try and stop him from using Summer Wheeze to render snow extinct.
• Green Aesop: And a particularly heavy-handed one at that. One of the main criticisms for this special.
• Heel–Face Turn: After Holly and Frosty convince everyone that snow is important after all, she offers Mr. Twitchell a ride in the toboggan and Frosty gives him the crown and cape even though he was elected the Carnival King. The narrator also mentions that Mr. Twitchell ceased the production of Summer Wheeze and starts making sleds instead.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Holly's friend Charles. Frosty and Holly even cringe when he sings part of the "Let There Be Snow" song.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Jonathan Winters as the narrator, and Bryan Doyle-Murray as Mr. Twitchell.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Frosty begins to completely panic when he sees trucks of Summer Wheeze making the snow disappear.
  • Frosty and Holly have a collective one when Frosty gets hit in the belly by Summer Wheeze.
• One-Steve Limit: It's implied there's another person somewhere who shares Holly's full name, as Frosty thought of when he first met her.
• Only Friend: Charles is Holly's only friend at the beginning of the special.
• Piss-Take Rap: Mr. Twitchell's segment of "Let There Be Snow".
• Political Overcorrectness: Yet another criticism aimed at this special is that Christmas is never mentioned in any capacity and is replaced by the town celebrating a Winter Carnival.
• Reused Character Design: Because Bill Melendez worked on this special, some of the character designs resemble many Peanuts characters, such as Charles resembling Marcie.
• Right-Hand Cat: Mr. Twitchell has one.
• Secondary Character Title: Like the original special, Frosty has more of a supporting role and it’s Holly who’s the main star here.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Charles wears glasses and is shown to have an obsession with science.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: It's very unusual to hear Mark Mothersbaugh's Rugrats-esque music (complete with "buh buh" effects) playing underneath Bill Melendez's Peanuts-esque animation instead of something by Klasky-Csupo for the former or Vince Guaraldi-styled jazz music for the latter.
• Space Whale Aesop: "Save the environment because without snow there will be no place for magical, talking snowmen!"
• This Is a Song: A line from "Let There Be Snow" goes, "I found that I get much further when I turn my thoughts to song."
• Triumphant Reprise: "Let There Be Snow" returns in the climax as Frosty encourages Beansboro to appreciate winter.
• Understatement: This happens when Holly and Frosty see Mr. Twitchell's Summer Wheeze cars melting nearly all the snow on the entire block.
  Frosty: Oh, no!
  Holly: Don't get upset, Frosty.
  Frosty: (frantically) Upset? "Upset" is waking up and finding out somebody forget to give you a belly button. "Upset" is finding out somebody stole your nose to play foosball! This ain't "upset", kid. This is PANIC!! I'm two squirts from being history!
• Villain Song: Mr. Twitchell has a part of the "Let There Be Snow" song where he sings "There's No More Snow" and brags about how nothing can stop his plan to eliminate the snow and become king of the Winter Carnival.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The location of Beansboro is not disclosed.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Frosty says this when Holly suggests hiding him in the fridge.

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Why should we sit around and wait
For summer days to celebrate?
Such a magical sight
When the world's dressed in white!
Oh, let there be snow!

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