The First Snow of Winter is a Made For TV Animated Movie produced by Hibbert Ralph Entertainment and Link Entertainment that first aired on the BBC in 1998.
The film takes place in Ireland and tells the story of the rambunctious Sean McDuck (no relation) after he's accidentally left behind when his family flies south for the winter. The little duck must learn to survive on his own and brave both predators and the Irish winter so he can reunite with his family when spring comes the next year...
The First Snow of Winter provides examples of the following tropes:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The Airplane is animated with CGI.
- Acrofatic: Voley can move really well for such a rotund character design.
- Ambiguously Evil: The fox is implied to develop a personal vendetta against Sean as the film progresses and has some genuinely menacing facial expressions, but he's also shown to have a family of cubs he needs to feed. Whether or not the fox has malicious intent is ultimately left to interpretation.
- Art Shift: The line-dancing sheep are drawn much more cartoony than the rest of the animals.
- Big Damn Heroes: Voley when he swings in to knock the fox away from Sean and Puffy. He doesn't last long when the fox gets back up, but it was a valiant effort.
- Big Fun: Voley. Justified since it's nearly winter and he's stocked up on extra body fat.
- Black Bead Eyes: Sean and the other ducklings have them.
- Dance Party Ending: The film ends as Sean and Voley stepdance together.
- Disney Death: Voley is badly injured by the fox, but is later revealed to have survived.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Sean meets a water vole named Voley.
- Feather Fingers: All the birds have them.
- First Snow: It's right there in the title! This is the first time Sean has ever experienced snow.
- Guile Hero: Both Sean and Voley use their wits to survive. Puffy even remarks that Sean has always been clever.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sean. He loses the jerk part later on after his Character Development.
- Mocking Sing-Song: Voley literally sings "Nyah nyah-nyah nyah nyah" to a group of squirrels while he's tricking them into throwing nuts at him, providing Sean with food for the winter.
- Parental Abandonment: Sean, accidentally. His parents do come back to look for him, but think he's been eaten by a fox so don't stay long enough to find him.
- Predators Are Mean: The fox does go out of its way to try and eat Sean even after it catches the much fatter Voley.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: All the baby birds are this, but Puffy is particularly adorable.
- White-and-Grey Morality: The only really "bad" animal is the fox that tries to eat Sean and Puffy, except the fox is really just a predator trying to survive by hunting for prey.
