The Twelve Animated Days of Christmas, #5

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on

The holidays get the ‘cartoon modern’ treatment in this rare 1954 version of Frosty the Snowman directed by Bobe Cannon at UPA.

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  • http://www.rauchbrothers.com Tim Rauch

    yumm that’s nice. thanks amid!

  • http://strangetoons.com Dr. Strange-Q

    I grew up watchin’ those on Channel 6 Johnstown, PA! They played it with Susie Snow Flake, Hardrock, CoCo, & Joe.

  • dave kovarik

    WGN has run this and Suzie Snowflake and Hardrock Coco & Joe in Chicago every year for over 45 years.

  • Angry Anim

    I used to see this on WGN every year, also.

    Besides the design aspects, it has an absolute brilliant sense of rhythm and playfulness… qualities that animation of today seem to have lost. No one times their stuff to even a click track anymore.

  • uncle wayne

    You got me goin’, guys….here in (mid-) La. we were never shown such short rare gems. Tell me more about “Suzie”, pleez….so’s I can find IT on YouTube!

  • AtomB

    Any chance someone can post the hilarious UPA short WINTER SPORTS?

  • http://scuzzbopper.blogspot.com Ken Priebe

    Here is Hardrock, Coco, and Joe:
    http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=JDM6Bbt9WDY

    and here is Susie Snowflake:
    http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=xaUBpsn4QjQ

    You will notice that a puppet version of UPA’s Frosty design shows up in the latter film. Both were animated by a small outfit called Centaur Productions. The little dwarf puppets were built and animated by Wah Chang, who worked with Disney, George Pal and was one of the chief designers on Star Trek.

    I’m very curious to know what the relationship was between Centaur Productions and UPA, and why these three films were always packaged together. It’s interesting that two are stop-motion and one is cel animation. Does anyone know more about this?

  • bob kurtz

    bo cannon was one of the great ones.everything he touched had the
    love of animation in it.

  • http://willfinn.blogspot.com/ Will Finn

    i love this one. just perfect. even color couldn’t improve it.

  • dave kovarik

    Is there a color copy out there? I’m assuming Frosty was released in theaters.

  • Duane Fulk

    That 1954 Frosty brought back warm memories of the early fifty’s when I was 7 and 8. That cartoon was shown all over TV every Christmas.
    From the same era, was the black and white Suzie Snowflake. But not a cartoon – pretty sure it was done in stop motion with cutout paper characters. Sure wish I could see that one again!! Does anyone remember it?

  • Duane Fulk

    I found Suzy Snowflake “You Tube.” What nice memories it brought back. Would love to get Frosty and Suzy from You Tube onto a DVD for my grandchildren! Is this possible or legal? Thank You.

  • http://www.autodaddy.blogspot.com tom

    Like Dr. Strange, I saw this, Hardrock and Suzy on WJAC TV (Pittsburgher by birth) for years, and they were ancient then. I still get the warmest, happiest, stupidest feeling from these three little films. Theyr’e all on YouTube now. I posted them all last year on my blog too. Some smarty should release these bumpers on DVD and take all our money.

    It’s great to see Frosty with a different look, although I love the Paul Coker Jr. designs from the old R&B Frosty too.

  • Eric

    holy crap! i so look forward to going back to johnstown for the holidays just so i can see this and susie and hardrock! when i went to college, i couldn’t believe that everyone in the world wasn’t familiar with these!

  • zavkram

    I just tried to watch it but it’s been pulled from YouTube…

    To quote Charlie Brown… “Rats!”