Dreadfully Boring

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I watched this with bated breath. I couldn't wait to hear the classic musical score again. I couldn't wait to be transferred back in time like the guy eating Ratatouille in the movie Ratatouille. And then it started. The total ruination. The total hijacking of a masterpiece and a substitution with modern drivel, tripe. Idiocracy at work. It saddens me that we want our nostalgia for simpler times to be edited away. That we should make new memories of us being crammed into cities and lose our awe for the northern lights and instead want to see a giant Ferris wheel that costs 25 quid in the long line. The father has been subtracted out to show a modern shattered family? Not sure. And now we have a death of a pet in a children's tale? And the house went from halcyonic, simple-life, low impact countryside to crammed into a foul city where humans are grown and stored under oppressive oligarchical collectivists, pan national corporations and vile banks?I pine for the days when our nostalgia was for a purer, simpler time, not this modern rubbish drivel.I am aghast at the denigration and devolution that has been going on in such a short time.

In one of 2012's best horror flicks, boy is mourning the loss of his canine friend when he finds an ensorcelled hat and scarf under his bed. Innocently, he builds a snowman, only to find that at night the hat and scarf bring it to terrifying life. The bizarre snow demon and its dog- homonculus kidnap the boy, subjecting him to all sorts of terrors; in one of the more frightening moments, he sees other snow-demons flying through the air all around them as his own tormentor drags him into a run down a steep hill, seemingly about to crush him against a fence and at the last moment pulls him into a flight among the other creatures, which laugh and cavort at the boy's terror. Truly frightening, and reminds one of the wendigo of Algonquian myth which would drag people to their death, forcing them to run the whole time to survive.The demon then steals a plane from some unsuspecting aviator (why? When it can fly? I can only assume to sow the seeds of more disappointment, as planes are very expensive). The boy is dragged to some far off place where the demons have built a mockery of human society, dancing in outfits clearly meant to parody various social positions. Toward the end of the film, they make the boy race for his life against an evil bird while they dash themselves to pieces on the rocks nearby, careless of their own bodies which are, after all, merely snow shells for the horrifying spirits within.Valiantly, the boy wins, and they are forced to return him home. Seemingly with the coming of the sun the demons lose their powers, and he'll be free, but at the last moment they use their magic to create an amulet which turns the dog-homonculus into a creepy facsimile of the boy's own sadly-departed pet, directly mocking the child's pain. The creature then goes to live with him, watching him sleep, the child's mother knowing nothing and welcoming the new "pet" into the family.Truly, truly scary, in ways almost no short film can aspire to be. Ten out of ten, I recommend to all horror fans.

Did the classic film The Snowman need a sequel? The answer for me is probably no but in Christmas 2012 came this inevitable sequel in which roughly the same thing happens only this time with the addition of a dog.It isn't bad though don't get me wrong and if you bought the DVD box-set with both films in you probably wouldn't be disappointed. In years to come people might be just as nostalgic about 'Snowman 2' as it will end up being called as they are the original. The pencil drawing is lovely and it has the same feel as the original though the new piece of flight music is going to take some time to grow on me.Overall a well made heartfelt sequel but I do hope the makers stop now before we have a 'Snowman and the snowgirl' or some other rehash that tarnishes what up to now has been two quality films.

The 1982 animation 'The Snowman' has always been a Christmas must in my house for as long as I can remember so I was delighted to hear that, after thirty years, a sequel was being produced.'The Snowman and the Snowdog' starts with a mother and son moving into a new house with their old dog in the summer. But as summer turns to autumn, we see the heartbroken family burying their beloved dog. Then winter arrives bringing snow and it is then that the boy discovers a box under the floorboards of his bedroom containing the hat, scarf and coal as well as a photo of James and the Snowman. And so the boy decides he will rebuild the Snowman and, with the leftover snow, he also builds a little snowdog too. I will not ruin how the story ends but it is complete with a journey to the North Pole to visit Santa Claus.There is no way any sequel could ever match the originality and enchantment of 'The Snowman'. It is a classic that will remain unequalled in the hearts of millions. However, this is a delightful little sequel that does charm, particularly anyone who has ever owned a dog. Only a pet-lover with a heart of stone would not feel tearful at the first scenes. And there is no denying that the Snowdog is absolutely adorable! The music is not as memorable as 'Walking in the Air', and it's actually a bit jarring at first to not hear the expected soundtrack of 'The Snowman', the musical score is not terrible either. And the artwork is, of course, perfect and clearly drawn lovingly with the traditional scenes of a snowy white British landscape (far removed from the damp, rainy rubbish that we are being forced to endure in reality!).I certainly hope to see this animated film shown every year after 'The Snowman' as it nicely compliments the classic and is a great Christmas film.