Jack Frost

For a start, I loved all the rich amber tones in the woodland backgrounds, and even more so later on with the the frozen scenery, all exceedingly beautiful to look at. Also the music was very nice and kept things moving at a good pace. The family of bears that is featured look a lot like the ones from the 1935 Iwerks short "The Three Bears." The momma bear sounds like a black women did the voicing. She may give Billy-Bear a spankin', but it probably hurts her more than it does him! For some strange reason a really crummy-looking picture that hangs above the little bear's bed made me laugh! I don't get the strange moment where there's an apparition hovering saw cutting a log above the sleeping bear parents... Maybe a visual pun on the saying "slept like a log"? The only thing I didn't like too much was the annoying little song the bear kid seemed to sing about every two minutes, I think it sounds a bit too childish and brings down the tone somewhat. I liked the slightly creepy character of the trickster sprite Jack Frost, who deems to teach young bratty-bear a lesson the hard way about respecting the cold. This short boasts several very impressive and spooky sight gags, like a hopping quartet of pumpkins whose collective "Whooo!" sound is genuinely eerie to listen to! And then there is my absolute favourite part of the whole short, an awesome scatting scarecrow whose wild movements and bluesy freewheeling sounds still sound extremely catchy and cool today! That scene felt to me very similar to the trio of Betty Boop Fleisher shorts to feature a dancing rotoscoped Cab Calloway! I loved the design and animation of the cackling wicked Old Man Winter who was quite scary as a monster once a vintage animation could only be. During the chase through the icy woods I love the snow-covered objects in the background that look very much like human figures frozen in agonised poses. Quite a dark and Gothic touch, I thought. I think Jack Frost was Old Man Winter, their faces and noses looked alike, and Jack's enigmatic wink to the audience at the "Finis" confirmed it for me. What a great little peril in winter wonderland animation this is, it's well worth anyone's time, and makes for an especially pleasant watch come Christmas time. Overall quite a charming rare old vintage show with an edge! X

. . . by leading seminarian End Times Instructors as an actual horseman of the Apocalypse. JACK FROST, aka the onset of Winter, is so fearsome that some quailing traditions substituted Famine for Frost so that the kids could sleep at night. However, on six of the Globe's seven continents more people freeze to death than expire from starvation in a given year. Furthermore, a consensus of pain experts rank a frigid demise a fate worse than buying the farm with an empty tummy. As their capillaries explode one by one, many victims turning into literal pop-sickles have been heard to bargain that they'd swear off food for a year for one mug of hot chocolate. JACK FROST does NOT give this scourge of glacial glazing his just desserts.

This cartoon is one of my all-time favorites. I absolutely love old cartoons and movies, so naturally I had to give this one a try and I found that this is a frightening little goody. It's about a little bear who has run away from home and is one the run from "Old Man Winter." His adventure is wonderfully written and even more wonderfully animated. This cartoon will have you smiling from the very beginning to the cleverly done end.

Ub Iwerks was a technical genius, but often plots and story were afterthoughts. Exceptionally visual cartoons not needing much plotting work splendidly, while those needing strong characterization, story or plot fare less well as a rule.

This one is an exception to that. Visually excellent and technically superb, this is also engaging and has fascinating characters and a good plot. Iwerks was creative in his own area of expertise and one of the reasons that Iwerks and Walt Disney worked so well together was that their strengths were complementary to one another. This is Iwerks Studios near their best. Absolutely beautiful short, it's good to see this in print. Well worth getting. Recommended.

Jack Frost (1934)

*** (out of 4)

Ub Iwerks' directed this animated short about a young grizzly bear who decides to go outside even though his mother warned him that a cold winter was about to hit. I always enjoy watching the work of Iwerks because even today his images are quite striking and they're certainly unlike anything else that was out at the time or even today. This film isn't among his greatest works but I think there are enough unique touches that make the thing worth watching. I really liked the images but this here should go without being said. I especially liked the winter landscape as the bear wonders out of his house thinking that his fur is going to protect him. The scene showing the snowman being created was terrific and the imagination in it was excellent. Earlier there's a very good sequence with some dancing trees and the scenes with the pumpkins was also very good. The bear cub himself was a good and memorable character and his little journey has many cute moments as well as some darker ones.