Jack Frost is not quite one of my favourite cartoons of all time, but it is a beautiful and hugely enjoyable cartoon that's deserving of more praise. It's also one of those cartoons that I love and appreciate even more as a 23-year old adult than as a child.
The animation in Jack Frost is absolutely wonderful. Not just the beautifully drawn wintry landscape, that sets up the entire atmosphere of the cartoon and its story so well, and the animation on the autumn leaves and at the end, but also some truly imaginative work in the creation of the snowman and the spooky sight gags. Regarding the latter, the pumpkins/Jack O-Lanterns part stood out. The colours are a lovely mix of brightly colourful and dark, the characters are drawn well with little roughness and no obvious over-cutesiness and the backgrounds are truly beautiful on the eyes.
Music is a component that is very important to me when judging animation, or any film and such for that matter. The music in Jack Frost in no way disappoints, the little bear's song is adorable without being sickly sweet. In fact all the songs are lovely, with the standout being the irresistibly catchy one of the scarecrow, that song is also a lot of fun and the sequence itself is hilarious. The incidental scoring has a lot of haunting depth, rhythmic energy and lush orchestration, no surprise as it is from Carl Stalling whose work on cartoons was always consistently great, often elevating them to a higher level.
Often, 1930s cartoons or very visual/technical cartoons are not so strong in the story department, which can have an afterthought feel(but when so many components for that cartoon are so good and when the story still has appeal that's easy to ignore). The story in Jack Frost doesn't come over quite as strikingly as the animation and music, but it does fare stronger than the stories of most cartoons made around the time. It moves swiftly, sustains the running time just right with little obvious padding, and is just a charming, hugely entertaining and poignant story in general. One where you can identify every step of the way with the little bear without being manipulated into doing so. The cartoon has some sweet humour, like with the scarecrow, and the darker parts with Old Man Winter and the spooky sight gags are very imaginatively handled, and in a way that didn't feel too much or out of place. There's even room for morals on obedience and respect, and while it could have been so easy to hammer the morals in a heavy-handed manner Jack Frost manages to avoid this trap, it also couldn't have ended more perfectly either.
Characters in Jack Frost do a great job moving the story forward and making it as succinct as possible(children will be able to follow it with no problem and it shouldn't be too demanding for adults either). The bear is an adorable leading character without over-sentimentalising the story, as can happen with cute characters, while Jack Frost is similarly engaging and Old Man Winter in his brief appearance is a suitably sinister 'antagonist' without being too scary, in fact he's also fun in a very twisted sort of way. The characters are solidly voiced too.
All in all, a beautiful classic cartoon and should be seen more often. 10/10 Bethany Cox
The animation in Jack Frost is absolutely wonderful. Not just the beautifully drawn wintry landscape, that sets up the entire atmosphere of the cartoon and its story so well, and the animation on the autumn leaves and at the end, but also some truly imaginative work in the creation of the snowman and the spooky sight gags. Regarding the latter, the pumpkins/Jack O-Lanterns part stood out. The colours are a lovely mix of brightly colourful and dark, the characters are drawn well with little roughness and no obvious over-cutesiness and the backgrounds are truly beautiful on the eyes.
Music is a component that is very important to me when judging animation, or any film and such for that matter. The music in Jack Frost in no way disappoints, the little bear's song is adorable without being sickly sweet. In fact all the songs are lovely, with the standout being the irresistibly catchy one of the scarecrow, that song is also a lot of fun and the sequence itself is hilarious. The incidental scoring has a lot of haunting depth, rhythmic energy and lush orchestration, no surprise as it is from Carl Stalling whose work on cartoons was always consistently great, often elevating them to a higher level.
Often, 1930s cartoons or very visual/technical cartoons are not so strong in the story department, which can have an afterthought feel(but when so many components for that cartoon are so good and when the story still has appeal that's easy to ignore). The story in Jack Frost doesn't come over quite as strikingly as the animation and music, but it does fare stronger than the stories of most cartoons made around the time. It moves swiftly, sustains the running time just right with little obvious padding, and is just a charming, hugely entertaining and poignant story in general. One where you can identify every step of the way with the little bear without being manipulated into doing so. The cartoon has some sweet humour, like with the scarecrow, and the darker parts with Old Man Winter and the spooky sight gags are very imaginatively handled, and in a way that didn't feel too much or out of place. There's even room for morals on obedience and respect, and while it could have been so easy to hammer the morals in a heavy-handed manner Jack Frost manages to avoid this trap, it also couldn't have ended more perfectly either.
Characters in Jack Frost do a great job moving the story forward and making it as succinct as possible(children will be able to follow it with no problem and it shouldn't be too demanding for adults either). The bear is an adorable leading character without over-sentimentalising the story, as can happen with cute characters, while Jack Frost is similarly engaging and Old Man Winter in his brief appearance is a suitably sinister 'antagonist' without being too scary, in fact he's also fun in a very twisted sort of way. The characters are solidly voiced too.
All in all, a beautiful classic cartoon and should be seen more often. 10/10 Bethany Cox