''Jack Frost'' is a 1979

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

Winter Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultur ...

, and

Groundhog Day Groundhog Day ( pdc, Grund'sau dåk, , , ; Nova Scotia: Daks Day) is a popular North American tradition observed in the United States and Canada on February 2. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges fr ...

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of e ...

produced by

Rankin/Bass Productions Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usua ...

. It was directed by

Jules Bass Julius Bass (September 16, 1935 – October 25, 2022) was an American director, producer, lyricist, composer, and author. Until 1960, he worked at a New York advertising agency, and then co-founded the film production company Videocraft Internat ...

and

Arthur Rankin, Jr. Arthur Gardner Rankin Jr. (July 19, 1924 – January 30, 2014) was an American director, producer and writer, who mostly worked in animation. Co-creator of Rankin/Bass Productions with his friend Jules Bass, he created stop-motion animation ...

, written by

Romeo Muller Romeo Earl Muller, Jr. (August 7, 1928 – December 30, 1992) was an American screenwriter and actor most remembered for his screenplays for the Rankin/Bass holiday specials including ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Little Drummer Boy ...

, narrated by

Buddy Hackett Buddy Hackett (born Leonard Hacker; August 31, 1924 – June 30, 2003) was an American actor, comedian and singer. His best remembered roles include Marcellus Washburn in ''The Music Man'' (1962), Benjy Benjamin in ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Wo ...

, and starring the voices of

Robert Morse Robert Alan Morse (May 18, 1931 – April 20, 2022) was an American actor, who starred in ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (musical), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'', both the 1961 original Broadway production ...

, Debra Clinger, and

Paul Frees Solomon Hersh "Paul" Frees (June 22, 1920November 2, 1986) was an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and vaudevillian. He is known for his work on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Walter Lantz, Rankin/Bass, and Walt Disney theatrical cartoons during ...

. The special premiered on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

on December 13, 1979, and tells the tale of

Jack Frost Jack Frost is a personification of frost, ice, snow, sleet, winter, and freezing cold. He is a variant of Old Man Winter who is held responsible for frosty weather, nipping the fingers and toes in such weather, coloring the foliage in autumn, ...

and his adventures as a human. It airs annually on AMC as part of its Best Christmas Ever programming block.

Plot

The story is narrated by a

groundhog The groundhog (''Marmota monax''), also known as a woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. The groundhog is a lowland creature of North America; it is found through mu ...

named Pardon-Me-Pete, who has a deal with Jack Frost to extend winter by 6 weeks, letting him sleep that much longer. Pete starts to talk about the legend of Jack Frost. It all starts when Jack Frost, an immortal winter sprite, falls in love with a human girl named Elisa, who proclaims her love for Jack after he rescues her when Kubla Kraus, an evil

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

king who lives in his castle on Miserable Mountain with his iron horse Klangstomper, his clockwork butler Fetch-Kvetch, his army of Keh-Nights, and a

ventriloquist's dummy Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is ve ...

named Dommy as his sidekick, all made of iron since no human or animal could stand to live with him due to his arrogance and greed, cracks the ice she is standing on. Jack asks Father Winter if he can become human in order to be with her. Father Winter gives him a chance but warns that Jack must prove he can succeed as a human, by earning a house, a horse, a bag of gold, and a wife by the first sign of spring. Jack agrees and turns human, assuming the identity of Jack Snip. He runs a tailor shop in the town of January Junction with two friends who also turned human, Snip the snowflake maker and Holly the snow gypsy. Snip and Holly were sent by Father Winter to ensure Jack does not get into trouble. Elisa is charmed by "Jack Snip", but she harbors romantic dreams of Sir Ravenal Rightfellow, a "knight in golden armor". Elisa is soon kidnapped by Kraus and taken to his castle. Kraus also possesses all the brick, gold, and timber that January Junction used to have. After Elisa is rescued by Sir Ravenal, Kraus vows to destroy January Junction by sending one-thousand Keh-Nights in an attempt to recapture his bride and throws Jack, Snip, and Holly in the dungeon. Jack gives up his humanity in order to whip up the biggest blizzard ever, freezing Kraus and his 1,000 Keh-Nights in the castle. Snip and Holly change back to sprites as well. This tactic works until

arrives. As the sky is overcast with no sun to cast shadows, Jack Frost uses his magic shadow to scare Pete back into hibernation, and continues whipping up the storm. Finally, with only 1 hour left before the arrival of spring, Jack returns to human form to stop Kraus by tricking his Keh-Nights into walking off the icy mountain to their destruction by imitating Dommy. Afterward, Jack causes Kraus to fall out of his castle and Father Winter literally blows him far away from Miserable Mountain, leaving Jack to claim the gold for himself; tames Klangstomper, making him his horse; and the castle becomes his house. He races off to ask Elisa's parents for her hand in marriage, but during his absence, she has fallen in love with Sir Ravenal, and he with her. Jack becomes a spirit again for good, and blows ice onto Elisa's wedding bouquet, turning it white. When asked about the change, she sheds a tear saying "An old friend just kissed the bride." Snip calls out to Jack that winter wouldn't be the same without him. Before heading back to sleep, Pete says that Jack Frost still plays his tricks on him to ensure that there are 6 more weeks of winter, but he doesn't mind because he enjoys the extra sleep.

Voice cast

as Jack Frost *

as Pardon-Me-Pete * Debra Clinger as Elisa *

as Father Winter, Kubla Kraus *

Dave Garroway David Cunningham Garroway (July 13, 1913 – July 21, 1982) was an American television personality. He was the founding host and anchor of NBC's ''Today'' from 1952 to 1961. His easygoing and relaxing style belied a lifelong battle with depressi ...

as Groundhog Day Reporter * Dina Lynn as Holly *

Sonny Melendrez Sonny Melendrez (born 1946) is an American radio and TV personality, motivational speaker and author. Biography Melendrez was born in Silver City, New Mexico. Twice named ''Billboard'' Magazine's "Radio Personality of the Year", he is include ...

as Sir Ravenal Rightfellow *

Don Messick Donald Earle Messick (September 7, 1926 – October 24, 1997) was an American voice actor. He was best known for his performances in Hanna-Barbera cartoons. His best-remembered vocal creations include Scooby-Doo, Bamm-Bamm Rubble and Hoppy in ...

as Snip * Larry Storch as Papa * Dee Stratton as Mama

Crew

* Produced and Directed by

and

* Written by

* Music and Lyrics by

Maury Laws Maury Laws (December 6, 1923 – March 28, 2019) was an American television and film composer from Burlington, North Carolina. Biography In his teens, Laws performed in local country, jazz and dance bands as a singer and guitarist in his home st ...

and Jules Bass * Design: Paul Coker, Jr. * Associate Producer: Masaki Iizuka * "Animagic" Production Supervisors: Akikazu Kono, Ichiro Komuro, Hiroshi Tabata, Seiichi Araki * Sound Recording: John Curcio, Dave Iveland, Glenn Berger, Robert Elder * Sound Effects: Tom Clack * Music Arranged and Conducted by Maury Laws © 1979 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.

Home media

The licensing for ''Jack Frost'' was relatively lax for many years and as early as the early 1990s, independent discount home video distributors produced VHS (and later DVD) copies from

16 mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, edu ...

prints. The special did not, as occasionally stated, lapse into the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...

; the

Copyright Act of 1976 The Copyright Act of 1976 is a United States copyright law and remains the primary basis of copyright law in the United States, as amended by several later enacted copyright provisions. The Act spells out the basic rights of copyright holders, cod ...

had taken effect by the time the special was published, which granted Rankin/Bass and its successors automatic copyrights of 75 years, and the program had a valid copyright notice to begin with. In the fall of 2008, Warner Bros. via Warner Home Video (owners of the post-September 1974

Rankin/Bass Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usual ...

library) re-released the special as an "official version" on DVD, using a digitally remastered 35 mm print as the master.

References

External links