Not a winter passes without some Rankin/Bass studio creation airing (most notably, Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer). It has been over 40 years since these classics were first shown, but they still manage to capture our hearts and the holiday season even to this day. Jack Frost is one Rankin/Bass classic that has not shared as much of the spotlight as the others, but is now slowly emerging to the forefront of holiday tales.
Jack Frost opens with the story of the renowned groundhog, Pardon-Me-Pete (voiced by Buddy Hackett). Even on cloudy days he still somehow manages to see his shadow. The story reveals that Pete’s shadow is secretly tied to the magic of Jack Frost (voiced by Robert Morse) and the extra six weeks of winter. To unravel how this came about, Pete then takes the viewer back in time to explain the inner workings of winter as we know it. One of the key players is Jack Frost himself, who having seen the beautiful Elisa (voiced by Debra Clinger) declaring her love for “Jack Frost” (she means winter itself) instantly falls in love with her and wishes to become human. After some convincing, Father Winter (voiced by Paul Frees) decides to give Jack a shot at being mortal under the condition that before the next spring he must secure himself a house, a horse, a bag of gold, and a wife. If Jack can manage to gather these necessary components of humanity, he can be a human forever.
Once transformed, Jack finally gets to interact with Elisa. After convincing her that he is a tailor, she takes Jack to January Junction where the happy but extremely poor citizens are celebrating the coming winter as best as they can. These peaceful citizens suffer at the hands of Kubla Kraus the Cossack king (also voiced by Paul Frees), his mechanical horse, and his army of mechanical guards. Kubla Kraus’ human soldiers had long since abandoned him due to his ill-tempered manner. The story picks up when the evil Cossack king sees Elisa and kidnaps her, deciding to have her as his queen. Jack then teams up with some old friends and a knight in golden armor to go and rescue her. Without giving too much away for anyone who has not seen Jack Frost yet, the story shows the true sacrifice one will make for those that they care about. To learn the true secret of how all of this ties into the groundhog’s shadow, you need to see the rest of this Rankin/Bass production yourself.
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