| Genre: | Fantasy comedy Supernatural fiction |
| Based On: | "Frosty the Snowman" by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins |
| Director: | Arthur Rankin Jr. Jules Bass |
| Starring: | Dennis Day Paul Frees Jackie Vernon Shelley Winters |
| Narrated: | Andy Griffith |
| Music: | Maury Laws |
| Country: | United States Japan |
| Language: | English |
| Producer: | Arthur Rankin Jr. Jules Bass |
| Cinematography: | Toru Hara Tsuguyuki Kubo |
| Runtime: | 25 minutes |
| Network: | ABC |
Frosty's Winter Wonderland is a 1976 animated Christmas television special and a standalone sequel to the 1969 special Frosty the Snowman, produced by Rankin/Bass Productions[1] and animated by Topcraft. It is the second television special featuring the character Frosty the Snowman. It returns writer Romeo Muller, character designer Paul Coker, Jr., music composer Maury Laws and actor Jackie Vernon as the voice of Frosty, while Andy Griffith stars as the narrator (replacing Jimmy Durante, who had been incapacitated by a stroke three years prior and retired from acting)[2] with the rest of the cast consisting of Shelley Winters, Dennis Day, and Paul Frees. The special premiered on ABC on December 2, 1976.[3]
Years have passed since Frosty left for the North Pole. When he hears about the first snowfall of the season, he decides to return. The children are overjoyed when Frosty comes back to play with them, but then Jack Frost sees the fun that the children are having with Frosty and becomes jealous of him. When he learns about Frosty and his magic hat which brought him to life, he decides to steal it from Frosty so the children will love him more. But that night, while Frosty and the children are ice-skating at a frozen pond, Jack unknowingly captures a horse's hat with his ability to blow snowy winds. Believing it to be Frosty's top hat, he disappears with it.
Despite the fun he has, Frosty feels lonely when the children go home each night. To cheer him up, the children, build him a snow wife to keep him the next day and they name her Crystal, but the group cannot find a way to bring her to life. Late that night, Frosty presents Crystal with a bouquet of frost flowers, and his gift of love brings her to life. Just then, Jack uses a gust of icy wind to blow Frosty's hat off, rendering him lifeless. Crystal makes a corsage out of snow, places it on Frosty's chest and gives him a kiss, bringing him back to life. Befuddled by Frosty's reanimation, Jack throws the hat back onto his head.
Frosty and Crystal run through the town and announce their wedding plans to the children. Parson Brown, the local preacher, assists the children in building a snow parson whom he brings to life with his Bible. When Jack tries to spoil the wedding with a blizzard, Frosty and Crystal reason with him and ask for him to be the best man at the wedding. Jack agrees, and Frosty and Crystal are married.
Frosty, Crystal, and Jack have fun with the children all winter, but they notice the weather is starting to grow warm. Jack uses his powers to extend the winter, but after Parson Brown warns them about the dangers of everlasting snow, the three decide to return to the North Pole. They skate to the train station and bid farewell to the children. Months pass, and the land becomes a winter wonderland again.
Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. ©MCMLXXVI.
The rights to this special are held by Warner Bros. Television Distribution via Telepictures, which used to license the show to Freeform. The latter aired the special annually on its "25 Days of Christmas" marathon.[4] In 2018, AMC took over the license for the special.[5]
Because the ownership of the television rights to the Rankin/Bass library was split into two parts (one including all productions prior to 1974 and one including all productions from that point onward) after the company's dissolution in 1987, Frosty's Winter Wonderland was separated from the original Frosty the Snowman special. The telecast rights to the original are now held by CBS, who produced a companion sequel of its own, Frosty Returns, with a totally different cast, style and production staff.
Frosty's Winter Wonderland was first released on a compilation VHS tape with the 1981 special The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold by Vestron Video's Lightning Video label in 1985. The same double-feature release was also available in Australia in 1989. Warner Home Video/Warner Bros. Family Entertainment (which owned the post-September 1974 Rankin/Bass Productions library via Telepictures) distributed the special for its second VHS release in 1992, and also released it on DVD in 2004 paired with the 1974 special 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. The DVD was re-released in 2011.
In the 1998 Warner Bros. film Jack Frost, Charlie Frost (Joseph Cross) shows his father Jack Frost (Michael Keaton) some scenes from the special while changing television channels.