Frosty the Snowman: The Return of the Magical Snow

Frosty the Snowman: The Return of the Magical Snow (also known as The Legend of Frosty the Snowman) is a unofficial late 2005 American/Canadian direct-to-video animated film produced by Classic Media and Studio B Productions. This movie has also been bundled with the original 1969 Rankin/Bass special and the CBS Entertainment Productions prequel. Narrated and sung by Evan Gore, with veteran actor/voice artist Bill Fagerbakke in the role of Frostcalucis' younger brother; Frosty Jr.

Plot (Story)
Frostcalucis and Crystal celebrate their wedding anniversary through the years with Millie and Chilly at The North Pole. Santa Claus (voiced by John Goodman) presents Frosty with a magic locket. The party is interrupted by Mr. Hank Pankley (voiced by Larry Miller), who dreams of taking over the entire town with and no any kind of fun allowed. Froscalucis, fearing Hank Pankley (who after disappears by a blizzard), decides that, he will have to withhold all knowledge of the wintry world and his heritage from his family and his newborn younger brother; Frosty Jr. in order to protect him not only from Hank Pankley, but also from melting.

Years passed, descending on the picture perfect town of Evergreen, Frosty (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke), grown into a young snowman, remaining unaware of his brother's heritage, first reveals himself to Tommy Tinkerton (voiced by Kath Soucie), the son of the town’s impossibly upbeat but no-nonsense mayor, Mr. Tinkerton (voiced by Tom Kenny). Tommy dares not to accept Frosty’s invitation to play outside in the snow, because he’s afraid of disappointing his father.

However, he has been sneaking out of the massive wall of The North Pole regularly to enjoy the snow most of his life, and back home soon, Frostcalucis begins making many his excuses to himself, much to his refusal to answer his brother's questions. Furious, Frosty Jr. confronts his brother, smashing his pendent into pieces and runs away from home to learn the meaning of true magic and friendship.

Back at Evergreen, Frosty Jr., feeling calm afterwards but little upset at his brother, meets Hank Pankley, who is now hired as a school principal and reveals that his background is marine. Santa Claus prepares search parties, and is convinced by a worried Frostcalucis to use Queen Borealis' magic to transform him back into his original form in order to help in the search for his brother. Frostcalucis searches Evergreen for Frosty Jr., regretting not sharing his heritage with him, while Frosty Jr., refusing to come back home, befriends Tommy’s best friend, Walter Wader (voiced by Kenn Michael), who shocks everyone, especially his very strict mother, by breaking curfew and flying, sledding, and snowball-fighting with him.

The next day, Walter’s rule-breaking gets all the kids of Evergreen talking, but it greatly upsets Principal Pankley, feeling even more adamantly opposed to magic than Mr. Tinkerton. Principal Pankley uses the arrival of Frosty Jr. to sow doubts among the townspeople about Mayor Tinkerton’s leadership, and little by little he begins to take over the town.

But once magic is stirred up, it isn’t easily contained. One by one, Frosty wins over the other kids of Evergreen, including Tommy's older brother, Charles, Tommy's love interest, Sara Simple (voiced by Tara Strong) and the triplets, Sonny, Sully, and Simon Sklarow. Frosty Jr. befriends each of them through the simple means of believing in them, which inspires them to begin to believe in themselves.

Increasingly desperate to deny the existence of Frosty Jr. and keep Evergreen fun-free, Principal Pankley tricks Walter Wader into helping him lure Frosty Jr. for some ice-skating fun, then trying to trick Frosty Jr. into venturing onto thin ice. Before Walter can save his friend, Frostcalucis, noticing the thin ice, rushes over, shoving Frosty Jr. out of the ice, falls through and melts, and Principal Pankley captures his hat, which is the key to his magic. Frosty Jr. feels awful at himself for refusing to listen to his brother, having been angered by his decision to lie to him, not understanding about melting (until he finds out now) and frighteningly accepts to be Pankley's slave, much to Walter's heart-wrenched.

As all of this unfolds, Tommy Tinkerton, who was the first one to whom Frosty Jr. appeared, has been sitting on the sidelines, watching his best friend, his brother, and his love interest experiencing adventure and magic in which he could share. But he has held back, even though he yearns to meet Frosty Jr., out of loyalty to his dad (because he knows his dad would disapprove of him acknowledging the existence of magic).

All this time, Tommy has held back from befriending Frosty Jr. out of loyalty to his dad, who has always told Tommy not to believe in magic. But now Tommy sees that Frostcalucis has been melted after saving Frosty Jr.'s life. And Tommy realizes that the most loyal thing he can do is not to hide from magic, but to help his dad rediscover that magic is indeed real.

That night, Tommy, with a reformed Charlie, Sara, Walter, and the Sklarow triplets, breaks the lock with a thick ice block, freeing Frosty Jr. and, refusing to let Principal Pankley's dream to be grant, leads a huge daring rescue of Frostcalucis' hat in which all the kids help out—including Frosty Jr., who now understands the truth about melting. A climactic series of scenes follows in which Principal Pankley tries and fails to recapture the hat, then tries to deter the townspeople (including Mr. Tinkerton) from going into the woods to see what all the ruckus and noise are about. But Mr. Tinkerton refuses to be deterred, and Tommy is able to reintroduce his dad to the old friend (Frosty Jr.), who Mr. Tinkerton had long since stopped believing in.

Meanwhile, the other parents are confused and angry: why are their kids out at night? And can this magical snowman they’ve been hearing about be real after all? Principal Pankley tries to stir them up to regain control of the situation, but Walter Wader breaks the spell by throwing a snowball at Principal Pankley. Frosty Jr. finally reunites Frostcalucis and apologizes to him for not listening to him, but Frostcalucis however says that he was the one who should have told him the truth and was given his brother a second chance. And one by one, the other kids and parents join in, until Evergreen, which had forgotten how to have fun, gives itself over joyously to a “snowball-fighting, horseplaying, lark of a good time.”

A brief epilogue shows us Evergreen transformed—with Mr. Tinkerton doing magic tricks, Charlie playing football, Tommy skateboarding, and Sara reading a book about magic. Back at The North Pole, Frosty Jr. uses his magic to disintegrate the wall separating his home from the wintry world, reuniting the humans and the snowpeople—including Jack Frost.

All along, the story has been narrated (à la “Our Town”) by a warm, wise, seemingly omniscient old man who appears periodically and comments on the events unfolding in Evergreen. In the final scene of the movie,it is revealed that the narrator is Tommy, all grown up and now married to Sara; and he has been telling the audience his own story.

Voice Casts

 * Dom DeLuise as Frostcalucis
 * Jodi Benson as Crystal/Queen Borealis
 * Bill Fagerbakke as Frosty Jr.
 * John Goodman as Santa Claus/The Traffic Cop
 * Evan Gore as Narrator/Paperboy
 * Grey DeLisle as Miss Sharpey/Simon Sklarow/Sullivan Sklarow
 * Jeannie Elias as Charlie Tinkerton, Librarian
 * David Jeremiah as Professor Hinkle/Mr. Simple/Mr. Sklarow
 * Tom Kenny as Mr. Tinkerton
 * Tress MacNeille as Mrs. Simple/Girl #1
 * Kenn Michael as Walter Wader
 * Larry Miller as Principal Pankley
 * Candi Milo as Mrs. Tinkerton/Girl #2/Karen
 * Kath Soucie as Chily/Tommy Tinkerton/Young Mr. Tinkerton/Old Sara Simple
 * Tara Strong as Millie/Sara Simple/Sonny Sklarow
 * Vernee Watson-Johnson as Mrs. Wader