Produced five years after “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by the same producers, “Frosty the Snowman” aired on television in 1969. One of only five Christmas specials produced in the 1960s still airing today, “Frosty the Snowman” was created with traditional cel animation, which uses layers and many drawings to bring characters to life.
Describing the origin story of the talking snowman, the movie includes interesting characters such as an inept magician who cannot perform tricks to save his life, although he does have a magic hat that is used to bring Frosty to life, and a talking rabbit. Unlike Rudolph, this movie portrays Santa as the benevolent old man that everyone is familiar with.
Instead, the movie’s villain is the magician whose hat is the one used to bring Frosty to life. The magician, Hinkle, is hired to perform for the children at the elementary school, but fails miserably. However, his hat is actually magical, which causes both his rabbit to be able to talk and Frosty to come to life. Hinkle then snatches his hat back and prepares to leave, although his rabbit brings it back to the kids to reanimate Frosty.
The only problem with Frosty is that the kids technically stole the hat from its rightful owner, who spends the entirety of the movie attempting to get his hat back. Hinkle begins chasing Frosty