Hooked to the Silver Screen I The Snowman (1982)

I am re-upping this (slightly revised) post from about a year ago for what should be obvious reasons…

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The Snowman is a short, animated British Christmas special that initially seems to have nothing to do with David Bowie—except that he introduces it and suggests that the lead animated character represents Bowie, or Bowie’s persona, as a child.

Adopting his warmest, most accessible Let’s Dance-era appearance, Bowie shows the audience a distinctive scarf he acquired from a “real snowman,” before the live-action introduction shifts to an especially artistic animation. We hear Bowie’s voice speak one more sentence of stage-setting, then the main film begins.

The cartoon features no dialogue but tells its story through very well-done animated images and its musical score. A boy, who seems to have no friends and with whom adults don’t want to play, makes a snowman that comes to life at night on Christmas Eve. Or did he? There’s certainly the implication that the boy dreamt what follows. The snowman comes into the boy’s house, plays with him, then takes to flight and carries the boy to—presumably—the North Pole, where he meets Santa Claus and a village of living snow people. It’s there that Santa (not the snowman) gives the boy the scarf that Bowie first showed us in the introduction. Then the snowman takes the boy back, and the boy goes to sleep. When the boy wakes up, the snowman is gone, but he still has the scarf.

Are we meant to think this was all a dream? At one point, a young girl sees the flying snowman with the boy while looking out her window, thinking about Santa. And of course, the boy did end up with a scarf. So, on the movie’s own terms, I think there’s supposed to be some ambiguity about what actually happened. But overall, I think the point is about the power of imagination.

This short movie is apparently very popular in Britain and considered a classic there. It struck me as poignant and slightly melancholy. The music had a sad undercurrent and, despite its gentle tone, seems to have been about a lonely, neglected little boy.

Apparently, the movie was originally created without Bowie. Bowie’s short introduction adds an element that, on the one hand, was probably a meaningless device to work one of the biggest rock stars of the day into a children’s Christmas special to attract more viewers. On another level, the contrast between the live-action Bowie and the rest of the film being a cartoon further evokes imagination—if the story really is about the Bowie character’s childhood memory, it’s a distorted memory that conflates a boyhood dream with actual recollection. So, on that level, Bowie’s part underscores the theme of the power of imagination.

I found the whole thing pleasant, but at 54 years old*, I’m really not the target audience. While I can appreciate this as a beloved children’s TV special, it didn’t hold my attention as much at this stage in my life.

So, was this a good use of Bowie? Sure. Why not? He didn’t detract from the rest of the show, and his part added a dimension that wouldn’t have otherwise been there. It didn’t need to be David Bowie playing this part, but Bowie wasn’t distracting. Further, since Bowie’s songs often confuse the literal with the metaphorical, and since a common thread of his various personas was an otherworldliness, Bowie probably made more sense than a generic actor. So, yes, this was a good use of Bowie.

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Rating: I think this one gets a firm three out of four Bowies. I understand that its considered a classic in Britain, and it does what it does pretty well, but since I didn’t see it as a child it held no nostalgic value for me and, as I mentioned, though I could appreciate its craftsmanship, I was a little bored. So, well done but not as special and unique as, say, Labyrinth.

🧑‍🎤👩🏿‍🎤👨‍🎤

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* I was 54 when I originally wrote this, but am 55 as I re-post it in 2024.