Entertainment
The Snowman animators celebrate 40 years of the ultimate Christmas classic: ‘It’s just full of mistakes!’-Ruth Lawes-Entertainment – Metro
How many times have you watched The Snowman?
Hilary Audus and Joanna Harrison created The Snowman animation (Picture: Channel 4)
For most families celebrating the festive season, nothing else quite sums up the spirit of Christmas as much as The Snowman.
The 25-minute-long animation follows a young boy, James, as he befriends a genial snowman, before setting off on a series of heartwarming adventures.
After driving through the wintery landscape on a motorbike and flying through the brisk December air, James wakes up the next morning and rushes outside to see if his new pal is waiting for him.
But while the frozen figure has now melted, its scarf is left, with James wrapping it around him, downhearted but reassured the escapade wasn’t a dream.
Originally a children’s book from the late Raymond Briggs, The Snowman was adapted into a word-less animation in 1982 and for four decades (and counting) has captured new generations’ imaginations.
Animators Hilary Audus and Joanna Harrison, who feature in Channel 4’s documentary The Snowman: The Film That Changed Christmas, spoke to Metro.co.uk about being at the helm of the classic.
Hilary said they received a warm response from Raymond Briggs (Picture: Channel 4)
The pair were first tasked with elongating Briggs’ book so there was enough material to produce a film.
One brilliantly festive sequence they added was the Snowman, and his fellow icy friends, meeting Father Christmas, inspired by the author, who had previously written a book about Santa.
On how Briggs responded to the delightful additions, Hilary said: ‘It was all terrific. He kept saying he wished he’d thought of those ideas. So he was very nice about our involvement.’
Joanna confessed there are continuity errors in The Snowman (Picture: Channel 4)
The pair did, however, retain the book’s sad ending but added a more optimistic tweak to end on ‘hope’.
Hilary explained: ‘Raymond would have never approved [the animation if we changed the ending], we would have never have got it made.
Joanna continued: ‘But then we thought the little boy can bring out the scarf at the end and it proves it wasn’t a dream, that it was real And also, it’s that little bit of hope.’
The Snowman debuted on Channel 4 in 1982 (Picture: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)
While Joanna and Hilary were pioneers of animation, developing a ‘shimmering’ technique for the sky that required dozens of illustrations per minute, the duo admit they made ‘lots of continuity mistakes.’
Detailing the faults in the short, Hilary said: ‘When the Snowman looks out of the window at the motorcycle and looks down at the motorcycle in the garden there’s snow on the top of the motorcycle.
‘Then when they go out into the garden, there’s no snow on the motorcycle. That was just a little thing. But there are all those sorts of things all the way through.’
The Snowman has become a Christmas staple (Picture: Tvc/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
‘I think there are two porches on the house one on the front and one on the back,’ Joanna added. ‘And in the flying sequence, [the Snowman’s] got no buttons, then he’s got two, then he’s got one, then he’s got three. It’s just full of mistakes.’
Joanna and Hilary may notice the ‘errors’ but it is safe to say to the untrained eye they are barely noticeable and do not spoil the charm and joy of The Snowman.
The animators were also remarkable for being women in a very male-dominated industry in the early 80s, with the film also directed by the late, and trailblazing, Dianne Jackson
Raymond Briggs was the mastermind behind The Snowman (Picture: WireImage)
Joanna said: ‘Women and animation were quite unusual and then the fact that Diane Jackson directed it, who was brilliant, was really unusual.
‘But there were two films being made in the studio one was about castles so all the men went after working on castles and how they were built and Hilary and I were given what was considered to be a “girl’s film”, a children’s picture book.
‘So he gave it to, as he called it, “the girls”, but weren’t we lucky really at the end of the day? There was sexism but we did also have a lot of fun.’
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While The Snowman has become a Christmas staple, Hilary has confessed she doesn’t watch it every single year in the festive season.
She explained: ‘I must admit I don’t always watch it at Christmas because I’ve seen it so many times. I’m not sick of it but I can miss it at Christmas.’
The Snowman: The Film That Changed Christmas airs tonight at 5pm on Channel 4.
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