Frosty Returns

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This 1992 half-hour special is not truly a sequel to the 1969 classic Frosty the Snowman, as it was produced not by Rankin-Bass but by CBS. The characters, setting, and voices are different and the animation (by veteran Peanuts director Bill Melendez) is vastly different. However, it is commonly billed as the sequel to the 1969 classic, shown back-to-back with Frosty each Christmas season on CBS and has been bundled on DVD with the R-B original.

Jonathan Winters - in anthropomorphic cartoon form - narrates and John Goodman provides the voice of Frosty.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Frosty (voiced by John Goodman) arrives in the town of Beansboro and meets young Holly DeCarlo (voiced by Elisabeth Moss). Meanwhile, evil Mr. Twitchell (the mayor) (voiced by Brian Doyle-Murray) is the inventor of "Summer Wheeze", an aerosol spray that instantly melts snow. The town of Beansboro falls head over heels for it. Frosty is concerned about his safety and Holly is concerned about the environmental impact of the untested product (this is true, as aerosols release fluorocarbons into the atmosphere, which deplete the ozone layer) Holly gets Frosty to appear at the annual Beansboro Winter Carnival to persuade the townspeople to rethink their newfound hatred of snow. Explaining the joy of winter to the town, Frosty is declared king of the carnival, a title that Mr. Twitchell had hoped to win thanks to Summer Wheeze. Holly and Frosty, however, allow Mr. Twitchell to still wear the cape and ride the sled of the carnival king.

The plot of this particular special is markedly more political than its predecessors and successors, alluding to climate change, environmentalism, and corporate enterprise. The program also uses more political correctness than the other Frosty specials; for instance, instead of a Christmas celebration, the term "winter carnival" is used.