| The First Snow of Winter | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Graham Ralph |
| Produced by | Jackie Edwards Claire Derry (executive producer) David Hamilton (executive producer) Theresa Plummer-Andrews (executive producer) |
| Written by | Graham Ralph Alan Gilbey David Freedman |
| Starring | Miriam Margoyles Dermot Morgan Tim Curry Kate Sachs Sorcha Cusack Neil McCaul |
| Music by | Tolga Kashif The Music Sculptors Mark Sayer-Wade |
| Country | United Kingdom United States |
| Language | English |
| Original channel | British Broadcasting Corporation The Disney Channel |
| Release date | December 25, 1998 (United Kingdom) |
The First Snow of Winter is an animated television film produced by Hibbert Ralph Entertainment and Link Entertainment and first aired on the BBC on December 25, 1998 It features the voices of Miriam Margoyles, Dermot Morgan, Kate Sachs, Sorcha Cusack, and Neil McCaul.
On a winter day in Ireland, a young white duck named Sean (Miriam Margoyles), and his puffin friend named Puffin (Kate Sachs), are chasing seagulls, only to run into a vicious fox. After escaping from the fox, they find Sean's mother (Sorcha Cusack) telling them it is time to get ready for flying. Sean bids farewell to Puffin for spring. Sean's father (Neil McCaul) is late in arriving because he forgot his whistle. Sean and his family then take off flying at the same time a plane is about to depart. Meanwhile, Sean spots some doves while flying behind his family and wants to play. He ends up getting lost in a cloud cover only to find a plane leaving his wing clipped by the wing of the plane. After that, he falls from the sky landing in the water while his mother realizes he got lost and goes to look for him, leaving the father with his two smaller siblings.
After falling from the plane and into the river, Sean makes it out of the water and rain begins. While wandering around, he meets up with a wise brown rodent named Voley (Dermot Morgan, and later Tim Curry after his death), who has some techniques he tries to assist in getting Sean into the sky to catch up with his family. None of them work, but Voley tells some tales about being an astronaut and having a story in the newspapers about him once. Sean tells Voley he did not get all the newspapers.
Meanwhile, Sean’s mother is looking around the water hole Sean was just at. She spots the fox and sees two white feathers and assumes the fox got ahold of Sean. She feels at fault and goes off to find her family in the sky.
Voley tells Sean that music is grass, showing him how to hold the grass, fill his cheeks and blow. Next the two are dancing to the flute music with a herd of lambs behind them. All of a sudden, the music stops and the lambs leave due to the first snow flake falling down from the sky. This tickles Sean who has never seen snow before and thinks he and Voley will wait for spring together. Voley then walks over to a tree and starts poking fun at the squirrels up above which results in nuts and berries being thrown down from the tree. Voley snatches them up telling Sean this will be his food for the winter. Then he rides on the lambs gathering wool to keep Sean warm for the winter. Sean asks Voley if he is a good duck since his parents did not come back for him, but before they get to discuss further, the fox appeared chasing them around.
They happen upon an old ship where they spend the night. Voley wants to sleep for the winter in his burrow in the ground, but Sean states he cannot survive without Voley: "I could sleep for ages if you told me a very boring bedtime story". Voley comes back with a funny line, "You’d only be up every hour on the hour asking for a glass of water". Before Voley leaves he tells Sean to look for the lambs since they are the first sign of spring arriving. A windy snowstorm arrives with Sean settling in a boot left behind in the snow.
The next morning, Sean has a difficult time getting around in the snow with his webbed feet and spots something in the snow. Puffin got lost in the cloud cover also and is frozen stiff. Sean then drags Puffin back to the boat sharing his nuts and berries and teaching Puffin how to play music with the grass.
One morning, Sean takes a peek out of the boot to come face to face with a lamb. The signal for spring and the two ducks go off to a spot to look and wait for their families to come back. Before the ducks get a chance to search they run into the fox again only this time Sean bites his nose. Sean and Puffin run onto the ship but are cornered by the fox. Out of nowhere comes Voley in on a rope saying he awoke and needed some exercise after his long rest. The fox then grabs Voley with his mouth and tosses him to another side of the ship.
The fox comes after Sean chasing him off the ship where the only place to go is the water. While Sean is sliding down the hill to land in the water, he realizes he can fly thus escaping the fox, who tumbles into the water.
So happy in outsmarting the fox, Sean flies over to the ship to tell Voley who is still laying in the spot the fox tossed him. Voley assures Sean that he knew all he had to do was flap his feet and he would make it. Puffin then spots his family in the sky arriving home and calls out to them. Sean’s parents are again last to arrive due to the father forgetting his whistle. The flute music plays while Sean is reunited with his family. Then Voley asks Sean in his British accent: "Don’t you just love a happy ending?" Sean and Voley dance to the music and Sean mentions to Voley that next year he will have to find another dance partner.