12/18/2007

A Pagan Frosty

I find this frosty the snowman animation a bit disturbing. It's obvious after the first scene that this isn't just any frost video. This video is designed to showcase the culmination of some sort of pagan celebration wherein a snow sculpture is animated and set loose to wreak havoc upon an unsuspecting world. Watch the video and see what you think:


Did you note the young pagans dancing and chanting around their creation as they bring it to life? Did you note that by connecting the "dots" represented by the boys and by the girls, a pentacle is produced? Did you see the soulless black eyes on the newly-animated beast? Did you note the way that the coven circles the town square containing a cannon (representing firearms) and the barren tree (representing burning of witches at the stake)? Did you notice how they cheered upon circling them, indicating that their magic made them impervious to such dangers? Did you shudder in fear as Frosty was released into the wilds at the end of this short? Released to build more undead snowmen, and eventually, to crush those who oppose the coven when he comes "back again someday"? I did.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think it's a great retro clip.
The whole pagan analysis is a bit paranoid from my perspective.
Soulless black eyes? I believe they are supposed to be two peices of coal such as little kids back in the day might find. Dancing around the cannon?
Well, in many small towns of the day it was common to have a memorial in a park with a statue of a cannon commemorating our past history(gettysburg,the storming of a garrison by so&so, etc...). I think from an artists perspective it was much easier to scale back all the details of the town. Early animation was an incredibly labor intensive process-no computers to reproduce scenes-if understand it correctly each moment was drawn by hand.
The kids dancing in a circle, possibly pagan, the pentacle I missed completely.
But Fishmonger guy, I guess the point I want to make is this...
children have great imaginations and have always invented ways to bring life(affirm, create)and joy into the world. If it's not a snowman its pretending they are Alex Rodriguez in their backyards, or Steve Nash on the Basketball courts, or playing with dolls and dollhouses. I don't believe this phenomena to be Pagan, Christian, Muslim,...but rather a human event that children of all cultures exhibit.

I enjoyed your website-nicely put together-and judging from all the pictures of children(relations of yours I'm guessing)you must have much to value and cherish. Just an opinion. Best to you and yours.

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