There really isn't much to this early 70s Disney flick featuring Dean Jones and his family moving to Colorado to operate a hotel they have just inherited. Poor Dean Jones! I certainly hope the folks at Disney kept him well paid and provided every amenity he desired in his trailer at this and every shoot. Always asked to play the same character for the same audience, one would think he would have been very tired of it by then. He does play a likable character though.Though filled with some good skiing and snowmobile stunts, you don't have to look hard to spot the stunt doubles. The close shots are just the actors in a studio with a snowy backdrop behind them as they act like they are skiing down a mountain or about to fall off a snowmobile. This makes the film look VERY dated, as does the opening sequence in an office building. There are some decent other actors in this film. Keenan Wynn gives as good a performance as his character deserves, and Harry Morgan lets a shaggy beard do the acting in his pre-MASH days. Johnny Whitaker has a couple funny lines and good moments in his pre-crack pipe days, too.The plot deals mostly with the family inheriting the hotel and then trying to fight off the attempts of a shady banker (Wynn) from stealing the rights to it from them. It may not be a great film, but something about it made me look it up after all these years. Maybe it was that cool hybrid snowmobile that Jones uses in the race? Hard to say. 5 of 10 stars.The Hound.

there's are certainly a few amusing moments here,and i think i laughed pretty hard twice.overall,though,i thought it would be funnier than it was.it's still entertaining,and it's suitable for the whole family.there's no crude,lewd or potty humour.i think the DVD is missing a bit of footage from the version i viewed on TV way back.there's one hysterical scene that's missing.it's a very memorable scene.too.if you're looking to pass 93 minutes of your time,this movie will certainly do the trick.and who knows,you may even find it drop dead funny.it all depends on your taste.for me,The Snowball Express is a 5/10

We still watch this movie often and still laugh a lot at it. It's one of our favorites. We still often joke about the name on the snowmobile. Does anyone know where the hotel scene was shot and if the hotel still stands? Was it built for the movie? Was it in the Crested Butte area? We visited Crested Butte today, and yes, it looks quite a bit different from the movie. I also wonder if the scenes at the bank were shot in this area or in a studio. I agree with other posts that Harry Morgan was superb. The look on his face when he talked about getting the skiers in where it was warm was absolutely priceless. Keenan Wynn was a great conniving heavy in his role, and Mary Wickes perfect as his secretary.

Just a couple of comments about Snowball Express. Call it "trivia" if you like. The movie was filmed in Crested Butte, Colorado. I lived half-way between Crested Butte and Gunnison, CO at a place called Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery. I lived there as a kid when the movie was made. My best memory of the movie being made was the scene where Wally (Michael McGreevey) gets stuck in the tree on the cliff and Dean Jones comes to rescue him. This was actually filmed on a cliff along Highway 135 north of Almont, CO about halfway to Crested Butte. I know this because it was right across the highway from Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery and we watched the scene being filmed. As I recall it took a number of days to film the scene and it required traffic to be stopped for each take as the cliff was right over the highway. (This cliff is now gone as the highway has been re-aligned.) In a brief moment in the scene you can see the buildings of Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery where my dad worked. As another trivia bit, I can remember the snow mobile was on display for the open of the movie in the local Gunnison theater.See part of this movie made was great fun a kid growing up there. I recently bought a DVD of the movie and my kids now love it. Of course, they are very interested to see the old Crested Butte I knew as a kid and they especially like the "cliff rescue" scene.