I watched this with bated breath. I couldn't wait to hear the classic musical score again. I couldn't wait to be transferred back in time like the guy eating Ratatouille in the movie Ratatouille. And then it started. The total ruination. The total hijacking of a masterpiece and a substitution with modern drivel, tripe. Idiocracy at work. It saddens me that we want our nostalgia for simpler times to be edited away. That we should make new memories of us being crammed into cities and lose our awe for the northern lights and instead want to see a giant Ferris wheel that costs 25 quid in the long line. The father has been subtracted out to show a modern shattered family? Not sure. And now we have a death of a pet in a children's tale? And the house went from halcyonic, simple-life, low impact countryside to crammed into a foul city where humans are grown and stored under oppressive oligarchical collectivists, pan national corporations and vile banks?I pine for the days when our nostalgia was for a purer, simpler time, not this modern rubbish drivel.I am aghast at the denigration and devolution that has been going on in such a short time.

Did the classic film The Snowman need a sequel? The answer for me is probably no but in Christmas 2012 came this inevitable sequel in which roughly the same thing happens only this time with the addition of a dog.It isn't bad though don't get me wrong and if you bought the DVD box-set with both films in you probably wouldn't be disappointed. In years to come people might be just as nostalgic about 'Snowman 2' as it will end up being called as they are the original. The pencil drawing is lovely and it has the same feel as the original though the new piece of flight music is going to take some time to grow on me.Overall a well made heartfelt sequel but I do hope the makers stop now before we have a 'Snowman and the snowgirl' or some other rehash that tarnishes what up to now has been two quality films.

I was all ready to dismiss this film before I'd even watching it; the critics were lukewarm and it didn't feel like there was much excitement for the film compared to some of the more modern family fare – but it was Christmas and nostalgia and tradition has a place and it is this place that this short film made sure it settled. The film does work but it must be said that it almost works despite itself and it shows how good the construct of the original film was by virtue of the fact that this is what still stands up even with a different façade plastered over it.The film starts with a rather obvious device of a dog's pet dying – it is sudden and sentimental and it jarred me by its simplicity. When the dog finds the snowman's gear you already know where it is going and it follows this path all the way to end which doesn't quite have the impact of joy and sadness that the film wanted to have. Along the way though the film works by virtue of doing the same as it did before but with some details changed. We get the soaring flight and North Pole meeting all playing out under some reasonably effective music – it is cheering and warming and it helps that it is animated in the same way as the original film. That said, it also hinders it a little because it is so close to the original in tone and style that it really brings nothing of note to the table of its own – apart from the dog of the title (I wish I had a dollar for every household that made the joke "snow dog is better than no dog" when this was on).The ending plays out the same way as the original and, just like the original film, the credits pile in on top of the moment like it is trying to beat the traffic; it would have had more impact if left to breathe for a minute first. Despite the negatives though, I still really liked it and had a bit of a lump in the throat at one point and found the music and animation and delivery to work on a level that was high enough to be met halfway by my nostalgia. It does need to be met there though, because it doesn't bring much new to the film and it does feel like it is afraid to take even a step away from the original film – and for good reason.It isn't brilliant and it won't replace the original film, but it is warming and mostly works – expect it to become a fixture every year just like the original Snowman.

It's amazing to me the way a small half-hour animation from over 30 years ago came to have such a massive impact and became such an integral part of the Christmas spirit for so many people, and now a new sequel gets to carry on the joy... I really liked this, I thought it was very sweet and heartwarming. I was very impressed by how well they managed to duplicate the look and style of the original, yet subtly bring the setting up to modern times. Things were modernised, yet at the same time stayed true to the classic formula. Although I found it to be fairly good all the way through, it was slow-paced and patchy at times, and I thought the song "Light the Night" was a very poor choice, as it was most lame and corny and didn't even come close to the bittersweet magic of "Walking in the Air". I'm glad they didn't opt to go with the 1982 song again though. That would have been just a little too much history repeating. It was really nice to see the snowman again, like being reunited with an old friend. Such a warm character, perhaps a tad ironic, when you consider what he's actually made of! My favourite feature of the snowman was always the funny tangerine nose, and I loved how the snowdog carried on the tradition with the single orange seg that he had for a nose - supercute! I of course felt differently when I was a kid, but now I don't get why it's supposed to be so utterly tragic when the snowman melts away in the original animation. I know it's symbolic of death, and childhood's end and everything, but the snowman in a sense is winter, and winter can only pass, but he'll always come back next year, so it ain't so bad. At least that is how I like to look at it. Of course it's a shadow of the first one, how could it ever not be? People never like sequels to great things, and this had a heck of a lot to live up to. But that's no reason at all not to give this worthy little gem a chance. The final twist was what truly made it special for me. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will just say that the classic phrase about a dog not being just for Christmas never rang truer. A certain way of reaching the hearts of human beings is through their dogs... I didn't think the addition of the Snowdog was mere fluff, I thought that the minor character added a little emotional depth, but in a different way because some of the themes, in a rather emotionally powerful way, played into people's love of their dogs. The final image is very moving and poignant, and echoes well the original sentiments, but in a significantly different, and lesser way. The ending was sad, but the impact was blunted considerably by what happens - so compared to the original I think it's a bit mild and something of a sweetened fable. It was very well done and evoked just the right amount of emotion without feeling forced. And it did make me all misty-eyed, but probably not for the reason it was supposed to. It was the element of the dog, reminded me of our own who we lost several years ago just before Christmas. We loved that dog. The earlier animation has more than stood the test of time and I'm sure this will too, I just don't see it ever being considered as timeless or special, nor does it quite rival it for charm. But regardless, it's sure to become a classic in its own right and a familiar, well-loved festive staple on some TV channel somewhere every Christmas - and I hope it does, it truly deserves to be, because I thought overall that it was sweet and brilliant.