The original 1979 Rankin/Bass classic Jack Frost is back in this remastered deluxe edition DVD just in time for the holidays. The story is told from narrator Pardon-Me-Pete, the groundhog’s memory. Jack is, of course, in charge of the winter weather around the world. One fateful winter day as he visits the town of January Junction, he overhears a beautiful girl named Elisa say that she loves Jack Frost. What Jack doesn’t realize is that she probably means winter weather, but undeterred, Jack cuts a deal to gets changed into a human to try to woo the young maiden.

This is a great animated classic. I mean, who doesn’t love jerky claymation from their childhood? I hadn’t seen this before and I was pleasantly surprised. Although I am a huge Rankin/Bass fan, I was skeptical that this would be up to par with my favorite classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It wasn’t quite as good as Rudolph, but frankly, not much is.

But the songs are good and characters are great. The best was the mechanical army of the evil Kubla Kraus; I could say more, but I don’t want to give the story away. The animation was great -- as I said, it doesn’t get any better than old school stop-motion animation, but the story was what really made this a classic. What was so great about this story is that it’s one that was completely made up by Rankin/Bass. It wasn’t a familiar tale that we all knew the ending to beforehand; there is even a twist at the end that I never saw coming, which was actually a nice surprise. Most animation shows such as this typically have a predictable ending.

This is definitely going on my shelf next to my other Rankin/Bass classic DVDs. Be sure and get it this holiday season.

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