Snowman and snow dog

The creation of the film took two years, and the production budget amounted to £ 2 million. As for the first film, more than 200 thousand freehand drawings were created for the second part, and more than 3 thousand pencils were spent ^[1] . Computer graphics were used very little, only to depict falling snow and lighting in some scenes ^[2] .

94 people were involved in the production, including 77 artists and animators. Each second of the film consists of twelve frames, the creation of each of which took up to 30 hours ^[3] .

The premiere of the film was preceded by a wide advertising campaign . Along with the film itself, on Christmas Eve a video game was also released on its subject, an electronic audio book, and the soundtrack became available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon ^{[4] [5]} .

The first screening of the film on Channel 4 on December 24, 2012 attracted a huge audience - almost 6 million viewers, which became one of the records for watching TV shows for the year and the largest number of viewers of the Christmas program in more than a decade ^[6] .

The action takes place many years after the first part.

In the summer, a new family enters the house where James used to live - mom and boy Billy with a dog. It can be seen that the space around the house has become more populated, in the neighborhood there are many new houses.

In autumn, a boy and mother bury a dead dog under a tree in the garden.

Winter is coming, Christmas is coming. Billy draws a dog and hides the drawing in an envelope as his wish to Santa Claus for the New Year . Suddenly, one floorboard bounces on the floor of his room, and the boy finds James's cache, in which lies a scarf, hat and a photo of James next to the Snowman . On a walk, the boy decides to make the same snowman, putting him in a scarf and hat, which he found in James's box, and making his nose out of mandarin. However, there is still snow in the cart, and the boy sculpts a snow Dog out of it, making him ears from his multi-colored socks, worn on sticks, and spots on the sides of mittens.

The boy goes to bed, but at midnight he wakes up and looks out the window. He sees that the Snow Dog has moved, and rushes out into the street. Snowman and Snow Dog come to life and begin to play with the boy. They enter the house, however, from the heat of the fireplace, the Dog begins to melt, and everyone goes out into the yard. In the barn, where the motorcycle still stands (which the Snowman rode from the first movie), they take sledges and walk along the street. From one of the windows they are seen by a girl who holds in her hand a toy Snowman from the first film. The Trinity goes to an elevation, which overlooks the city, and takes off.

The snowman, Billy, and the dog are flying through the sky, but the snowman has a mandarin nose and they land to pick it up. In the courtyard of the house is an airplane , and then the trinity continues the journey on it. In flight, they see the famous British buildings below - The Shard Tower, Big Ben Tower, London Eye Ferris Wheel, Mary Ax skyscraper and others. Hundreds of other snowmen are flying next to them in the sky, they are all in a hurry for the holiday.

At the snowman festival, Billy and the dog participate in the general descent from the mountain and win in it, bypassing in the last moment the penguin who was always ahead. A snowman with glasses finds a letter to Billy to Santa Claus and whispers something in his ear. Santa Claus gives Billy a red box that he puts in his pocket. Meanwhile, the dawn is engaged, and the Snowman is rushing Billy, they have to go home.

Upon returning, Billy opens the box and finds a collar there. He puts it on the neck of the Dog, and a miracle happens - the Dog becomes real. Joyful Billy and the Dog go to bed, saying goodbye to the Snowman.

In the morning, Billy and the Dog run out into the yard, but it turns out that the Snowman has melted from the sun. Saddened, they kneel next to the place where his scarf and hat remained.

The music for the film was written by composer Ilan Ashkery, known for his work in the cinema. The music was recorded with the London Metropolitan Orchestra .

Two songs - Light The Night and Hometown , which are heard during the flight of the Snowman and Billy to the North Pole and vice versa, were written and performed by musician Andy Burroughs . They were released as a single on iTunes ^[7] .

Although critics noted the dignity of the animation, some of them were somewhat disappointed by a too predictable storyline, differing only in some details from the first film ^[8] .

An electronic audio book with illustrations from the film was immediately released for the film. The text is read by actor Benedict Cumberbatch ^[9] .

For the premiere of the film, Channel 4 also released the game of the same name - an application for the iPhone , iPad and Android , which shows the flight of heroes to the North Pole. The player’s task is to collect snowflakes in the air along the way to increase the speed and duration of the flight of the heroes ^[10] .

• The section on the website of the book "The Snowman" dedicated to the film (English)
• Section on the channel’s website devoted to the film (English)