Snow Miser is a character from the Rankin/Bass-produced 1974 stop-motion animated Christmas special The Year Without a Santa Claus. Snow Miser was voiced by actor/comedian Dick Shawn.
In the special, Snow Miser controlled cold weather all over the Earth; his archnemesis is his brother, Heat Miser. Mother Nature herself is their mother.
Snow Miser's a Jack Frost-like being, with an icicle sceptre and the ability to freeze objects at will. As he sings in his "The Snow Miser Song" ("whatever I touch turns to snow in my clutch"), he freezes objects with a touch or causes them to burst into snowflakes (as well as restore the objects he transforms into snowflakes). He can also project cold from his hands or mouth to form objects of solid ice. As suggested by his name, he prefers cold weather ("I never want to know a day that's over 40 degrees-I'd rather have it 30, 20, 10, 5 and let it freeze!"). Snow Miser lives in an ice castle and is attended to by a host of miniature versions of himself. He defends his domain fiercely, yet unlike his stepbrother Heat Miser, is a gregarious and generally friendly.
The 1997 film Batman & Robin references the Christmas special as Mr. Freeze (portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger) tries to teach his thugs the Snow Miser song.
In the 2006 NBC live-action remake, he is played by actor Michael McKean. Also, rather than miniature versions of himself, his underlings are replaced by women in white swimsuits and scarves, warring with Heat Miser by firing giant icicles from a crossbow.
A 2008 sequel premiered on ABC Family, A Miser Brothers' Christmas had Snow Miser and Heat Miser set aside their differences to save Christmas when Santa once again is unable to make his run, and fight off their brother, North Wind. In this special, Canadian voice actor Juan Chioran provided Snow Miser's voice as Dick Shawn had died in 1987. The special, considered a sequel, was produced by Warner Brothers Animation which owns the post-1974 Rankin-Bass library and Cuppa Coffee Animation for ABC Family.
Read more about Snow Miser: Collectibles, Song
Famous quotes containing the words snow and/or miser:
“Every winter the liquid and trembling surface of the pond, which was so sensitive to every breath, and reflected every light and shadow, becomes solid to the depth of a foot or a foot and a half, so that it will support the heaviest teams, and perchance the snow covers it to an equal depth, and it is not to be distinguished from any level field. Like the marmots in the surrounding hills, it closes its eyelids and becomes dormant for three months or more.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.”
—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)