Cartoon Network December 22, 2006 The Legend Of Frosty The Snowman

A magical hat escapes from an attic and descends on the picture-perfect town of Evergreen, where all the local children are bound to a ridiculously strict curfew and not allowed to have any kind of fun whatsoever. One calm boy living in that town is named Tommy Tinkerton, the son of the town's impossibly upbeat but no-nonsense mayor, Theodore. Another storyline stars Tommy's best friend, Walter Wader, who shocks everyone, especially his very strict mother, befriends "a magical snowman" named Frosty and has fun for the first time in Evergreen. One day, Walter's rule-breaking gets all the kids of Evergreen talking, which greatly upsets Principal Pankley, who is even more adamantly opposed to magic than Theodore (who betrays Tommy that he is under Pankley's control after Walter tells the truth to Theodore). Principal Pankley uses the arrival of Frosty to sow doubts among the townspeople about Theodore's leadership, and little by little he begins to take over the town. But once magic is stirred up, it isn't easily contained. One by one, Frosty wins over the other kids of Evergreen, including Tommy's older bullying brother Charlie, Tommy's lonely love interest Sara Simple (a sharp and independent girl who wants to be an urban planner); and the happy-go-lucky triplets, Sonny, Sully, and Simon Sklarow. Frosty befriends each of them through the simple means of believing in them, which inspires them to begin to believe in themselves. Increasingly desperate to deny Frosty's existence and keep Evergreen fun-free, Principal Pankley tricks Walter Wader into helping him lure Frosty for some ice-skating fun, then tricks Frosty into venturing onto thin ice. Before Walter can save his friend, Frosty falls through the ice and melts, breaking Walter's heart. Principal Pankley captures Frosty’s hat, which is the key to his magic. As all of this unfolds, Tommy Tinkerton, the first one to whom Frosty appeared, has been sitting on the sidelines, watching his best friend, his brother, and his love interest experiencing adventure and magic in which he could share. But he has held back, even though he yearns to meet Frosty, out of loyalty to his dad (because he knows his dad would disapprove of him acknowledging the existence of magic). Everything changes, though, when Tommy finds a secret room beneath the library, in which he discovers a comic book filled with secrets about Frosty. At first, most of the comic is blank, but each time Tommy checks it, new panels appear. Over the course of several scenes, Tommy learns that Frosty's magic is in his hat; that his dad met Frosty when he was a boy, and did believe in magic once upon a time; and that Principal Pankley, a childhood friend of his father's, took Frosty's hat and hid it away in an attic (the same attic from which it escaped at the beginning of the film), causing young Theodore to lose his faith in magic. The comic book also reveals to Tommy what Principal Pankley has just done (with Walter Wader’s unwitting help) to recapture Frosty. All this time, Tommy has held back from befriending Frosty out of loyalty to his dad, who has always told Tommy not to believe in magic. Now seeing that his dad once believed in magic and was tricked into losing faith, Tommy realizes that the most loyal thing he can do is help his dad rediscover that magic is indeed real. Tommy explains what's really going on to a now-reformed Charlie, Sara, Walter, and the Sklarow triplets, and leads a daring rescue of Frosty’s hat in which all the kids help out. A final battle between Principal Pankley, Walter, Tommy, Charlie, Sara and the Sklarow triplets playing "capture the flag" with the hat as the flag features a climactic series of scenes follows in which Pankley tries and fails to recapture the hat, then tries to deter the townspeople (including Theodore) from going into the woods to see what all the ruckus and noise are about. But Theodore refuses to be deterred, and Tommy is able to reintroduce his dad to the old friend, who Theodore had long since stopped believing in. Meanwhile, the other parents are confused and angry. Principal Pankley tries to stir them up to regain control of the situation, but Theodore, now finally realizing what an evil liar Pankley truly is, intervenes and reappoints himself as mayor. Walter Wader breaks the spell by throwing a snowball at Principal Pankley. One by one, the other kids and parents join in, until the people of Evergreen all give in to a “snowball-fighting, horseplaying, lark of a good time.” The police arrest Principal Pankley and the children reconcile with their parents. An epilogue shows us Evergreen transformed into spring—with Charlie playing football, Tommy skateboarding, Theodore doing magic tricks (in honor of his father), Sara reading a book about urban planning (before she gave up on her dreams and be with Tommy instead) and letting the parents take care of their children. The rules and curfews have also been removed. All the time, the story has been narrated (à la Our Town) by a warm, wise, seemingly omniscient old man named Thomas who had appeared periodically to comment on the events unfolding in Evergreen. The final scene reveals that he is Tommy, all grown up, now married to Sara, hearing her call him home from the cold.