Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

I love this film, I think its one of the best animation shorts ever made and one of my all time Christmas favourites. Based on Raymond Briggs' classic children's book, it tells it's story entirely through animation which looks like coloured pencil/pastel drawings.

I think this animation would definitely lose something if it had any spoken dialogue. The music (which is composed by Howard Blake) compliments the images so well, from the little boy running downstairs to go out to play in the snow, playing a game of dress-up with his new friend in his parents bedroom, to the boy going on a motorbike ride, but one truly memorable sequence is the Walking in the Air song with the boy and snowman flying through the air, which is amazing.

In fact, this song is the only time any words are heard throughout the picture.

Interestingly, though Welsh choirboy Aled Jones scored a UK hit with the song, the version in the film is actually sung by Peter Auty.

Once the film even breaks the fourth wall as the Snowman sees a little figurine on a cake that looks exactly like him, which I thought was a cute touch.

I'm not ashamed to say I cried at the end. It was so sad and beautiful.

It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 1982.

This US DVD contains the original, unedited introduction, featuring author Raymond Briggs' solemn narration that I remember from when I was growing up. Nowadays, the version most available on DVD (and shown on TV since 2002) has a new animated opening, with Mel Smith (as Father Christmas) introducing the film. Having the author introduce it is much more meaningful.

There is one scene in particular which sums up the entire movie for me -and it's not the obvious one either... Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro in his best performance) is in "conversation" with another cabbie in an all night diner and he's just put two alka-seltzer in a glass of water. The camera moves into an extreme close up on the seltzer as they bubble and froth in the glass. This is a mirror to Travis's own breed of madness and alienation.

This is a brilliant film and certainly one of a kind - Taxi Driver summed up a whole generation and firmly entrenched itself into popular culture with the immortal lines "you talkin' to me?"

The dialogue is sparse and direct, especially in the case of De Niro who has to be able to convey Travis's growing estrangement without making it seem too overt, and Scorcese's direction is inspired. There are several scenes where the camera moves in unexpected ways constantly keeping the viewer off guard, making it impossible to figure out what's going to happen next.
The conclusion of the film is shocking and unavoidable -there have been forebodings throughout the entire film, as if Travis Bickle becomes the city's voice box - amplifying the violence, fear and paranoid hatred until it has no choice but to explode.

The music, by complete contrast, is chilled and jazzy - courtesy of Bernad Herrman who died soon after completing the score- but also strangely disassociated as well and it acts as a perfect counterpoint to the story sometimes accentuating the mood whilst other times softening it ready for the next burst.

This is one of the most important films of the seventies - and although both De Niro and Scorcese would work together several times to me this is their best collaboration.