Snowlems: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:invadersfromtheiceworld.jpg|frame|The Magic Snowman. [[This Is Your Premise on Drugs|On Acid]].]]

 

{{quote|''"By the power invested in me by the mighty and awful snow demons, I command you to come to life! LIVE! LIVE! LIVVVE!"''|'''Calvin''', ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]''. ([[Be Careful What You Wish For|It doesn't end well]].)}}

{{quote|''"He's chillin'...and killin'."''|Tagline for ''[[Jack Frost (1997 film)|Jack Frost 1997]]''. (It ends even worse.)}}

 

 

'''Version I. The Friendly Snowlem:''' Also known as the "[[Frosty the Snowman]]" variety, they often are simply snowmen constructed by cute kids and animated by [[Christmas Special|Christmas magic]]. Very often the subject of [[Narm]].

'''Version III: The Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snowlem:''' The snowman is something to be [[Nightmare Fuel|feared]]. Perhaps it's some supernatural monstrosity shaped into a snowman or perhaps a serial killer back to life or maybe it was simply evil snow, it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is... oh my god, he just killed that guy with a carrot!

 

 

See also [[Improvised Golems]].

{{examples}}

* ''Lipton's'' corporation ran a series of ads for its iced tea products, in which an animate snowman skeleton wanders into a convenience store in the dead of summer, downs a bottle of iced tea, and recrystalizes into a decidely sinister-looking snowman. Who then steals a carrot and stalks-off.

* Conversely, there was an oft-repeated ad for Campbell's soup which began with a small snowman walking inside a house to get a bowl of soup, and melting away as the soup warms it up... revealing it was really a boy underneath.

* Ice Mountain bottled water often featured a constantly-melting snowman who needed replenishing with the titular bottled water.

 

* One episode of ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'' from the third season had crazy snowmen.

* These are created in ''[[Berserk]]'' when evil spirits attack the [[Weirdness Magnet]] hero during a snowstorm.

** This happens during the Millennium Falcon arc of the manga (which has nothing to do with ''[[Star Wars]]''), and as a result, the Playstation 2 ''Berserk'' game has Guts taking his [[BFS]] to them during the first part of the game, eventually having to face a boss Snowlem.

* [[Digimon]] has had several different Snowlems, the most prominent being Frigimon.

* [[Ah! My Goddess|Urd]] created a Snowlem to assist her in a [[Snowball Fight]] with Skuld in the OAV.

 

* ''The Snowman'' (see Western Animation) was originally a wordless graphic novel by [[Raymond Briggs]].

* The image at the top of the page comes from an issue of ''Strange Adventures'' called "[[media:invadersfromtheiceworldful.jpg|Invaders from the Ice World]]", which is a brain-breaking example of [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?]]?

* In an issue of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage|Tales of the TMNT]]'', the turtles, Splinter, Casey, April, and Shadow have their Christmas ruined by a snowlem sent by a Foot operative.

 

* ''[[Jack Frost (1997 film)|Jack Frost 1997]]'' had a serial killer become transformed into a snowman due to [[You Fail Biology Forever|ribonucleic acid]]. In the film, he ''rapes'' a woman in the shower ''with a carrot''.

** This was followed by ''Jack Frost 2: [[Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie|Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman]]'', a more humorous film, where Jack Frost is eventually defeated by ''a banana''.

* One of the creatures listed on the monster board in ''[[The Cabin in the Woods]]'' is "Snowman".

 

* Mr. Snow in the ''[[Mr. Men]]'' books was created by [[Santa Claus]] as an assistant.

* In [[Discworld]], the Ice Giants often mentioned to be at war with the gods have eyes of coal and snowmen are stated to be idols built by human racial memory.

* One ''[[Goosebumps]]'' novel centered around an evil snowman who was really a [[Sealed Evil in a Can|monster trapped in that form by a witch.]] A group of regular snowmen are later animated to help combat the monster when it is freed.

 

* Fozzie builds a snowman who comes to life in ''[[A Muppet Family Christmas]]''. They're briefly a double act, but the snowman retreats outside due to heat and heckling.

** ''[[It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie]]'' featured Joe Snow (voiced by Mel Brooks), who was a parody of Sam the Snowman from ''[[Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer]]''. He claimed to be the narrator, but the camera crew said otherwise.

* The ''[[Pee-Wee's Playhouse]] Christmas Special'' featured an interesting case: Pee-wee builds a regular snowman, and Cowboy Curtis suggests that it'll come to life if they stare at it long enough. And it does, exclaiming, "Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer!"

 

* "Frosty the Snowman" actually started out as a song written by Walter "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson, and recorded by Gene Autry in 1950.

 

* This page can't be complete without mentioning the ''[[Calvin and Hobbes|Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons!]]'' Calvin builds a snowman and decides to try to bring it to life. It works, and promptly starts trying to kill him. It then proceeds to start packing more snow onto itself, give itself extra arms and heads, and start making more. By the end of the story, there are about 17 of the things on his lawn and his parents are once again considering sending him to a therapist. {{spoiler|He finally defeats them by [[Kill It with Water|spraying them with the hose]], causing them to freeze solid.}}

* ''[[Little Nemo]] in Slumberland'' had a great crowd of snowmen flinging countless snowballs at each other. Nemo takes a snowball on the nose while watching them.

* ''The Strange Adventures of Frappe, the Snowman, and His Papa'' features a mischievous yet friendly living snowman.

 

** Eve worse is the ''Ice Assassin'' spell, a Version III upgrade to the above. While a simulacrum could theoretically be put to benign use, an ice assassin's entire purpose is to kill whoever it's based on.

* The Ice Giants of Narandu in ''[[Talislanta]]'' are at very least strongly ''implied'' to be Snowlems (of the third variety).

 

* [[Cirque Du Soleil]]'s ''Wintuk'' show has a bunch of ten-foot ice golem-esque things come to life and attack the heroes. The golems are puppets, of course.

 

== Toys ==

* In 2007, [[Spawn]] creator Todd McFarlane released [http://www.oafe.net/yo/mcmon5snow.php a Version III Snowlem] in Series 5 of his company's "Monsters" toyline.

 

* ''[[Bible Buffet]]'' featured killer snowmen as one of the villains. Because that was totally predicted in the Bible.

** Killer snowmen [[The Angry Video Game Nerd|whose heads you can fucking blow off]]!

* ''[[Clay Fighter]]'' had Bad Mr. Frosty, a badass [[Anti-Hero]] snowman.

* ''[[Super Mario 64]]'' had some enemy snowmen in [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World|Cool Cool Mountain]] and go under the name 'Mr. Blizzard'.

** ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2]]'' featured a snowman miniboss named Sorbetti, who for some reason always disguised himself as an icy planet.

* Games created with [http://www.sawbladesoftware.com/ Power Game Factory] can include living snowmen as enemies.

* One snow area in ''[[Star Ocean the Second Story]]'' had snowmen as random encounters.

* In ''[[Lightning Legend Daigo no Daibouken]]'', Yuki Shirogane, [[Our Fairies Are Different|a Snow Girl]] with great magic powers, is able to create those. She gave life to one named Yukidaruman (a Japanese pun between "Yukidaruma", Japanese for "snowman", and "Man") at the age of 3. She tried to create another, giant one at age 7, but her attempt failed horribly, the snowlem crumbling and burying her in snow; she narrowly escaped death thanks to her father rescuing her.

* ''[[Ghostbusters the Video Game]]'' ''didn't'' do Snow Golems, but the earlier 1990 version for the Sega Genesis did. In fact, the Apartment level had two: the middle-boss [[Crysta Robo]] (an ice golem that could shoot lightning) and a Snowman that could spawn mini-Snow Golems.

* In the level Frozen Altars in ''[[Spyro the Dragon|Spyro: Year of the Dragon]]'', there are a couple Type III Snowlems as enemies, who can only be killed by lasers.

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'' has Eenos, lumps of snow that hurl snowballs at you.

* You play a heroic snowlem in [[The Caverns of Hammerfest]]

 

== Web Animation ==

* [[Homestar Runner|Blue Laser Commander]] announces his intention of making super-soldiers out of snow ("They're called 'Super-Snowldiers,' thank you very much!") as soon as he can find some carrots.

 

* Either subverted or justified in ''[[Antihero for Hire]]'': Shadehawk is attacked by one of these while on patrol after heavy snow, but it turns out to be a giant robot who was caught in the blizzard.

* ''[[VG Cats]]'' [[Nightmare Fuel|hilariously]] subverts the tale of [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=275 Frosty].

* A side story in ''[[Jack (webcomic)|Jack]]'' features the characters attending the premiere of [[Stylistic Suck|the film]] ''[http://www.pholph.com/whole_arc_viewer.php?id=5&sid=1508 "Frigid McThunderbones"]''. A [[Shout-Out]] to the first ''Jack Frost'' is quick to be made once the characters realize the plot of the movie.

* The heroes of ''[[Keychain of Creation]]'' encounter one [http://keychain.patternspider.net/archive/koc0256.html in this filler strip].

* Mr Nutty of ''[[Pokey the Penguin]]''.

* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]:'' Molly built a [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20110301.html steam-powered snowman.] He melted, for obvious reasons.

 

* The [[Whateley Universe]] story "There's an Angel in Father John's Basement" plays with this: The third-rate mystic villain trio after the power of the titular 'Angel' find a magical tome which will let them unleash an evil so powerful that all the major superheroes in New York will have to fight it. To do this, they build themselves an army of evil Santas and mobile, energy-absorbing snowmen. The prophecy comes true when the individual snowmen eventually combine into ''[[Norse Mythology|Ymir]]'' in the middle of New York...

 

* The original ''[[Frosty the Snowman]]'' animated television [[Christmas Special]] was aired on December 7, 1969. What followed were several [[Sequelitis|increasingly bad sequels]]: ''Frosty's Winter Wonderland'' in 1976, ''Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July'' in 1979, and ''Frosty Returns'' in 1992.

* They were all follow-ups to ''[[Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer]]'', which was narrated by Sam the Snowman, a Version I snowlem [[Ink Suit Actor|patterned after]] Burl Ives.

* ''[[Bouli]]'' was a French animated television series that aired from 1989 to 1991, where the moon magically animated the snowman Bouli and his friends and they set up a snowman village in the woods.

* The ''[[Kim Possible]]'' half-episode "Day of the Snowmen" involved a weather machine and toxic water from Lake Wannaweep creating mutant zombie snowmen.

* A classic 1968 Spider-Man short, "Trouble With Snow", also featured a giant snowman made from tainted snow and brought to life by downed power lines.

* ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'', "The Deep Freeze." It helps to have the mystical Heart of Jong that can animate inanimate objects.

* Used by Dao Lon Wong in the [[Christmas Episode]] of ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]''.

* ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' had a small bit where two police snowmen were at a puddle:

'''Officer B:''' *Turns on radio* Suspect died of... natura-natural causes. *sniff* }}

** They also have an scene with "Composite Santa" who is half evil-Santa and half evil-Frosty. Temperatures over 32 degrees causes half of him to melt and kills him.

* A freezing villain makes version III snowlems in an episode of ''[[Johnny Test]]''.

* The [[Monster of the Week]] in an episode of ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]''. As the last of the snowmen, his nefarious scheme is to extract the anti-melting gene from humans and implant it into himself, allowing him to outlive the inevitable warming of the earth. Also he speaks with a Scottish accent. Take from that what you will.

** He shows up in a later episode and freezes Courage's house and owners to make a cozy home for himself. Courage retaliates by {{spoiler|going to the North Pole, sewing up the hole in the ozone layer, and making it cold enough to revive the last snowman's snowfriends.}}

* The snow soldiers from the three part [[Christmas Special]] of ''[[Bump in the Night]]''

* Features in the ''[[Adventure Time]]'' episode "Thank You"; it's not exactly any of the above-mentioned types, being somewhere between types one and three, but not malevolent. The episode is about a chance meeting it has with a firewolf pup that hasn't learned to hate it yet (firewolves and snow golems being natural enemies) and the golem's quest to return it to its family in spite of the danger this poses the golem.

 

* ''Trigger Happy TV'' reminds us that [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwb6st5BLL0 no one is safe.]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:These Tropes Were Frozen Today]]

[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]

[[Category:Christmas Tropes]]