The drama takes place during the winter vacation in an animated story that takes place during the winter vacation. Sophie and Locke are eleven years old. They decide to lead a team for each and perform a competition to play snowballs. In which they live, and the competition is launched with the aim of winning the other team.
"Snowtime!" is by turns ribald (there's a flatulent dog), boisterous (there's charging through the snow with wooden swords wildly waved), tender (there's a boy grieving quietly for a father killed in a real war) and, yes, tragic.
Snowtime! doesn't have too complicated of a story-kids living in a small town plan a massive snowfight-but that simplicity will make it work for younger kids.
Snowtime! explains the topic of war in a "safe" manner that tempers things with a healthy dose of fun and laughter. It's like a really good Newberry Medal-winning book.
Despite a few diverting moments and some ambitiously dramatic themes, this one is simply too uneventful and too populated by thinly sketched characters to keep its target audience engaged.
That's the charm (and the quandary) of this film. Sophisticated in its look and feel on the one hand (the warm hues and tones evoke a warmth that defies the wintry cold), it's almost too retro for its own good on the other.
It is aimed at younger children and includes pretty songs, but it doesn't soft-pedal anything. Its low-key story is about friendship, but it's also about loss, which should leave pint-size viewers with plenty to think about.
If your kids get bored watching Snowtime!, that may be more of a comment on our hyperactive culture than it is on this gently funny story about kids who actually play outside all day.
Aimed at very young audiences, the cheerier remake - with voice work by Sandra Oh as the young architect of a snow fort and a song by Céline Dion - is more distinguished by its charming animation than how it handles the storyline.
