Raymond Briggs' The Snowman / Father Christmas (DVD) ... 2006 at Universal Pictures UK / Features of the DVD: Animated, PAL / Two Raymond Briggs' animated classics, The Snowman and Father Christmas are here sensibly paired for maximum yuletide delight. Based on Briggs's classic children's book and crafted in a coloured-pencils-on-paper look, like fluffy, hand-drawn illustrations, The Snowman is a gentle fable of friendship and the power of imagination. It's the story of a small boy whose lovingly constructed snowman comes to life and takes him flying over the white-blanketed landscapes, in a beautiful rotoscoped (traced) sequence based on live-action flying footage. Part of the charm of the film is the gentle, everyday quality of its fantasy adventures: the snowman is invited in to try on clothes and play with the Christmas decorations, then plays host to the boy at a party in the woods, at which his snowy relatives do country dances. --David Chute In Father Christmas, an irreverent Santa breaks from tradition in many ways. He has no Mrs, owns only four reindeer and decides to convert his sleigh into an airborne motor home for a pre-Christmas holiday. He finds France too snooty, Scotland too cold and Las Vegas just right. Tanned and rested, he returns to the North Pole in time to sort through the mail, pack up the toys and hit the skies. He also narrates his own story (splendidly voiced by Los Angeles stage actor William Dennis Hunt), but fans of the 1973 book will find the animated version far less cranky than the original. Although the book was aimed at children between the ages of 4-8, this may have a wider appeal, depending on how you feel about the children seeing Santa gambling at the casino tables, dreaming of bikini-clad babes and suffering a bout of diarrhoea. --Kimberly Heinrichs