Hot Frosty

2024   Netflix

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  1 hr  32min

Christmas ~ Comedy ~ Fantasy ~ Romance

Directed by:  Jerry Ciccoritti

Starring:  Lacey Chabert, Dustin Milligan, Katy Mixon Greer, Lauren Holly, Chrishell Stause, Joe Lo Truglio, and Craig Robinson.

“You’ll never find the warmth unless you venture out into the cold. Good things happen to you when you venture out into the cold.”

Lacey Chabert stars as Kathy Barrett who lives in the small town of Hope Springs, New York. It is Christmastime and there is snow on the ground, cold in the air and Christmas decorations all around town. Her husband, who was a handyman, died of cancer two years ago. Her heating furnace is broke, the roof leaks and there is a broken step on her staircase. Every morning when the alarm goes off she deals with the cold in her empty house, the broken step as she goes down the stairs and empties the bucket catching the snowmelt from the leaky roof. Then she heads downtown where she owns a little diner named Kathy’s Kafé.

Her Chef Isaac looks out for her making sure she is well fed and runs the Diner in her absence. After the breakfast rush, Kathy delivers lunch to her friends Theo and Mel across the street who own Reclaimed Rags, a clothing shop. Mel tells her she has something for her, she had just gotten in a red winter scarf and it reminds Mel of the night she met the love of her life Theo. Mel thought of Kathy and wants her to have it. Kathy passes the snowman display in the center of downtown and notices one of the snowmen doesn’t have a scarf. She decides that’s where the scarf belongs and places it around the snowman’s neck.

Later that night as the town has gone to sleep, the snowman comes to life. Seeing himself in a store window and realizing he is naked, he breaks the glass on Reclaimed Rags storefront and steals clothes to wear. The next morning as Kathy arrives downtown to work at her Diner she notices a man (Dustin Milligan) wearing only coveralls talking to the other snowmen. Concerned about his well-being she talks to him and he tells her that after she placed the scarf around his neck last night, he came to life. Kathy is convinced that he is a drifter that is not quite right and invites him into the diner to warm up and get some hot food. She is concerned about him as she realizes his skin is ice cold to the touch and might have hypothermia so she takes him to the town Doctor.

Kathy takes him home with her while she tries to figure out what to do with him. Over the course of the next several days he grows on Kathy as Jack (the name she got from the coveralls he was wearing) continuously shows his gratitude at her saving him from being a snowman. Meanwhile the town Sherriff Nathaniel Hunter, who has delusions of being a great crimefighter and law enforcement man, vows to bring the culprit to justice for breaking the Reclaimed Rags storefront window. Jack Snowman causes quite a stir around town with the women who see him, and can’t seem to stay out of sight as Kathy has instructed.

So Jack the Snowman is hot because his inner core is ice, hence the name Hot Frosty. He is slowly melting (sweating) as the days pass and Sherriff Hunter hunts down the new criminal in town. It is a Christmas Movie, a Holiday Rom-Com complete with a love story, a snowman come to life, an over achieving Sherriff and a town full of people who believe in the Christmas Spirit. There are shades of the movies Jack Frost and It’s A Wonderful Life in Hot Frosty. In Jack Frost a man becomes a snowman, in Hot Frosty, a snowman becomes a man. Similar to It’s A Wonderful Life, the towns people come together to raise money to help free Jack from the mean old Sherriff who tries to control the town.

It is everything you would expect from a Christmas movie, it is Cheesy, Campy, Goofy, Funny and Heartwarming. Lacey Chabert is very likeable as Kathy, Dustin Milligan grows on you as he warms up on screen, and Craig Robertson is hilarious as the overachieving Sheriff trying to “catch his man”. There is a scene right after the end as the credits roll where Craig Robertson and Joe Lo Truglio are outside singing and playing a keyboard in the snow….

Crime doesn’t pay

not in here, not today

here in Hope Springs.

Don’t try and break the law

It’ll be  a tragic flaw

here in Hope Springs……

As they show clips of outtakes and bloopers from the set. Don’t miss it, it’s hilarious.

Definitely worth a Christmas watch.

Two Thumbs up!