Vintage is a virtue in lovely Snowtime!

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      Featuring the voice of Sandra Oh. Rated G.

      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.

      There is nary a smartphone, flat-screen TV, or parent in sight in this animated reboot of La Guerre des tuques (The Dog Who Stopped the War), a live-action French-Canadian film that was popular in the mid ’80s. Instead, this old-school 3-D cartoon with the throwback storybook graphics centres on the be-all-and-end-all of snow forts—a turreted marvel the kids in a village build over winter break. And only a child who’s been sutured to his laptop for years would not get a little excited about that.

      The story opens with the arrival of two sisters in a town that, as they realize to their horror, “is full of boys”. But it soon builds into the ultimate, days-long snowball fight, with the kids switching allegiances and trying to take the fort.

      It doesn’t get much more complicated than that, though there are some not-too-heavy-handed messages about conflict—and about the danger of making iceballs! Mostly, it’s about watching some colourful characters—two carrot-topped twins who speak in stereo, a peace-lover named Nicky who tries to stop the battle—duke it out. There is also a mangy, farting St. Bernard. But do we really need a budding romance between two 11-year-olds when there are snowballs to be hurled?

      It’s a bit of a wayward ride, but the climax rules, with one troop conscripting an army of wobbly, snowsuit-clad “grade ones”, using everything from garbage-can lids and muffin tins as armour, and toilet-paper rolls for swords.

      The same vintage feel comes through in the rich animation, with its wonky houses and chunky wool tuques.

      In the end, maybe what this laid-back, homegrown little charmer doesn’t say is more ingenious—about helicopter parenting, about global warming, about the need for creative play… Then again, it really doesn’t have to.

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