As he walks into a cottage, the viewer is treated to a spectacular 180-degree stroll around the building, which recalls the brilliant opening shot of the city square. Once inside, he disturbs a grumpy cat in order to sleep on its couch, and the cat's huffy hiss reminds us of the petulant, territorial dog's snappy barks. Increasingly, we become aware that (as the scoffing tree had recalled the scoffing snowman) events are beginning to parallel earlier ones-- in fact, a "pattern" which contrasts the events in "Winterland" with those in "Summerland," and several "rhythmic" recurrences heightens our perception of the differences between these alternate worlds.

The snowman notices his own picture on the winter portion of the calendar, but also sees (on later months) some unfamiliar flowers. So, he decides to hide out in the refrigerator, so that he may reemerge when the flowers are in bloom. When he attempts to leave in July, however, his rump has stuck to the refrigerator shelf and he loses a chunk, which he regains by turning down the temperature in the icebox (an intelligent, ecological choice--also recalling his earlier ruse of throwing snowballs at the dog until the dog retaliated by tossing back his lost rump-chunk as a weapon). He plays pranks on the chicken and cows (just as he had teased the dog in Winterland), yet when he finds that he is freezing a ladybug, he kindly becomes a ski run for her by turning somersaults across a meadow--another dazzling animation feat. After he melts, singing "How lovely summer is; my heart breaks from happiness," the rabbit finally eats his carrot-nose (and her bunnies frolic in his hat as if he had been a magician).

Parallel incidents reveal the complexities of the snowman's character and assess the ambiguities of the action as a parable: the snowman, an average person with some good and bad qualities, is trapped in a given environment, Winterland. Although it is functional, it is cold and in some ways inhospitable. He reads that there is another place, sunny and free, and arranges to escape there for some thrilling moments of warmth and freedom, even at the cost of his life, as we hear him gurgle in the death throes of song, twisting and melting in the hot sun. The dog, crow, cat, ladybug, rabbit, and others are characterized as parallel human-like creatures, which supports an open, thoughtful humanitarian world view that was anathema to the Nazis. The Snowman is also full of beautiful, touching, affirmative and spectacular scenes, such as the long pan across unfolding spring.

The Silly Goose. Courtesy of William Moritz

The Silly Goose
Fischerkoesen's third wartime film, The Silly Goose (1944), provides another thought-provoking parable. Through the bars of a wooden cage on a cart going across town, a young goose glimpses the seemingly glamorous allures of city life: an exotic parrot, silhouettes in a dance hall, an elegant fox (stole) with feathers. Back at the farm, while her brothers and sisters receive their schooling in swimming, marching, laying eggs and such, she dreams narcissistically by a pond, swings on the gate like a parrot, uses the plough as a mirror, and creates for herself a pseudo-sophisticated costume by thieving and exploiting her neighbors: a caterpillar stole, a straw bottle-cover hat, pollen powder, a spider-web veil, cork high-heels, and pig-bristle eyelashes. Her sashay through the barnyard creates mixed anger and astonishment. The gander, however, chooses to woo her instead of her more modest sisters, although she rejects him and wanders off into the woods, where she is seduced by a fox. The fox's sinister lair is run by slave labor--a weasel cranking a spit, a cat on a treadmill that makes xylophone music with dangling bones--and a cage full of geese waits for slaughter. She manages to escape, and the barnyard animals cooperate to drive the fox away and free his victims.

While Silly Goose seems to satisfy Goebbels' dictum for "blood and soil" films that glorify German peasant life, Fischerkoesen creates a complex and ambiguous narrative that confuses and contradicts Nazi policy. The city is glamorous--especially as seen in a long stereo-optical, multiplane sequence from the goose's point of view--while the barnyard activities are quaint and confining. At the same time, the goose's exploitation of the barnyard for her costume is mean and thoughtless. When the goose is seduced by the fox, we momentarily hear a crypto version of the old (Yiddish) popular song "Bei mir bist Du scheen," and could think at first that the villain is being identified as a Jew. Quickly, however, we see that just the opposite is true: the goose herself is being exploited. The fox is using her as he does various other animals, which seems to allude to the Nazis' exploitation of the Jews, as slave labor and prisoners doomed to execution.