Link to review: 813 Jack Frost
Story: Adowable girl is mistreated by her step mom and falls for a bear
Stars: Nastenka
MJs Grade A+



:wub: #1 in Mighty Jacks Top 10

813-Jack Frost

Premise: Which one of the many movies named Jack Frost is this? The Michael Keaton one? The murderous snowman horror movie? No, not even close.

This is the freaky ass story of Nastinka, the beautiful stepdaughter of an evil stepmother who worships her ugly stepsister, and Evan, the handsom, pompus pain-in-the-ass prince that for once isn't played by Ben Affleck (but I kid Ben). Evan plays Hide and Seek with a Mushroom Midget and loses, so he is given bows and arrows. He forgets to say thank you and is cursed by the Mushroom Midget. Evan heads out into the forest and meets Nashka. He immediatly wants to bang her, but his personality and the fact that his head turns into a Bear's, she rejects him. After having another chat with Mushroom Midget, he misunderstands and spends a half hour wasting time and bringing the audience with him. After Evan picks up a stick, Mushroom Midget turns him back into a human. He goes off to search for Nastinka so he can bed her, but the evil stepmother sends here into the forest to die. Near death, Nastinka is found by Grandfather Frost who brings her into his home. But she accidentally touches his septer and turns to ice. Will this fairy tail end happily ever after? Or will Nastinka melt into a big pretty puddle? Hey, we could always crack off her fingers and put 'em in Kool-Aid!

What makes this movie bad?: I don't know if I could honestly call this a bad movie. Goofy as hell, yes, but bad? I'll have to think about that. Personally, I think the movie got more laughs than Mike and the bots did. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you. I laughed my ass off at Future War too, but Jack Frost seemed to be going for laughs the whole time. If that was the intent of the movie the entire time, then I guess it succeded. Is a movie really bad if it does exactly what it was meant to do? I guess that depends on the actual intent. The Ring was trying to scare and I found it scary was that it was actually released. Since it succeded in that respect, maybe that was a good movie too? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...........nah. Still a pile of crap.

Episode Review: This is the episode I'm going to show my neice when she can comprehend what MST3K is. She'll apreciate the movie and enjoy the puppet show at the bottom of the screen.

The riffs are pretty good, but the movie is easily just as funny as anything they dish out. You got to wonder if the distributer sent this movie to them as a joke, or with a note saying "I DARE YOU!"

Host segments are hit or miss, however. Mike Nelson: Lord of the Dance is so odd that it's funny. The next segment is very amusing. I love how Mike almost gets Observer to watch the movie. To bad he didn't watch the begining of the movie and zap Mike in at the first comercial. But then who would puppet Crow? Well, you know, he could have voiced Crow from inside the theater. Who would see his mouth moving from behind that hood? As for Crow's mouth movements, they could have just got someone to puppeteer Crow until Mike came back. So what if in some scenes the mouth movement would be out of sync? I've seen this happen with Crow lots of times. Hell, you could have eased the process by having Mike dress up as Observer and have Bill puppet Crow and provide the voices for both. Whoops. I'm rambling. Moving on...Crow's interview with a Russian comedian isn't that funny. The middle segment is nice enough. The conversation between Bobo and Observer is delightfully awkward. The next segment is a throwback to the Russian comedian, but this one gets more laughs. The final segment is pretty good. But the best ape movie is definatly Escape From the Planet of the Apes.

Weird but fun episode.

*** out of ****

Best Riff: "I am pretty hot, arn't I?" - Mike

I'm having a Russian-fest and I think if you wanted to put an MST3K episode in a time capsule for future generations, this would be an excellent choice. It really highlights the show at its best as the riffing is both smart and silly and the movie is as goofy as they come.

I liked the skits too. Observers disgust at having to apply ointments to Bobo's... (he never says and that makes it even more funny as the imagination runs wild)

Mike almost tricking Brain into the theater was very funny. I'd have liked to have heard the Observer get in a few riffs, even for a few minutes.

And Servo acting like Nastenka at the end was a hoot.

Jack Frost one of the classics, an easy top 10 to 20 episode and I can't argue with anyone who considers it the best.

This one is my daughter's and my favorite. The riffing was SUPER. We laughed and laughed, especially at the witch and her moving house. That was classic. :D

A+

One of the best!

This one's on youtube.com everybody. Let's all flock there now!

There isn't much on this one that I can say that hasn't already been said. It is one relentlessly funny, weird, eclectic Russo-Finnish hallucogen of a film. A definite A from me.

I'll have to ask my former Deadhead father if Jerry Garcia really was known as Father Mushroom. He did confirm that he played a lot of interminable, wah-wah pedal-heavy solos after I showed him the Dead Talk Back.

I had heard about this episode for a very long time and I finally got to watch it on glorious VHS!!! Hilarious episode that will live forever in my memory as the one that lived up to the hype.

I watched Jack Frost un-msted (and kept laughing when I'd remember a riff)

MST didn’t cut very much out. There was a female narrator, who opens and closes the movie.

When Ivan leaves his mother, there is this musical number where all these shrill sounding women fawn over Ivan and invite him over. He ignores them and goes on his way, all the time singing a song about how perfect he is. :lol:

And a short sequence after Ivan leaves the witch Baba Yaga, she complains to a snake that she can’t sleep or eat. After this she sends the cat out to do harm to Nastenka.

I’d read somewhere that the witch was played by a man. Is this true? I listened to the Russian versions (with sub titles) and she/he did sound a bit like a guy.

Nastenka’s real voice is even more high pitched and girlish.

There was a short interview with the actress who played Nastenka. I’ve been told that she looked pretty rough. I didn’t think so, I mean hell, the woman was in her late 50s early 60s at the time of the interview and didn’t look bad at all for someone at that age. She was very thin; blonde… still has those big eyes (which made her look a little crazy).

She was performing ballet at the Bolshoi Theater when Director Alexander Row saw her and asked her to be in his film. She said she was very scared at first. She said Row was naive but wise at the same time, and very kind.

It must be 1000x better when it's subtitled :Servo:

Indeed. I wonder what the Russian translation of "Oh, don't send Grandma's funk over here!" would be... ;)

Wow, finally to my 100th post here. It seems like I have posted here 5,000 times... :rolleyes:

This is indeed my favorite. I have a few favorites and they change as I watch more episodes, but this one has remained in my top 3. I love it and it's just so darn silly! :thumbsup:

For me this is one of the all-time great episodes. Easily in my top 5.

The movie itself is just so freaking wacked out that it is entertaining on its own. I actually bought the un-MSTed version because I like it so much. Like the other Russian fairy tales on the show it appears to have had some semblance of a budget and the images are, dare I say, trippy? Nastinka is adorable and father mushroom and baba yaga are too weird for words. The riffing is top notch and along with the laughs that occur naturally from the film itself this one is a gut-buster. The only thing not perfect about this one is the so-so host segments, but I can overlook that.

A+ for sure.

Um, I didn't love it.

A silly foreign mythology movie. I liked The Day the Earth Froze better.

I thought the riffing was kinda mediocre. I don't remember a single audible laugh.

And the host segments are still pretty blah.

Maybe my heart just wasn't in it. Didn't bring my A game today.

I have always though that this episode is overrated. When I first saw it years ago, I wondered what all the hubbub was about. The riffing was very average with only a few big laughs here and there. (Crow's "How do you like my website?" riff was so painful it was funny).

However, it has grown on me over the years and has moved up my ranking some. Though I would never put it in the A+ category that a lot of people do. (Not singling you out MJ, a lot of people love it as much as you do) Closer to a B or B+ range is fair IMO.

As for ranking it against the other Russo/Finnish movies, I rank this one last. Sampo and Ilya have this one beat, hands down.

It's kind of good to hear that, NC. I always hate it when I watch an episode and don't enjoy it that much, and then get on this board and find out it's one of the most beloved of all MSTs ever. I feel like I missed something, and I hate to feel that.

Yeah, I sort of felt the same way about this episode. It was not one that lived up to it's enormous hype. (Pod People sort of falls into that category as well).

That is not to say it a bad episode, or even just average. It has it's moments, but for me, a lot of the riffs fell flat and a lot of times, the movie itself was funnier than anything they threw at it. A lot of times, the riffing was just filler or whipped cream on top of all of the goofiness.

And that is key, for had the movie not been so sprightly and whacked out, but was instead a Monster a Go-Go type of crapfest, then it probably would have been among the worst episodes ever. Since the riffing would not have been enough to save it.

I obviously, couldn't disagree more. I think it's one of their smartest. On target and relentlessly funny start to finish. It's not only MST best, but one of the funniest things I've seen from any comedy, anywhere. TV, film, stage etc. And that's for the Riffing, not the film.

Course everyones entitled to their opinions and to laugh or not laugh as they see fit ;) But I gotta defend the Frost, to me it's loaded with genius material.

Finally got around to watching this episode today (thank you YouTube) and while I can't say this is my #1 favorite episode of all time like Mighty Jack, I will say this is an excellent episode.

There are so many good riffs in this episode, several times I found myself laughing my ass off. There is alot of inspired stuff coming from Mike and the Bots for this movie.

This movie isn't too bad, but it is weird esp if you dont know russian/finish folk tales and stuff. Sometimes I was wondering if I had taken some drugs myself while watching it LOL.

Host segments were fine, Mike Nelson: Lord of the Dance was great. I did like the stuff with Brain Guy and Bobo trying to get along while Peal was out, the stuff with Crow trying to buy an expert on the folklore of the movie were the weakest ones for me.

A true gem of Season 8 and its a favorite of mine now, A grade all the way

Definitely one of the better dubbed episodes (Time of the apes probably being the worst of them), this ruso-finnish fable was quite the gut buster! I think the main female role was adorable, but her stepmother gave off the best riffs along with the stupid hunchback witch. Come to think of it, most of these scenes had riffs that were quotable and brilliant to a high extent. Definitely a Red-Tom Favorite!

:Servo: :Servo: :Servo: :Servo: :Servo: Full Red-Toms :hikeba:

Jack Frost
It has been a really, really bad week and to add to that, the condition of Yucca Flats bummed me out so much I couldn’t enjoy it. Thankfully it’s Jack Frost to the rescue. This was the nicest looking episode in the set and by now it probably goes without saying how hard I laugh when I watch this. It really took the edge off a rotten week.

Plus Nastenka really is “adowable”... and I love young Mike’s cameo



Kevin’s intro was cool – He mentions that the sci-fi flicks got a little old, and how this was a breath of fresh air for them. Maybe that’s why this is such a great ep - it recharged their batteries?

Oh and I think a better stinger would have been the robber saying “That’s oooodd” (it would have summed up the experiment in a nutshell too)

I'm glad the episode could make you feel better, and I love young Mike's
cameo too :D

I think your onto something MJ, this was the first non-sci fi movie they
did for Season 8, so combine that with the fact it gave them the chance
to do another Russo-Finish movie they must have had alot of fun with
it. The riffing is excellent and so much fun.

I watched this again on Sunday with my friend and he enjoyed it, but not
as much as I do. His favorite Russo-Finish movie is still The Day The Earth
Froze.

I loved Kevin's introduction on the DVD too, you can tell how much he
enjoys these Russo-Finnish movies.

While Times of the Apes was very badly dubbed, nothing and I mean thing nothing, can hold a candle to the attempted dubbing in Gamera vs. Guiron. I have never seen such a horrible job of dubbing in my life. The early scene with the scientist explaining the alien radio waves and the planets goes down in my book as the worst dubbed scene, EVER. Even Joel mentioned early on, "It seems to be hard to dub, too."

It also did not help that the dub track was translated verbatim from the Japanese, so that in the end, we got a literal Phonics Holocaust.

Aint that the truth. The dubbing in Guiron is half the laughs in the experiment (the other half is the riffing that makes fun of the dubbing) :lol:

As far as dubbing goes, though they had a few odd inflections (as Kevin points out), the Russian films generally received better, more professional voice work.

Meh.. the continual mentioning of "You killed my wife and my son! You killed my wife and my son!" and the crappy thing with the "carrying a screwdriver everywhere." Yeah I dunno. But I must admit the Gamera movie was dubbed pretty damn badly. :Servo:

I love this episode. :Iluvu: Since it came out on DVD it's hardly been out of the DVD player.

I did a little bit of research on Baba Yaga. Apparently the way Ivan ordered the house to turn its back to the woods and face him is the proper thing to say under the circumstances. Also, the house is supposed to be mounted on chicken legs. She's also supposed to fly around in either a ladle or a mortar. Whatever. I've been thinking about getting the uncut version, but it's a little out of my reach at the moment.

Was it even released on DVD? Well I know there have been more obscure and surprising movies brought to DVD, but then there have been other movies that haven't been brought to DVD that were twice as surprising! Still, even if it is on DVD it is probably harder than hell to find. :Servo:

Some people have it on eBay under the title Father Frost. Whether or not it was an official release or a dub off of something I don't know. It's been a little while since I looked.

I love this episode! The whole episode is just bizarre, not necessarily a bad movie but more "WTF were they on!".

My fav riff (after the witch sends out the cat) "Yeah, I'm just going to stand here and lick myself!" If you've ever owned a cat, you'll me ROLFing at that.

Also, in the doc Kevin mentions that he called the Finno-Russian the "troika" films, which is a Russian carriage with 3 horses. He thinks this movie is the only one actually with a Troika in it.

WRONG! The sword and the Dragon has a troika in the final battle scene towards the end bringing water to the warriors. :)

Wow, good eye there Shorty. I didn't see that the last time I watched Sword
and the Dragon. I'll have to look for it next time.

Oh and welcome to the board :welcome:

Thanks Justin!

You have to watch it looking for one though, it's only there for less than a minute.

After watching the DVD of Jack Frost I decided to watch them all looking for one. :lol:

Oh evil sits bath, sooth me! :Servo:

I just watched this again for the umpteenth time and I started to wonder something. Did Granny ever get her stick back? It seems like Ivan immediately went wandering around looking for Nastinka without ever completing his contemplated good deed. Maybe Father Mushroom gave it back to her. Or maybe she could just use one of the sticks in her bundle.

OR maybe..... she was never there to begin with! :blink: *twilight zone theme* :Servo:

Time to drop the hammer here...

Jack Frost was mediocre on a good day. The riffing was hit or miss (mostly miss) and there were hardly any big laughs in it at all. Some good chuckles with the best coming from the dog ("Get back in the basement, old man!"). Then you get the host segments - pretty much unwatchable.

The movie itself was incredibly interesting, but for an MST3K episode it doesnt measure up to their heavy hitters. In fact, it was a major dud.

C- (on the strength of the pure craziness of the movie itself)

Well i've commented on several of MJ's top episodes saying i thought he overrated them, so its only fair that i comment on this one and say that i agree 100%. I have never made a formal list of my favorite episodes, but Jack Frost would definitely be in the running for my top 5. It's hilarious all the way through.

A+