摘要：原文标题：The snowball effectChristmas films are cheesy, mindless and widely loved. Why?The obviousness is part of the appeal
原文标题：
The snowball effect
Christmas films are cheesy, mindless and widely loved. Why?
The obviousness is part of the appeal
滚雪球效应
圣诞电影俗气、无脑，却广受喜爱。为什么？
显而易见是吸引力的一部分
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THE STORY is set in a town called Hope Springs—your first clue to the film’s schmaltz—which hosts an annual snow-sculpture contest.
故事发生在一个名为“希望泉”的小镇——这是影片煽情情节的第一个线索——镇上每年都会举办一场雪雕比赛。
A local Michelangelo has sculpted a snowman with a chiselled face and rippling muscles.
一位当地的米开朗基罗式雕塑家雕刻了一个脸部轮廓分明、肌肉线条流畅的雪人。
On a whim, a young widow drapes a red scarf over the frozen figure; naturally, magic brings the ice-cold hottie, shivering, to life.
出于一时兴起，一位年轻的寡妇给这个冰冷的雕像披上了一条红围巾；奇迹般地，这条红围巾竟然让这位冰冷的帅哥在颤抖中复活了。
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Recently released on Netflix, “Hot Frosty” is a truly absurd Christmas film.
网飞最近上线了这部荒诞喜剧电影《这个雪男不太冷》。
No one in Hope Springs seems perturbed by a snow sculpture becoming a fully sentient being; one person simply shrugs: “It’s Christmas.”
在希望泉小镇，似乎没人对一个雪雕突然变成有意识的生物感到惊讶；有人只是耸耸肩说：“这是圣诞节嘛。”
Nor do viewers seem to mind the movie’s outlandish premise.
观众们也似乎对这部影片的离奇设定毫不在意。
Subscribers spent nearly 52m hours watching the film in the three weeks after its release; it has been one of the most popular movies on Netflix, enjoying nearly 35 times the demand of an average film in America, according to Parrot Analytics, a data firm.
据数据公司 Parrot Analytics 统计，订阅用户观影量达5200万小时；它是网飞平台上最受欢迎的电影之一，在美国的观看需求几乎是普通电影的35倍。
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“Hot Frosty” points to a hot area of entertainment: lighthearted, generally predictable, sometimes terrible Christmas films that people nonetheless love.
《这个雪男不太冷》揭示了一个热门的娱乐趋势：轻松愉悦、通常能猜到结局、有时质量不佳但人们依然喜爱的圣诞电影。
In 2023 144 of them were released worldwide—seven times more than in 2000.
2023年，全球共上映了144部圣诞类电影——是2000年的七倍。
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That was the year when Hallmark’s cable-television network started making festive fare in earnest; in 2024 it is releasing 32 films as part of its annual “Countdown to Christmas” event, in which at least three new films are broadcast every weekend, starting in October.
正是在那一年，贺曼有线电视网络开始真正投入制作假日节目；2024年，它将推出32部电影，作为其年度 “圣诞倒计时 ”活动的一部分，从10月开始，每个周末至少播放三部新电影。
The most-watched film made for cable TV this year was Hallmark’s “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story”, loosely inspired by the relationship of Taylor Swift, a pop star, and Travis Kelce, an American-football player.
今年有线电视网收视率最高的电影是贺曼的《假日达阵：酋长队的爱情故事》，该片大致以流行歌手泰勒·斯威夫特和美国橄榄球运动员特拉维斯·凯尔西的恋情为蓝本。
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A large majority of Hallmark films—over 90%—are romances with punny titles such as “To Have and to Holiday”.
贺曼出品的大多数电影（超过90%）都是爱情片，片名一语双关，如《假日之恋》。
Brandon Gray and Daniel Pandolph, two of the hosts of “Deck the Hallmark”, a podcast, have analysed around 1,000 Christmas films and observe that they “typically have some sort of baking scene” and “a big decision that has to be made by Christmas”.
播客节目《装点贺曼》的两位主持人布兰登·格雷和丹尼尔·潘道夫分析了约1000部圣诞电影，发现这些电影“通常都有一些烘焙场景”和“必须在圣诞节前做出的重大决定”。
Around 80% of them feature a decorating scene involving homes, gingerbread houses and more.
其中约80%的电影中都有装饰场景，包括房屋、姜饼屋等。
Most feature a montage, a hammy film-making technique that is otherwise out of style year-round.
大多数电影都采用了蒙太奇手法，这是一种过时的电影制作技术，但在圣诞电影中却不过时。
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For a long time, Hallmark had the holiday season wrapped up.
长期以来，贺曼一直独霸着假日电影市场。
But Netflix and other streamers are getting in on the festive action, tempted by the low budgets—the films generally cost less than $5m—and high returns.
但网飞和其他流媒体平台也被低预算（电影通常成本不到500万美元）和高回报所吸引，他们开始加入假日电影的制作。
In 2023 Hallmark released 40 original Christmas titles, according to Ampere Analysis, a research firm; meanwhile viewers could stream more than 70 on Netflix (a mix of new offerings and back-catalogue fare).
据研究公司Ampere Analysis称，2023年贺曼推出了40部原创圣诞电影；而与此同时，网飞上可供观众观看的圣诞电影超过了70部（包括新片和旧片）。
The platform is focusing on romance titles at the expense of productions aimed at children or families.
网飞平台正在重点推爱情题材的电影，而忽略了针对儿童或家庭的作品。
Another of the new releases in 2024, “Our Little Secret”, has accumulated nearly 95m hours of viewing.
2024年上映的另一部新片《我们的小秘密》已累积了近9500万小时的观看量。
Starring Lindsay Lohan, it follows a couple who split up years ago but meet again, unexpectedly, via their new partners.
该片由林赛·罗韩主演，讲述了一对多年前分手的情侣意外通过各自的新伴侣重逢的故事。
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Who likes such sparkly fluff, and why?
谁喜欢这种闪闪发光的泡沫剧，又出于何种原因呢？
Adult Christmas films are mostly watched by women, from millennials upwards.
成人圣诞电影的主要观众是千禧一代及以后的女性。
Many are busy preparing presents and food; few have time to sit down and give a film their full attention. The predictable plots, then, are an advantage.
她们中的许多人都在忙着准备礼物和美食，鲜少有人能坐下来专心致志地看电影。因此，可预知的情节反而成了优点。
“You know what’s going to happen,” Mr Gray says, “and so you can still do the things that you need to do, while also getting into the Christmas spirit.”
格雷先生说：“你知道接下来会发生什么，所以你仍然可以做你需要做的事情，同时也能感受到圣诞的氛围。”
Mr Pandolph adds that after a couple of glasses of mulled wine, it does not matter that the story is naff: in fact, “Your enjoyment of these movies goes up exponentially if you’ve been drinking.”
潘道夫补充说，在喝了几杯热红酒后，故事情节是否俗套就无所谓了：事实上，“如果你喝了酒，你对这些电影的喜爱度会急剧上升。”
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Russell Hainline, the writer of “Hot Frosty” and other holiday flicks, says that films such as his offer wish-fulfilment.
《这个雪男不太冷》和其他假日电影的编剧拉塞尔·海因莱因说，他的电影能带给观众梦想成真的满足感。
“‘Harry Potter’ has wands and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ has hobbits. Christmas movies have good people having good things happen to them all the time.”
“《哈利·波特》有魔杖，《指环王》有霍比特人。圣诞电影里好人总是能好事连连。”
The world would be a nicer place, he suggests, if it “was even a little bit more like a Christmas movie”.
他认为，如果“世界能稍微像圣诞电影那样”，那么这个世界将会更美好。
It is a cheerful idea. In fact, it sounds like a perfect line in a holiday film.
这是一个令人振奋的想法。事实上，这听起来就像是假日电影里的一句经典台词。
精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路
本文翻译整理: Irene
本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。
【重点句子】（3个）
“Hot Frosty” points to a hot area of entertainment: lighthearted, generally predictable, sometimes terrible Christmas films that people nonetheless love.
《这个雪男不太冷》揭示了一个热门的娱乐趋势：轻松愉悦、通常能猜到结局、有时质量不佳但人们依然喜爱的圣诞电影。
Most feature a montage, a hammy film-making technique that is otherwise out of style year-round.
大多数电影都采用了蒙太奇手法，这是一种过时的电影制作技术，但在圣诞电影中却不过时。
Many are busy preparing presents and food; few have time to sit down and give a film their full attention. The predictable plots, then, are an advantage.
她们中的许多人都在忙着准备礼物和美食，鲜少有人能坐下来专心致志地看电影。因此，可预知的情节反而成了优点。
来源：吉棠说电影