Professor Hinkle

"Give me back my hat!"

- Professor Hinkle

Professor Hinkle (simply known as Hinkle or the Magician) is the sole main antagonist of the 1969 Christmas television special Frosty the Snowman.

He was voiced by the late Billy DeWolfe.

Role
On the day before Christmas (and Winter Break), the protagonist named Karen and her friends' teacher decided to bring in Professor Hinkle. Professor Hinkle is really bad at performing magic tricks, and accidentally breaks two eggs onto the floor. Soon later, school is dismissed for Winter Break, and a gust of chilly wind carries Professor Hinkle's magic hat and the hat lands on the children's snowman, Frosty. Frosty comes to life, saying "Happy Birthday!".

Professor Hinkle snatches the hat away from the snowman, pretending he didn't see the snowman come to life. After walking a long distance, his rabbit, Hocus Pocus tricks Professor Hinkle, by quickly snatching his hat, and replacing it with a wreath. Hocus returns it to Frosty, who comes back to life again. However, Frosty is very distressed at how warm the climate is where they are, so one of the children recommends that he goes to the North Pole. Karen wants to come with Frosty, so she does.

They go to the train station, and hitch a ride on a refrigerated train going to the North Pole. Unfortunately, Professor Hinkle has realized by now that Hocus is a traitor, and he sees Frosty and Karen get onto the train, and he hitches a ride as well, telling himself to "think nasty" while laughing.

Karen is freezing, inside the box car, so Frosty makes the decision to leave the box car. Professor Hinkle sees that they have outsmarted and replied "Oh, you tricked me! NO FAIR!" and leaves the train too, but he ends up falling down the mountain, crashes into a tree, and a squirrel laughs at him.

Frosty asks Hocus to tell the animals living in the forest to make a fire for Karen, as he is fearful that in the harsh climate of the North Pole, she will not be able to survive and feels it's best to take her home. Hocus then suggests to get help from Santa Claus, but Frosty claims credit in the end, much to Hocus's dismay.

Hinkle comes running and begins to maliciously extinguish Karen's fire until Frosty comes to her aid and tells him to stop. Hinkle demands for Frosty to hand over the hat, then unsuccessfully tries to take the hat by force. Frosty and Karen have no choice but to flee. Since Frosty is made out of snow, he performs a belly whopping slide and goes much faster on snow, than Professor Hinkle does.

At the bottom of the hill, Frosty and Karen encounter a Greenhouse, much to Frosty's relief. Karen can now stay inside the Greenhouse, while Santa Claus is coming. Despite Karen's objections, Frosty also comes into the Greenhouse, saying that he could "lose a few pounds."

Soon an exhausted Professor Hinkle, finally having caught up to them, slams the Greenhouse door shut, trapping Frosty and Karen, and laughing evilly as knowing that he has finally caught Frosty. Santa Claus arrives, but it is too late for Frosty, because he sadly melted to a puddle, and looks as if Hinkle had killed him.

Karen weeps for the death of Frosty, but Santa Claus explains to her that since Frosty is made out of Christmas snow, he can never melt away completely. Santa opens the Greenhouse door, and revives Frosty back into his snowman form. Professor Hinkle demands for his hat one last time. Only does he stop, when Santa threatens to permanently put him on the naughty list. This makes Professor Hinkle feel guilty. Santa tells Professor Hinkle to "go home and write 'I'm sorry for what I did to Frosty' a hundred zillion times". And "maybe just maybe" Santa will give him a new top hat.

Professor Hinkle then writes apology letters, as Santa and Frosty return Karen home.

It is shown in the credits, that Professor Hinkle is now redeemed and walking proudly with his new top hat.

Personality
Hinkle is a cunning, fraudulent, manipulative, and egotistical magician who is hired to perform at the school's Christmas party. The narrator describes him as the worst magician in the world, as shown when his equipment falls and whose tricks go awry; he puts eggs into his magic hat, which all fall on the floor, and he fails to pull his playful and mischievous pet rabbit, Hocus Pocus, out of the hat. He also has a tendency to repeat adjectives and adverbs when excited or stressed, such as "Messy, messy, messy," or "Busy, busy, busy!".

Trivia

 * Professor Hinkle is similar to Norman Snively from Air Bud.
 * Both are unsuccessful performers (Hinkle being a magician and Snively a clown respectively)
 * Both abuse or mistreat their pets (Hocus pocus the rabbit and Buddy the dog)
 * Both are obsessed with getting a certain possession back to get rich quick (Hinkle tries to steal back Frosty's magic hat, and Snively tries to take Buddy from the Framm family).
 * He is referred to on-screen as Professor Hinkle, but is only credited as The Magician.