Michael's Christmas Movie Guide: The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives (1933)

 

The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives is one of the most perfect examples of a Rudolph Ising era Merrie Melodie. During this era (1931-1933) Hugh Harmon was directing all the Looney Tunes cartoons and Rudolph Ising was directing all the Merrie Melodies. Also at this time there was a distinct difference between the two series (though later they would essentially be the same with different names). The Looney Tunes featured the staring character of Bosko and did not have to revolve around a song number. The Merrie Melodies did not feature Bosko, but instead mostly focused on one shot characters (despite a few attempts to give the Merrie Melodies main characters (Foxy, Piggy, Goopy Geer)). They also always revolved around a song number. These songs were owned by Warner Brothers and often served as advertisements for that music.

The film begins with a little orphan boy is sad and alone on Christmas Eve. He hears an operatic voice (the last voice you would except to hear from Santa (Sadly I don't know who provided this voice)) outside his lonely shack. The door opens and there is Santa Claus. Santa takes the boy to the shanty where he lives. The toys perform the title song (written by Harry Woods). Unfortunately during this song number the Christmas tree catches on fire. The little Orphan boy puts it out and saves Christmas.

This film is everything that is great about Merrie Melodies from this era. It is full of a great sense of energy, the story is sweet and simple, it has good animation and it centers around a very catchy song. The fact that it centers around my favorite time of year doesn't hurt it at all either. This is a cartoon full of real, warmth charm and of course energy. This is one of my favorite Merrie Melodies from this era.

The animators on this cartoon were Rollin Hamilton and Norm Blackburn. Both had gotten there start working for Walt Disney on the Alice Comedies and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, as did Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising. 1933, the year of this cartoon was the last year Norm Blackburn would animate for Warner Brothers (he started for Warner Bothers in 1930). Rollin Hamilton (who also started for the studio in 1930) would continue animating for Warner Brothers until 1940.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
https://www.bcdb.com/cartoon-characters/87-Shanty-Where-Santy-Claus-Lives
imdb.com