Hello, my friends, happy Saturday Morning and Merry Christmas. As it is Christmas day, naturally today's cartoon selection will be completely made up of Christmas cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection begins with one of my favorite Christmas cartoons of all time, Mickey's Good Deed (1932). This film was from 1932, at this time, Mickey was at the absolute height of his popularity. He was famous in a way that no cartoon character before had ever been. Critics often compared his popularity to that of Charlie Chaplin's little tramp, and like that character Mickey had fans of all types. He was equally popular with intellectuals and small children. In fact, this same year Walt Disney would receive a special Academy Award for creating Mickey. Renowned Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein (best known for his silent film The Battleship Potemkin (1925)) was a huge fan and even wrote essays on Walt Disney, that discussed the brilliance of Mickey Mouse cartoons (He would remain a huge Disney fan and even later call Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) the single greatest film ever made). Almost every other American cartoon studio was copying what Disney had done with Mickey Mouse. Characters like Foxy (at Warner Brothers) and Cubby Bear (at Van Beuren) were extremely thinly disguised copies of Mickey himself. In fact, in 1931, the Van Beuren studio was sued by Walt for using two mice characters that looked exactly like Mickey and Minnie. There was no doubt, Mickey was movie royalty. Mickey did for animated comedies, exactly what Charlie Chaplin's little tramp had done for live action comedies. Like the comedy films made before Chaplin, the animated comedies before Mickey were often very funny, but you very rarely felt any other emotional response to what was happening on screen. Mickey changed all that and nowhere was it clearer than in Mickey's Good Deed. You may notice that this doesn't sound like your typical cartoon short of the era, and my point is it isn't. This film while not sacrificing the slapstick comedy, also adds a lot of drama to the story itself. However, the Disney studio understood exactly what Chaplin had found out earlier. If the comedy and the drama are both driven by the story and characters, they can both easily co-exist. This idea is done to absolute perfection in this cartoon. This is a beautiful and moving film, while it never forsakes the comedy. The following is a review from The Film Daily, "Right up there with the best of these animated cartoons. Subject has a special holiday flavor in that it shows how Mickey and his dog manage to bring cheer into a big family of needy animal folks. Clever and lively as usual." The following is an exhibitor's review from The Motion Picture Herald, "Mickey's Good Deed: Mickey Mouse - Christmas cartoon. Kids like Mickey. That's why they come. One Mickey Mouse cartoon on your Saturday's program brings the kiddies out to the matinee. Running time, eight minutes. - Edmund M. Burke. Fort Plain Theatre, Fort Plain, N.Y. General Patronage."
After this we celebrate Christmas with Pooch the Pup in Merry Dog (1933). This movie has everything I love about Walter Lantz cartoons of this era. The jokes are incredibly silly and more often than not just plain strange. In fact, this film is pretty much one bizarre joke after another, and I simply love it. The following is an exhibitors review from the Motion Picture Herald, "MERRY DOG, THE: Pooch the "Pup—Excellent cartoon for anybody's program. "Night Before Christmas" theme with snowstorm and blizzard effects which almost made us forget that it was the hottest day of the summer. (106 and no shade.) Running time. 8 minutes. —Wm. Sayre, Delmar Theatre, Morrill, Neb., Rural and small town patronage."
Coming up next is Bugs Bunny in The Fright Before Christmas (1979). This cartoon was originally a part of the half-hour TV special, Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (1979). As well as Bugs Bunny this short features Taz. This is the first time the character appeared in a cartoon not made for movie theaters and the first time he was directed by someone other than Robert McKimson (here he is directed by Friz Freleng). This cartoon also features Bugs nephew, Clyde. Clyde had only appeared in two theatrical shorts, His Hare Raising Tale (1951) and Yankee Doodle Bugs (1954). Both of those movies were directed by Friz Freleng.
Next comes a classic Fleischer Brothers cartoon, Christmas Comes but Once a Year (1936). This movie is from the color classics series, which was in many ways their answer to Disney's Silly Symphonies. Most of the color classics featured only one-shot characters but this cartoon was an exception. This movie stars Grampy, an eccentric inventor who had appeared in the Betty Boop cartoons. This film is Grampy's only cartoon without Betty. The title song would later be used in the Popeye cartoon, Let's Celebrake (1938) with the lyrics changed to make it a New Years' song.
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Up next comes a classic Silly Symphony, The Night Before Christmas (1933). Though the Silly Symphonies were mostly one off shorts, the occasional sequel could happen (with the Three Little Pigs sequels being the most well known). The Night Before Christmas is a follow up to the often better remembered Santa's Workshop (1932). Yet as much as I love Santa's Workshop, I love this sequel even more. It could be argued that this movie picks up where the previous one left off, as the last one ends with Santa leaving the North Pole for his trip and this cartoon has him visiting houses. This is a reissue and there is a bit of a difference towards the end. In the original 1933 version, Little Junior is disappointed to get a chamber pot for Christmas. Here he is happy to get a puppy. In this version we do get a bit of Junior getting a blackface appearance from the chimney soot that would be cut out when the film was shown a Disney TV Christmas special in 1983. For all four years of the original Mickey Mouse Club, this would be the Mousekartoon on the last new episode to be aired before Christmas. The following is a brief article from The Film Daily (dated December 28, 1933), "In conjunction with the showing of Walt Disney's Silly Symphony, 'The Night Before Christmas,' The Radio City Music Hall is exhibiting six original Walt Disney drawings used in the production of this picture. The short, a united Artists release, will be held over a second week." A review of the cartoon in The Film Daily called The Night Before Christmas "... one of Walt Disney's best cartoons." Not everyone was so impressed as evidenced by the following exhibitor's review from The Motion Picture Herald, "NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, THE: Silly Symphony—These Silly Symphonies arc okay, but not worth difference in rental United Artists asks for them. -P. G. Held, New Strand Theatre, Griswold, Iowa. General patronage."
Next is the Harman and Ising, Happy Harmonies cartoon, The Pups Christmas (1936). This movie is part of a short-lived series of short films MGM made involving two curious puppies.
Now let us close by all singing one together.
Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
The Disney Villain by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson
Disney by Sergei Eisenstein
Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series by Russell Merrit and J.B. Kaufman.
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