Christmas is my favorite time of year and it is definitely one of the most important for many animation fans. So I am going to share some classic Christmas cartoons for all of you. So Sit back and enjoy.
First up is a classic Mickey Mouse cartoon directed by Burt Gillett. Gillett mainly directed Mickey Mouse cartoons while at Disney, although he would direct one of the most famous Silly Symphonies cartoons, "The Three Little Pigs". This would lead to him becoming in charge of the Van Beuren Studio's cartoons, where he unfortunately was never able to recapture the magic he did at Disney. However this one of his Disney cartoons and one of his best from 1932, when Walt Disney was still doing the voice of Mickey, here is "Mickey's Good Deed"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANlOFyhZJSI
Next comes a Christmas cartoon oddly released on January 7th 1933. This cartoon is a Merrie Melodies cartoon from the Harmon-Ising era of Looney Tunes/Merie Melodies. Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising started the series and were the head creative people on them, they even owned the rights to all the recurring characters (making these characters have disappear from the two series after 1933). The work was divided by having Hugh Harmon direct the Looney Tunes while Rudolph Ising directed the Merrie Melodies. This is when there was a difference between Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Looney Tunes featured main characters (at this time Bosko and supporting cast) and were character, joke and story driven, while the Merrie Melodies featured mostly misalliances characters and were song driven. This is the perfect example of an early Rudolf Ising Merrie Melodie. It is fast, fun, unpretentious and centers around a very catchy song. From 1933 directed by Rudolf Ising, here is "The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1HA-J0Io4k
After there stint at Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising moved to MGM, where they were able to make there cartoons with higher budgets and in color. They took their characters such as Bosko and Honey with them, but they also created new characters as well. This is the introduction of one of those new characters, Little Cheeser. From 1935 and directed by Rudolph Ising here is "Alias St. Nick".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg9m5FCBWSw
Next Up a classic from the Fleshier Brothers. This is from the Color Classics series. Which ran from 1934 to 1941, and was meant to compete with Disney's very popular Silly Symphonies series. While these cartoons are often times considered weak rip offs of Silly Symphonies, and below the talents of the Fleshier Brothers (Who were truely great talents who I and many other consider masters of animation), the best of these series were absolute masterpieces. This is certainly one of the best Color Classics. It features the character Grampy, who had appeared in many Betty Boop cartoons, and was a great character in his own right. This is the only cartoon he appered in without Betty, and his only color cartoon, and it shows a great solo series could have been made with this character. From 1936, and directed by Dave Fleshier, here is "Christmas Comes But Once a Year"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4y8wj01MmU
Lastly for today comes an MGM cartoon, this time from animation legend Tex Avery. Tex Avery's MGM cartoons still stand out among the funniest cartoons ever made, and this cartoon perfectly shows why. The jokes fly at you at a fast pace and never let up and are often very funny. The father in this cartoon is voiced by Pinto Colvig, who had worked for Disney as a writer and the original voice of Goofy. The kid, and the wolf are voiced by Kent Rodgers who voiced Beaky Buzzard at Warner Brothers, and was one of the early voices for Wood Woodpecker at Walter Lantz. Kent Rodgers died during World War 2 leaving his voice career very short, but very enumerable. Enjoy this very funny classic Tex Avery cartoon from 1943, "One Ham's Family"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Y2tENd3SM
-Michael J. Ruhland
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