The Night Before Christmas - Tom and Jerry

Well it's that time of year again so I figured I would tis the season with the classic 1941 Tom and Jerry Cartoon "The Night Before Christmas". 

The Night Before Christmas was released in theaters on 6 December 1941 and was nominated for the 1941 Academy Award for Best Short Subject : Cartoons. It was the third of the 114 Tom and Jerry Cartoons MGM released so Tom and Jerry are still in their early days of developement here.

The cartoon begins with the usual cat and mouse antics but the spirit of Christmas soon takes over and proves the even a cat and mouse can be touched by the season and for at least a day be nice to one another.

Enjoy and oh yeah...Merry Christmas!!!   

Christmas Comes Once A Year

The short begins in an orphanage, where the orphans are all asleep, awaiting Christmas morning. Just then, the clock chimes, a puppy in the place of the cukoo jumps out, the slides down a ramp and licks on one of the orphans. The first orphan to wake shouts to the others, "Merry Christmas, everybody!" And all the orphans jump out of bed and head to the hall, singing the title song. They grab the toys from their stockings, and get ready to play with them. However, they discover that the toys are already broken and fall apart completely when played with. The children are traumatized and begin cry.


Meanwhile, Professor Grampy is out riding through the snow in his motor-driven sleigh, singing the title song to himself. He soon hears crying from inside the orphanage, so he parks the sleigh, runs to the door and peeps through the window to see the orphans still sobbing and heading back to their bedroom. Grampy is discouraged and starts to think of a way to give the orphans a better Christmas. He puts on his thinking cap, and shortly, the lightbulb on the cap blinks, meaning he has an idea. He sneaks in through the kitchen window and starts making new toys out of household appliances.

Finally, he dresses up as Santa Claus (with black stove pipes as the boots, a red table cloth as the jacket, a pillow for the weight, a strop as the belt, a picture frame as the buckle and a red purse as the hat), grabs a dinner bell, and surprises the orphans by ringing the bell and shouting, "Merry Christmas, everybody!" The orphans brighten up instantly , they all rush out excitedly to play with their new toys. Grampy completes the scene by making a Christmas tree out of green umbrellas. He decorates it, places it on top of a phonograph turntable, gathers all the orphans together and they all sing the title song one last time. As they sing, a giant Christmas Seal stamp appears on the screen, showing Santa Claus and a "Holiday Greetings" message.

The orphans were all animated based on a template of one of them, whose toy soldier falls through the sock. The short was directed by Dave Fleischer, it starred Jack Mercer as the voice of Grampy from Betty Boop fame. Along with many of the other Color Classics, Christmas Comes But Once a Year is today in the public domain. The film was animated by Fleischer Studios and released on December 4, 1936. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures. On various video copies of the film, it is released with Hector's Hectic Life, and a few other productions by Famous Studios, including Snow Foolin'. Certain prints also contain Jack Frost, a 1934 cartoon produced by Ub Iwerks and released through Celebrity Productions.

The Night Before Christmas

I am going to do something one time and one time only. That something is: post a Walt Disney cartoon.              Make no mistake about it I am not a fan of Disney cartoons. With that being said it is Christmas and I'm in the Christmas mood so i'll let it my "No Disney Cartoons" rule slide this one time.                                            

The Night Before Christmas was released on December 9, 1933 and continues the story of 1932's Santa's Workshop. A narrator sings the opening stanzas of the classic poem while we see the house at rest. Santa lands on the roof, comes down the chimney, and opens his bag. The toys march out and decorate the tree, with the toy soldiers shooting balls from their cannon, a toy airplane stringing a garland like skywriting, and the toy firemen applying snow. A blimp delivers the star to the top. Meanwhile, Santa fills the stockings. His laughter awakens the children, who sneak out. The toys rush to their places, and Santa escapes up the chimney just in time. The closing verse is sung.

Alias St. Nick

Alias St. Nick was released by MGM on November 16, 1935. As with all MGM cartoons from this time period it was directed by Rudolf Ising and produced by both Ising and Hugh Harman.

The storyline goes something like this. It's Christmas Eve and Mrs. Mouse is reading "A Visit from St. Nicholas" to her brood, but Little Cheeser is having none of it- he doesn't believe in Santa Claus! Meanwhile, outside, a vagabond cat battles a fearsome blizzard. The cat overhears them arguing about the existence of Santa Claus, so, seeking shelter, he dresses up as St. Nick in order to get himself a Christmas dinner of mice. Little Cheeser is bored, as he doesn't believe in Santa. Against his mother's will, he strikes out on his own. He is influenced by the Devil himself to go wrong. The naïve Mrs. Mouse lets in the fake Santa, but fortunately, Little Cheeser doubts that the cat is really Santa. Little Cheeser and the "wolf in Santa's clothing" have an exciting time on Christmas Eve. After Little Cheeser gets into trouble, he goes running home to mother. He soon unmasks the nefarious imposter, and he assaults the stray feline with toy tanks and steam shovels.

Unforantely I wasn't able to find a print of this cartoon without the TCM logo on it. There is an edited print avalable on youtube without the TCM logo but I'm not into posting edited versions so that's a no go. While it does upset me when these networks put their logo's on these old cartoons, I'm not gonna rant and rave about it because that would be a waste of time.

Alias St. Nice marked the  first appearance of Little Cheeser in the Happy Harmonies series. Unlike Warner  Brothers cartoons early MGM cartoons were not limited to the 6 minutes or less timeframe rule. This cartoon lasts for over ten minutes. Some might say that's nine minutes too long as the short is pretty low on humor, it goes for cuteness instead and suffers for it. Some fun voice characterizations is about all this short has going for it.

The Pup's Christmas

The Pup's Christmas was released by MGM on December 12. 1936 as part of the Happy Harmonies Theatrical Cartoon Series. Rudolf Ising directed and with a little help from Hugh Harmon also produced the short.

Two frisky little pups go on a rampage with the toys under the Christmas tree. The two little puppies are excited to experience their very first Christmas. As the human kids play with their toys, the pups watch, fascinated. The pups are eventually terrified by a stuffed Dalmatian dog, a talking "Mama!" dolly, and a diabolical toy tank which will not leave them alone! Finally, the tank has a battle royale with a wind-up airplane as the pups scurry to the safety of their doghouse. By the time the parents are up, the pups and the other toys have managed to break just about all the toys.

Looney Tunes Christmas Carol

From 1979 it's the Charles Dickens classic done up Looney Tunes style. Yosemite Sam is miserly Ebenezer Scrooge and Porky Pig, is Scrooge's clerk, Bob Cratchit. Cratchit is fired on Christmas eve for the unpardonable act of using coal to keep warm. When Scrooge evicts Cratchit and his family from their modest dwelling, heroic Bugs Bunny decides to dress like a ghost and teach the hot-tempered miser a lesson on the meaning of Christmas.

There are several errors in this short so here's what you should be watching for. When Bugs Bunny quietly sneaks a piece of coal into Crachit's workroom, Scrooge is counting his money and reaches 5,887. Bugs Bunny leaves, and Scrooge's cat notices a piece of coal missing from the fire. When he makes Scrooge lose count, Scrooge had just counted 5,889. There is a gap of over fifteen seconds between this and Scrooge counting 5,887. During this time, Scrooge would have exceeded 5,900.


The pillows on Scrooge's bed disappear when he runs to the window to see what is who is singing "Deck The Halls".  When Bugs Bunny (disguised as a ghost) appears to Scrooge, he has his arms up and his eyes wide. In the next shot, (close-up) his arms are outwards and his eyes are angry. Bugs Bunny (disguised as a ghost) puts his arms up when he tells Scrooge that he's taking him to see the man in the red suit. Bugs' shadow, however, does not put its arms up. The door is closed when Scrooge asks the ghost, "Down there?" In the next shot, the door is open.

Peace On Earth

Peace on Earth is a 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon short directed by Hugh Harman, about a post-apocalyptic world populated only by animals.


Two young squirrels ask their grandfather on Christmas Eve who the "men" are in the lyric "Peace on Earth, good will to men." The grandfather squirrel then tells them a rotoscoped history of the human race, focusing on the neverending wars men waged. Ultimately the wars do end, with the deaths of the last men on Earth, two soldiers shooting each other. Afterwards, the surviving animals discover a copy of the Bible in the ruins of a church. Inspired by the book's teachings, they decide to rebuild a society dedicated to peace and nonviolence (using the helmets of soldiers to construct houses). The cartoon features an original song written to the tune of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing".

According to Hugh Harman's obituary in the New York Times and Ben Mankiewicz, host of Cartoon Alley, the cartoon was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. However, it is not listed in the official Nobel Prize nomination database. Mankiewicz also claimed that the cartoon was the first about a serious subject by a major studio. In 1994, it was voted #40 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. It was also nominated for the 1939 Academy Award for Short Subjects (Cartoons). It did not claim that honor (which instead went to Walt Disney's Silly Symphony The Ugly Duckling).

William Hanna and Joseph Barbera remade the cartoon in CinemaScope in 1955. This post-World War II version of the film, entitled Good Will to Men, featured updated and even more destructive forms of warfare technology such as flamethrowers, bazookas, and nuclear weapons.

This version used a choir of mice as the main characters, and also had more direct religious references (the Book is called "The Bible", while in Peace on Earth is simply referred to as the book of human's rules). The new Hanna-Barbera version was also nominated for the Best Animated Short Subject Oscar. This was William Hanna & Joepsh Barbera's First (and Last) One-Shot cartoon since War Dogs.

The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives

Christmas Eve 1933,  A poor orphan boy trudges through the snow, pathetically. He finally arrives at his miserable cabin. While he is crying, Santa arrives and, singing the title song, offers to take the boy to his workshop. They arrive, and the toys go wild. He plays with a few toys. A candle falls off the tree and starts a fire. The toys try in vain to fight the fire; the boy hooks up a hose to a set of bagpipes and takes care of it.

Much like many of the Warner Brothers cartoons from this time this cartoon is not very good. The plot is thin and to be honest there's just nothing very original or remarkable about it. On the positive side the animation is adorable and nicely done for how early this cartoon is.

Thr music is mostly enjoyable with some entertaining sequences like the title song and a Kate Smith doll singing, "Shine on Harvest Moon". It was during this period that the Merrie Melodies shorts' purpose was to showcase a song that was published by the Warner Bros. publisher in each short with the showcased song's title the name of the film. That's the case here. 

This is the uncensored version of the Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives so my apologies to the offended. In the censored version the second half of this cartoon is severely shortened due to the removal of three gags: the boy starting a wind-up toy "Sambo Jazz Band", a baby doll falling into a bucket of coal and emerging in blackface to say, "Mammy!" to which a nearby Mammy dolls responds,"Sonny boy!" and the doll from "Red-Headed Baby" and two black dolls singing a chorus of the title song.

Snow Business

Keeping with the Christmas theme since it is December here is 1953's Snow Business. This cartoon was actually produced in 1951 but wasn't released until 1953. Snow Business is one of my favorites out the Tweety and Sylvester series, probably because they were more friends than enemies.

What I enjoy most about this cartoon is that it's not your typical "Sylvester is starving so he tries to eat Tweety plot". They throw a starving mouse into the mix who tries to eat certains parts of Sylvester. How's that for a change of pace? Myself, I thinks it's brilliant.     

Heavy snow traps Sylvester the Cat and Tweety alone in Granny's mountain cabin. The standard expository Mel Blanc radio report announces that the roads will be blocked for six weeks. Panicked, Sylvester looks for food in the icebox, cupboards, and closets, finding nothing but boxes and boxes of bird seed. He quickly seizes upon the idea of coaxing Tweety into being cooked, proposing sailboat play (in a stock pot) and skating (in an oil-lined skillet).

 The Sylvester-chases-Tweety cycle is continually disrupted, however, by an unnamed mouse who is even hungrier and more desperate than Sylvester. The mouse seizes upon the idea of eating Sylvester, and has a great deal more luck in cooking various portions of the cat than Sylvester has in cooking Tweety.

 At cartoon's end, Granny arrives with a backpack full of food—all boxes of bird seed. Tweety and Sylvester (obviously disgusted at not having cat food) are both at the table eating the bird seed in bowls. The mouse has one last attempt at Sylvester, when Tweety asks Sylvester how he liked the bird seed and the mouse bites him on the tail with Sylvester yelling and flying up in the air, Tweety says "Aw, come now, it can't be that bad."

When this cartoon was shown on CBS, the part where the hunger-crazed mouse sticks Sylvester's tail in a toaster and Sylvester extinguishes the flames with an ashtray was cut.

Patient Porky

Patient Porky Stars Porky Pig and was directed by Bob Clampett, written by Warren Foster and scored by Carl W. Stalling. Patient Porky was released on September 14, 1940. The cartoon features the Bugs Bunny prototype, who has a mere cameo.

A title card at the beginning claims that the cartoon is adapted from a book called The Pains Came, but this is merely a joke, a pun off the novel and film The Rains Came.

The cartoon begins with a tour of a hospital. Porky checks in, with a stomach ache, caused by overeating at his birthday party. Instead of a real doctor, he encounters a patient posing as "Dr. Chilled-Air" (a reference to Dr. Kildare), who is eager to operate on him with a saw.

One of the many relics from the days when Porky Pig mostly appeared in black and white cartoons, Bob Clampett's "Patient Porky" does contain a racial stereotype (in the form of an elevator operator). As in "The Daffy Doc" two years earlier, an excessively eager physician (the forementioned "Dr. Chilled-Air")  tries to operate on Porky (in the earlier one, it was doctor wannabe Daffy Duck).

Having seen many of Porky's cartoons from his debut until the US entered WWII, one can see that the studio usually cast Porky in rather sedate, pedestrian roles: fireman, pilgrim, bullfighter. Therefore, this one was pretty much representative of the era. "You Ought to Be In Pictures" may have been the one exception. Porky's roles got really cool once Chuck Jones started directing him regularly after WWII, frequently casting him as a foil to Daffy's craziness.

Patient Porky is available, uncut and restored, on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5, Disc 3.