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.