User Reviews

There's not much special about this good-hearted, warm cartoon expect that it is just that, and kudos for that. A little boy, moping along at Christmas with no gifts and who lives in a barren shanty is suddenly taken to another shanty at the North Pole by Santa Claus himself.

From that point, the cartoon is a musical where the title song is sung several times and we see little toys coming to life, singing and dancing. When one of them accidentally sets the Christmas tree on fire, the kid saves the day by figuring out a way to put it out. He's the hero; end of story.

The song is catchy and typically upbeat '30s stuff. In one part, there is a little takeoff on Kate Smith (or at least someone who looks like her.) I saw this as one of the bonus features on the "Lady Killer" DVD. That's the Lady Killer film starring Jimmy Cagney.

A poor urchin boy makes his way through the blizzarding snow to the run-down old cabin he calls home, where he prepares to spend a cold hungry Christmas all alone...until he is unexpectedly visited by jolly old Saint Nick himself who bursts right through his rickety front door and whisks the little tyke away to his toy workshop where the toys are the all-singing all-dancing kind, and he finally gets to have the kind of magical happy Christmas he never dreamed he would! So I have seen far better animated vintage cartoons about Christmas over the years, including some real gems produced by the Fleischer Studios. This is nice enough though for what it is, it has some lovely rich touches to the animation here and there, like the shadows the church casts over the snow, and all the snow-covered rooftops as well as some of the backgrounds. Even in the earlier Fleischer shorts, snow in particular and backgrounds seemed to be something they were always good at, all of their snowy scenes always have the same warm dreamlike quality to me, and is always quite beautiful to look at. Some of the other designs I do not like as much though, like the button-eyed face of the boy, he looks like a white Bosko. And some of the casually racial stereotypes that seem to pop up in just about every cartoon from the 30s probably won't sit well with the more conscientious of viewers - watch out for the naughty jazz band! I really don't like when the fat lady starts to sing, as it's really bizarre and off-putting and really brings the pace of the short to a grinding halt. If there's one thing I don't care for at all with the old-time cartoons it's all the obnoxious celebrity(of the time) cameos! Overall though the style of the Fleischer animation is one that never fails to at least put a smile on my face. I love their trademark inventiveness with the kinds of sight gags that you'd only ever get in one of their cartoons, like with the makeshift multi-firehose that's hastily made out of the bagpipes! This wasn't anyway near perfect but I could appreciate what it was going for and it's enjoyable enough. It's clear they were still learning the ropes at this point. As a short, it is a shanty for sure, but it's a fun sweet one! Happy hols X

"The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives" is a 7-minute black-and-white sound cartoon from almost 85 years ago. It is a collaboration between Schlesinger Studios and Warner Bros and can be categorized under Merrie Melodies. The topic here is Christmas, not only because Santa makes an appearance, but because several Christmas tunes are included. The music is one of the film's strengths and same goes for the animation which is really clean and with more love to detail than most films from that era. Unfortunately, the story here is fairly uninteresting, almost non-existent, basically a collection of scenes with no real plot. This is also why I give this one a thumbs-down. Not even Harman and Ising can make this one work. I do not recommend it or really only during the holidays. Oh yeah, and it is not racist, do not be fooled by the politically correct plebs.

This is an early Warner Brothers black and white, more charming than funny. It more or less did what the studio wanted-it showcased a song from their music library. Not much was expected from the early shorts. Because I want to talk a little about the short, this is a spoiler warning:

A little orphan trudges "home" to a beaten up shack, hoping to find something from "Santy Claus", only to be disappointed at finding nothing. But all is not lost, for who should come up to the door and burst into the title song? That's right-"Santy Clause", who, after doing most of the song, invites the orphan back to the North Pole for Christmas.

There, we see the standard "toys come to life", with at least one caricature, of Kate Smith. There are one or two scenes featuring ethnic humor. The close of the short has the orphan saving the day by putting out a Christmas tree fire. During the Depression, there were quite a few such orphans and such an ending would have been enjoyed by audiences of the day.

This short is well worth seeing at least once. Recommended.