Spring is Here Again

Winter is threatening trees in the Van Beuren short Spring Antics (1932).



But behold! The sun is rising. After winking at us, it warms up. It’s tough to see in this poor-quality transfer (aren’t there better ones out there?) but some kind of long-tailed imps with devil horns are stoking coal into the sun’s burner. Gene Rodemich plays a knock-off of the “Anvil Chorus” in the background.



Old Man Winter melts. That means spring is here again!



There’s usually odd fun in a Van Beuren cartoon. This isn’t as odd as some of them are, but we get a swishy goose, a groundhog’s shadow kicking the groundhog back into its burrow, an animal of indeterminate species tapping a microphone like the NBC chimes and conducting with its tail, and some Disney-like dancing (though not animated nearly as well).

Things pep up a little more than half-way through the cartoon with a quartet (frog, turtle, bear, squirrel) singing the song you hear below.

John Foster and Manny Davis get the “by” credit.