The story is simple and logical, and Sniffles’ behaviour is natural and understandable. The plot is that Sniffles decides to wait up for the arrival of Santa Claus but, as time passes, he becomes sleepy.
The cartoon was released about a month before Christmas 1940. At that time, Paul Julian was responsible for Jones’ backgrounds with John McGrew providing scenic layouts. They try to avoid stagey settings. Here’s an overhead shot.
During 1939 and into 1940, Rich Hogan and Dave Monahan got alternating story credits on Jones’ cartoons, with Bob Givens’ name added in the rotation between them several times. Hogan has the screen credit in this cartoon, but you can see Julian managed to put Monahan’s name into the cartoon. (Monahan moved into the Freleng unit credit rotation before going into the service in World War Two).
Shots looking up and down at Sniffles' radio.
A pun in the background, logical for the Sniffles home.
McGrew and Julian put this background scene on an angle.
Cartoon Rule No. 5214 says “Things inside a mouse home must have been repurposed from elsewhere.” Thus, we get eyedroppers as hot and cold water taps and a hollowed-out walnut shell as a garbage can. Jerry of “Tom and” and, later, Pixie and Dixie did this all the time, where a thimble would be a bedside table, that kind of thing.
Here’s a lovely shot that Jones pans left to right. The bed is made from an Acme comb, and is on an overlay. There are punny college pennants. You can click on it (and any pictures on the blog) to enlarge it.
The final shot is a pan to a window. The window frame is on an overlay, allowing the artist to animate Santa and his reindeer in silhouette to come into the picture to end the cartoon, as the Sportsmen Quartet sings “Joy to the World.”
There always has to be a Grinch or Scrooge out there. The anonymous manager of the Park Theatre in North Vernon, Indiana opined to the Motion Picture Herald of Dec. 7, 1940: “Merrie Melodies—One of the poorest in this series of cartoons. Very appropriate for Christmas season, however.”
Well, I’m neither a Sniffles nor Christmas nor deliberately-paced early-Jones aficionado, but this is a well-made, gentle short that holds up, even today.
It's a charming cartoon from any point of view, sweet without being cutesie. Perhaps theists object to a voiceover chorus singing "Joy to the world, the Lord is come" as Santa appears.
ReplyDeleteThen they must really have a problem with "A Charlie Brown Christmas," which is a sermon wrapped in piano jazz.
DeleteExactly Yowp!!! I also love the shot of the classic automotive ad in the magazine ; " Time to Re-Tire ? ". Making it even more difficult for Sniffles to stay awake. This one had great atmosphere.
DeleteJeff Lenburg (author of the oh-so-reliable-and-accurate "Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons"), in his book "The Great Cartoon Directors" took up space in his Chuckster chapter to single out this particular short for derision ("Gosh, how bad can a cartoon get?") that I thought was unwarranted. Glad his viewpoint seems to be in the minority.
ReplyDeleteI still have that book. Surprised he never once brought up Good Night Elmer, which is almost always singled out as one of Jones' weakest.
DeleteAlso wanted to note that I have the 1993 revised edition, which seems to have removed that whole comment. His heart probably grew 3 sizes that day....
DeleteWidespread pushback from readers might have led to its excision. And, yes, I was going to bring up GNE as well.
DeleteOne of my favorite early Jones shorts - a story most of us can relate to, excellent animation terrifically underscored by the great Carl Stalling and a nice ending.
ReplyDelete