Santa's Surprise

"Santa's Surprise" is from Famous Studios--the cartoon factory owned by Paramount. Up until the early 1940s, it had been Fleischer Brothers, but the brothers were long gone by the time this cute cartoon was made.

It begins with Santa making Christmas deliveries--and several kids from around the world (including Little Audrey in her first cartoon) sneaking onto his sleigh. No, they are not terrorists but nice kids who want to do something nice for him when he returns home. So, the kids clean up Santa's place and leave his a Christmas tree with a present just for him.

While this cartoon is pretty cute (especially the very end), I am pretty sure it's damned by good intentions that haven't kept up with changing times. Some of the kids (especially the black one) are real stereotypes and I am sure some folks would take offense, though the Dutch kid is by far the stupidest one and I assume the Dutch have thick enough skins to handle that. All in all, quite enjoyable but not up to the standards of the best cartoon shorts of the day--which were mostly coming from Looney Tunes and MGM.

A rather enormous and singing Santa Claus finishes up his annual present delivery and heads back to the cabin he calls home in the North Pole to pass out alone! But unbeknownst to him a ragtag group of kids from all corners of the globe secretly hitch a ride in his sleigh and decide to try and do something nice for the jolly bringer of holiday cheer as he sleeps by doing his chores while trying to keep quiet.. So I immediately noticed that this is definitely not Disney's work or even up to the standard of a Fleischer cartoon, but it is cute and amusing enough, it's just pretty standard stuff all around. It's certainly shameless when it comes to the old fashioned stereotypes though, except for little Audrey who represents America and of course leads the rest of the children into action, none of them have an inkling of personality beyond playing up to their specific nationalities all the time, it's the laziest thing.. The Russian boy just wears one of those stupid big hats and says "Da!" I wasn't that particularly fussed about the 'terrible' stereotypes, just by the overall lameness of it, and by the lack of any real Christmas joy or spirit that was put into such a bland little short. I didn't like the design of Santa or of the children, he looked like a giant red blob and they all had the same ugly balloon-like heads. I didn't care for the music either, it wasn't endearing, it was twee and annoying! It bugged me too with some of the details, like I know these things are never meant to make perfect sense but it annoyed me when Little Audrey tied the pillows around the dumb Dutch kid's clogs instead of just taking the dang things off! One thing that really made me laugh was just how kind of sad it was when Santa wished himself a Merry Christmas with no sign of a Mrs Claus anywhere! So while this may not be the most entertaining vintage cartoon ever made, which it isn't, it does have a well meaning story of giving back at Christmas for a change, and hey, it's an old Christmas cartoon, and all old Christmas cartoons are just special! Just turns out that some are a little more special than others.. Just about passable as a watch around Christmastime, pleasantly awful. X

. . . will be left wondering "How did the kids get back home?" It's not as if the gal with an unadorned torso will be able to get very far above the Arctic circle cloaked only in a floral wreath. If the actual temperature doesn't get her, the windchill factor surely will. Furthermore, how practical do you think the Dutch boy's wooden shoes are trekking across a polar ice cap? It seems like the silver skates of Hans Brink Ear would be more practical conveyances Up North than lumbering clogs. Finally, the idea that poorly identified stowaways of unknown intentions could tag along on an international flight without any security screening whatsoever is very troubling.

This yet another Christmas short, This is only nine min9 short Cartoon

I though this was really well made,

The cartoon as some very sweet moments, there also some good musical moments which are really limited, the songs were decent and fitted the inreally well.

This short as very good and funny, fun for the whole family.

The writing was really good too,

The Animation was good, for the times, some may find it a little out dated.

I think kids, even these days, will really enjoyed this short, it very well

I going give this 8 out of 10

This is a cartoon about some kids who decide that since Santa does so much for them every year, they should do something for him. So they break into his house and attempt to help him clean.

Like so many things from the 1940s, this cartoon is full of what would today be considered offensive racial stereotypes in what was probably an attempt at diversity. Check out the design on the black and Chinese kids, especially.

The animation is very cheap and the songs are pretty bad, but it does have some charming (cute) sight-gags. And it's only nine minutes long, so you won't waste too much of your life.