The Calico Dragon

A little girl -- I should write "widdle gir-rl" because that's how she would say it -- reads the end of a story, then goes to sleep. Whereupon all toys come to life and do cute things while singers sing cute songs.

Whoopee. Clearly this was the effect that Harman and Ising were trying for -- cuteness, I mean. They certainly do a fine job of color design with their two-strip Technicolor effects, where everything looks like calico, cheap decorated cotton fabric. It got that name because it used to be imported for Calcutta in Indian.

Anyway, if you have a taste for this sort of thing, or need a good purgative, this is a cartoon for you.

A young girl is regaling her toys with stories of a legendary and fearsome dragon when she dozes off to sleep. That gives her brave rag doll and his trusty steed just the opportunity that they need, and so together with their terrier they set off to find and confront this menacing creature. When they finally get to it's castle, after a little mischief along the way, they discover it has three heads! What hope they can defeat it? It's all obviously set amidst the chintzy world of the girl's patchwork bedding with some musical proof that it wasn't just Col. Sanders who could rhyme chicken with lickin'. The animation is a bit muted, but it's still quite a fun illustration of just how our imagination could be left to do a lot of the work if we had a good book to set the scene for us. Not great, but still quite charming.

THE CALICO DRAGON is truly a beautiful, enjoyable cartoon tale about a little girls stuffed animals coming to life in her dreams and looking for adventure. The calico dragons and their song are engrained in mine and my friends minds and having seen "Calico" on CartoonNetwork last year, it still holds up. I only wish it was available on video along with some of the other MGM classic cartoons, or that CN would have a regular MGM Classic hour!

This cartoon's use of color and background detail is excellent. Sometimes, the story and the action is just too cute for my tastes, but it more than makes up for this visually. The dragon is great! Nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short, this runs on Cartoon Network occasionally and, when TCM does its annual "Salute to the Oscars" in March, this has been used as filler between features in years past as have other shorts, both animated and live-action. Recommended.

A little girl reads the fairy tale story, The Princess and the Dragon, to her dolls. She falls asleep. In her dream, her dolls come alive. A doll rides a horse to battle the dragon with a little dog in tow.

It's Happy Harmonies from MGM. It's a Hugh Harman - Rudolf Ising cartoon. It's an old-style animated cartoon. It's colorful but dull looking. It's the age of the animation. It's not one that I particularly like. The little girl is a bit problematic. She has the fake doll look. I do like the concept of these stuffed animals coming alive. It's a good short. They just need to make a better girl.