To Spring

The animators here.get out their palettes and produce a remarkable visual animated feature. It is an explanation about how an army of elves defy old man winter and drive him away. The literally produce spring. My only criticism is that it is somewhat endless, with things repeated several times with an old codger's voice dominating.

A lovely example of how to weave animation magic. Gnomes wake up at the end of Winter and must mine the earth and pump the color above ground. If you see a decent print of this, the color scheme and animation make up for the fairly weak story. A++

I am sure this looked awesome to audiences back in 1936. They had seen color cartoons before but probably not anything this colorful. I had read where the visuals were fantastic in here but, after viewing hundreds of animated short features in the last year, I didn't find this extraordinary and I love great visuals.

Basically, it's just a bunch of little gnomes who live underground and sleep all winter. When spring arrives, it's their job to pump color into the landscape, so for most of this 9-minute cartoon we see them working feverishly to produce to the color. Meanwhile, "Ole Man Winter" gives it one last gasp to keep things dreary. At least that was my "take" on that segment. Living where I do, I've seen that happen many springs. Winter, sometimes, does not leave without a few last reminders.

After reading those glowing reports, maybe I expected more. The story was boring and seemed to go on way too long.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is a very lost player in the short cartoon market. This market is essentially dominated by the Looney Tunes and the Merry Melodies shorts, coming from Warner Bros. But MGM is also able of releasing hidden gems, like "To Spring", an astonishing story about the most beautiful season of the year.

In the environment depicted here, spring isn't caused by natural cycles, but is fabricated. And by who? By little male elves who live below ground. Each spring, when the snow begins to melt, they start working. They begin by felling rainbow rock columns, then reducing them to rubble and using this rubble to turn it into color fluids, which will be moved up to the ground and bearing grass, flowers... In other words, spring! The first half of the cartoon depicts spring's fabrication, but the second part is a little bit different. Old Man Winter comes back and he tries to extend winter by destroying the elves' work. So from this point, we assist to a battle between the elves and Old Man Winter.

The music heard here is deliciously wonderful. The melodic parts stick in the head like an ink spot on a paper sheet. The second part melodies are thrilling and they perfectly fit with the action. This is just fantastico, Giorgio! The animation sequences are also a delight. The colors are well mixed and every little detail is shown into a massive, epic environment. The concept itself is brilliant. The elves are attracting characters, so is Old Man Winter, who effectively portrays the cold and ruthless feelings of the white season.

There's also a strong message included here. The battle seems lost for the elves at the end, until a single late arriving elf jump into the action and it leads to the elves' victory over winter. So the point is: only one single person can make the difference.

In conclusion, "To Spring" is a remarkable lost classic from short cartoon era. What is even more remarkable is that this cartoon's director made his debut here. And who is "To Spring"'s director? It's a certain William Hanna...

This Harmon & Ising Happy Harmony cartoon gave MGM the opportunity to make use of the Technicolor process that, until recently, had been monopolised by Disney, so it is full of deep, rich colours. The film tells a fanciful tale that would soon be considered outdated with the arrival of the likes of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Winter is losing its grip on the land, signalling a gang of wizened, bearded elves living underground to start preparing the colours that will transform the countryside from a chilly white blanket to a rich canvas of colour. It's a quality little film, obviously made with great care – but it can't stand up to the likes of Foghorn and Yosemite