And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

Unfortunately, the only place this classic, Academy-Award-nominated short can be seen at all is that it is excerpted - in short snippets - in the "In Search of Dr. Seuss" video.

While Arnold Leibovit's excellent "The Puppetoon Movie" has many of Pal's greatest Puppetoon/"Madcap Models" shorts - and the extended version DVD has a dozen additional shorts(!) - the Dr. Seuss shorts are sadly lacking. I, and indeed many animation aficionados, would LOVE to eventually see "The Complete Puppetoons" in a DVD collection. (The auspices of a "complete" collection might be the only way to get many of the "Jasper" shorts out there as they tend to be controversial - though if Disney can present complete collections as part of their "Disney Treasures" and apologize for potentially offensive material with a little disclaimer from Leonard Maltin, I'm sure the same could be done on George Pal's behalf.)

In another of George Pal's Oscar-nominated Puppetoons, we have the tale of a young boy whose father always asks him what he saw on the way to and from school, He spots a horse pulling a cart, and gradually builds it up in his mind.

It's the movie version of Doctor Seuss' children's book, of course. This mixture of live-action and Pal's madcap models strts in the dull, commonplace world of black-and-white. It becomes more and more fantastic, with the lighting becoming brighter, and the fantastic hues of Technicolor infusing the screen.

Some of Pal's Puppetoons can be criticized for their old-fashioned and racist attitudes. This one is just delightful.

I am 55 years old this month and the only time I saw this partially animated short was on an old Motorola black and white television almost 50 years ago. So if this review seems to be amateurish and childish you would probably be correct because this is my first review ever and it is coming from the memory of me when I was a child. I can't even tell you if any of this feature is in color because our family did not have a color TV.

However if the test of time is any gauge on the 50 year memory imprint of a young mind I give this short the maximum rating possible. If my memory serves me correctly the portions where Marco the main character, is talking to his father and relating to the real world the feature is filmed with real props and actors. Only when Marco starts to embellish on his observations does it turn to animation.

I totally enjoyed this short as a child and haven't seen it since. I sure would like to though!