Release date: November 10th, 1934
Series: Merrie Melodies
Director: Friz Freleng
Starring: The Rhythmettes, The Varsity Three (Chorus)
Back to color, permanently this time! Now we’re using two-strip technicolor, focusing on red and green as opposed to the red and blue two-strip Cinecolor process. This seems to be a follow up to The Shanty Where Santa Claus Lives—a poverty stricken girl longs to have toys of her own, and it seems her wish may be granted after all.
Parallel to the introduction of The Shanty Where Santa Claus Lives, a little girl trudges through the snow, hugging her shawl close for warmth. She stumbles upon a toy shop and eagerly glances inside, enticed by the happy and warm nature of the toys. The scene is staged nicely—I love the detail of the street lamp in the background bent slightly.
Forlornly the girl continues her trek, wrapping her shawl around her and bracing against a terrible wind. The scene of her walking against the wind overstays its welcome slightly, stretching on for awhile, but it isn’t supposed to be a scene that’s urgent anyway. And, of course, Friz’s love of butt gags prevails as the wind blows some snow inside the girl’s pants. Can’t have anything too sad, now!
She approaches a tiny little shack and warms herself up by the stove conservatively. Even the mice are starving—a mouse that’s all skin and bones checks the contents of a bread box, thoroughly disappointed. The meager flame inside the stove is also disappointing. A few blows inflate it ever so slightly, but melting ice on the inside of the stove extinguished the flare with ease. The poor girl cries herself to sleep as she situates herself in the chair. The first half is drawn out, but again, there’s no need for urgency, and it establishes pathos quite effectively. You instantly feel bad for the girl.
The fun enters once one of the toys from the toy store approaches the shack, a gang of toys approaching behind her. Tentatively the leader creeps inside, finding the girl asleep at the chair. The coast is clear—the toy motions for the others to stroll on in.
A very cute scene as the toys spruce up the place as a nice little surprise. Firefighters eject red paint on the door, a horse spreads glue with its tail on some wallpaper waiting to be hung, and a bulldozer spreads the wallpaper, driving up the wall. The gags aren’t entirely original, but they’re very cute. The newness of the color enhances the scene entirely. I’m sure that same magic wouldn’t be there had the cartoon been in black and white, not that the black and white cartoons are dull by any means because of their appearance, but the cheeriness translates better in bright greens and reds. It’s a fitting cartoon to test out the two-strip technicolor process.
Hours fly by as indicated by a church clock (a very moody and pretty scene). The hands whirl from 9 to 12, and we spot the finished interior. A hearty fire roars in the fireplace, the wallpaper is cheery and happy, there are rugs and chairs galore... the girl has a proper home. All of the toys crowd around the slumbering girl and cheer, waking her up. She glances around in bewildered glee, absolutely delighted.
A few dolls launch into the titular “Those Beautiful Dames”, harmonies beautiful as always. There’s a quick tap dancing sequence from a windup jazz toy (featuring blackface caricatures as always... ugh) and all the dolls sing: a monkey and a trowel, a clown and a paintbrush, a bear with a hammer and saw... two more blackface dolls singing about how they made a chocolate cake for the girl, etc. The girl claps on the performance, thrilled. We have a tap dancing number between two jack in the boxes. Nothing too exciting, but the backgrounds are especially nice, the gaudy green and red floral curtains a nice touch. The color will definitely boost the enjoyment factor in these Merrie Melodies, adding some much needed charm (though black and white cartoons are just as beautiful... I suppose it all boils down to quality of the cartoon, which isn’t the say of the original creators).
Elsewhere, a toy dump truck gorges itself in chocolate cake as the dance rages on. Rude! This poor girl is starving! Both scenes go on for awhile, the dance and the eating, until a doll catches the truck in the act and scolds it. The truck mopes away like a dog with its tail between its legs.
The girl approaches a toy phonograph and gives it a few good cranks, putting on a record of “Those Beautiful Dames”. The animation of the teddy bears dancing on the base of the phonograph is very fun, very smooth, very well articulated, especially when they shuffle along to opposing sides (“turning corners” is the best way to describe it). Even more amusing to watch the dance halt, the bears all hopping on one leg and ogling at the record as it skips. The girl fixes it and the dance continues on. Some amusing moves from the girl herself as she boogies down to the melody. This cartoon isn’t anything too fascinating, but it’s a lot of fun, even if it’s not necessarily funny.
Two toy soldiers march in front of a set of doors and trumpet a fanfare. The doors open to reveal a marvelous, sugar coated feast for the girl, all of the toys cheering and whooping in celebration. Very cute to watch the girl happily walk along the table and fix herself a seat. A little pep is added to the scene as the girl turns the meal into an eating contest, declaring “One, two, three, go!” and all the toys indulging in plates of ice cream. This is a very feel good cartoon, even if it’s not the most exciting. I found myself smiling like an idiot at this part. How can you feel down watching a crane shovel ice cream into the mouths of various toys while happy jazz blares in the background?
Now, time for the girl to indulge herself. Some nice animation as the girl antics, reeling back to really get a good shovel full of frozen cow juice. Unfortunately for her, her ice cream is a protective layer to hide a jack in the box that springs out at her. She’s a good sport, though. Iris out as the girl joins in with the giggles and jeers of her fellow companions.
Interesting to note, the Merrie Melodies sign off would gain a new mascot. The tradition used to be that the star of the cartoon would sign off, either saying “So long, folks!” or “That’s all, folks”. It got to be quite entertaining when the sign offs with particular characters were reused often—Piggy, who had starred in only 2 Merrie Melodies, was used quite frequently as a sign off. Though it is pretty hard to keep up with a new sign off for EVERY cartoon, new voice and everything. Pretty hard and pretty costly. The jester would serve as the “mascot” for the 1934-1935 season.
A very endearing cartoon, much better than The Shanty Where Santa Claus Lives. It didn’t have much going for it, and was relatively... not exactly boring, but mild. Nothing really stood out to me (except the occasional blackface caricatures, which, at this point, I shouldn’t be surprised by seeing anymore. Still needs to be addressed as always). However, that’s not always a bad thing. This cartoon was very cute, very endearing, very sentimental. The ending was extremely feel-good and warm. I caught myself smiling like a goof while watching it. The girl, although without any discernible personality, was a character you wanted to root for, and thus it was satisfying to see her house all spruced up and to see her reunited with her toy friends. Worth a watch, especially towards the second half where the toys come in.
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