Sunday Morning Special: “The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives,” 1933

Nothing says Christmas fun like an orphan in the snow.  Okay, perhaps not.  We have a Christmas tradition in my family wherein we watch an odd assortment of vintage cartoons which we’ve dubbed, “The Sugar Plum Nightmares.”  This is one of them.  To be fair, it’s actually a very good bit of old animation distributed by Warner Brothers in 1933 and produced and directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising (“Harman-Ising”).  In typical 1930’s fashion, everyone bends at the knees a lot and there are some truly disturbing toys that, I think, are meant to be cute.  All the same, it’s fun, and I love it.  By the way, the song will stick in your head for the rest of the day.  My gift to you…