Friday, December 2, 2016

Countdown to Christmas: Santa's Surprise (1947)

Here's a Famous Studios Noveltoon that puts an entirely different spin on Santa Claus.

Contrary to later pop culture, Santa is depicted in "Santa's Surprise" as living alone at the North Pole, single and without elves to run his workshop. A group of kids from around the world stow away aboard Santa's sleigh to do some house cleaning while Santa sleeps.

As you'll see, this served as a back-door pilot for Little Audrey, who made her debut in this film, and would graduate to her own series the next year.



The only quibble is an aesthetic one. How did those kids survive without coats and hats, aside from the Dutch boy?

Rating: B+.

2 comments:

Chris Sobieniak said...

Let alone how did they get home, unless they managed to get the reindeer to help?

hobbyfan said...

They couldn't even find room to dismiss this as a collective dream, which would've made the most sense, Chris.