The Pups' Christmas

"The Pups' Christmas" is one of those animated Christmas shorts that is low on humor, depending on cuteness to sustain it. The story concerns a bunch of kids and their puppies who sneak downstairs on Christmas Eve to see what Santa brought them. About midway through, it seems that the film makers couldn't decide whether to do a Christmas film with puppies or a toys come alive story. Both elements are used and neither works. A sequence involving an out of control toy tank shows promise, but it quickly fizzles out yet refuses to go away. The quality of the animation is about average. All around a pretty boring short.

Slight but cute Christmas cartoon from Harman-Isling. This is about a couple of puppies who follow the kids down to open presents on Christmas morning. It's basically a series of bits where the pups are frightened by each of the toys and generally make a mess. These kids must have been from a rich family because that's a lot of presents, especially for 1936. Anyway, it's treacly stuff but pleasant and innocent. I would assume it was aimed at pre-schoolers. I'm not sure about the movie-going habits of the 1930s and if people took kids that little to the movies or not. But I can't imagine this was aimed at older kids.

Two puppies explore the house in the aftermath of gift-giving on Christmas in this Harman-Ising cartoon.

I have a great deal of trouble with the MGM cartoons of these two animators. They're usually highly moral fables about how you should always listen to mama, and the cuteness factor is amped up so high, I can't take it. My taste is for jokes and a lot of sarcasm, so I greatly prefer Warner Brothers cartoons from about 1937 through 1960, pre-Code Fleischer cartons, and Tex Avery cartoons. Here it's all cuteness, and that doesn't entertain me much.

Nonetheless, there's no arguing with the technical excellence of this cartoon, with its fine background art, excellent color design. And Scott Brady's spot-on score, quoting amiably from well-known songs to make its point. If you're looking for cuteness, how can you do better than a couple of flop-eared puppies? So it certainly succeeds in doing what it sets out to, even if it makes me think I should see about getting a prescription for insulin.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. Rudolf Ising was a bit hit and miss for me, there are cartoons of his that are well worth watching with a lot of charm, well engineered gags and any sentiment not getting too much even when the story is weak. There are also other cartoons of his that are not particularly funny or interesting, dully paced and don't have great characters, despite good animation and music.

'The Pups' Christmas' is in neither extreme completely overall, but it has elements of both (luckily more the former hence the above average rating). Was not expecting an awful lot, as the story didn't sound that inspired and like there would be much funny with too much cutesiness. Having seen cartoons with relatively similar premises that have fallen into those traps. While 'The Pups' Christmas' is an uneven cartoon and may be easy to criticise for some, for me despite finding issues with it a large part of me just couldn't be too hard on it. Of the titular pups' cartoons, 'The Pups' Christmas' is the best and the festive setting has much to do with it, as well as that it is tighter in pace and has more interesting supporting characters.

It isn't perfect, with the biggest criticisms being the wafer thin and predictable story and how abrupt the gear change from the cute to the uneasily and jarringly dark the action becomes.

Also thought it took time to get going.

However, a lot is good. The animation is vibrantly colourful and fluid, with lovingly crafted and detail background art. Nothing looks rushed or static. Even better, and this is probably the best aspect of 'The Pups' Christmas', is the music, it is lushly orchestrated and very characterful in an energetic way.

Furthermore, it is very charming and didn't feel too cute in the first half or too sugary. The titular pups are very loveable and the gags, while never hilarious, are at least well timed and amusing. The festive atmosphere is also well done, with a real heart-warming and sweet feel. The supporting characters/objects are very colourfully done in animation and personalities.

Concluding, uneven but well above average. 7/10.

for your kids to watch, Harman and Ising can be an excellent choice. There is an innocence and humor in Pup's Christmas, Alias St. Nick, Peachy Cobbler that I don't see matched by anything on TV today. My grandchild asks me to put it in to play when she comes to visit and enjoys it very much. And wherever Peace on Earth is on this website, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Harman and Isisng appeal to a child's imagination. Compared to what is considered suitable cartoon fare(usually boorish, violent, and/or notable mostly for adult content aimed at children) today, this is far better in content, imagination, and artistry.