The Brave Tin Soldier

"The Brave Tin Soldier" is truly a film with multiple personalities! On one hand, it's gorgeously animated and colorful thanks to Cinecolor*. But, on the other, it's pretty sappy--with some of the most awful singing you'll find in a 1930s cartoon.

The story begins with a toymaker making a box of soldiers. However, one has a broken leg and he discards it to the trash. Later that night, the toys come to life and the soldier proves his bravery--and for that, he must die!! Come to think of it, also among the terrible is the ending--which is very dark and child-unfriendly.

Despite gorgeous animation, the bad did actually outweigh the good with this one. The singing made my flesh crawl (and that's not good) and the ending was just dark and nasty.

*Cinecolor was not a true color process but like Two-Strip Technicolor created colors which tended toward orange and blue-green. It is a good example of this type of color but not Technicolor--which, incidentally, was licensed only to Disney at this time.