En algún lugar del País de los Sueños

Somewhere in Dreamland (1936)

*** (out of 4)

Animated short from Dave Fleischer has two poor children crossing in front of a bakery where they see all sorts of great food. They then have to walk home where their mother (voice of Mae Questel) has just hard bread for them to eat. That night they go to bed hungry but dream about a place where there's all sorts of food. I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this film as at first I wasn't sure much was going to happen. I thought the storytelling was extremely good and I liked all the little points that Fleischer is able to get across without being preachy or having it in your face. I also thought the title song was quite catchy and done in a very good way. As you'd expect, the animated is quite good from start to finish and I really liked the Dreamland sequence because, well, it really did seem like a real dream. I won't reveal the twist at the end but it's quite charming and makes it easy to see why this short has turned up on many Holiday collections.

I grew up watching this cartoon every Christmas; it's a family tradition that I treasure. It's about two orphans who struggle to survive everyday with their single mom. They have barely enough food to eat and yet they are grateful for even the smallest gesture of kindness. This cartoon isn't like the simple shallow Christmas stories that we all see today on TV. It has a deep message and represents an unforgettable era in our history. Even though I did not live during the Great Depression, I totally get the message in the cartoon. It's a timeless classic that will stay with you always and I recommend it to anyone with a child. This touching film will help a child learn to appreciate their comfortable surroundings. Now that I'm a mom I am happy to have purchased this film so my daughter can watch it, just like my mother and grandmother did when they were young.

. . . dream. The formula for success in the tooth business as outlined in SOMEWHERE IN DREAMLAND begins with a family of starving kids. Such a clan is more than likely to feature mouths full of cavities, as proper preventative oral hygiene is not cheap. Next, toss in all the sweets you can eat. Add buckets of popcorn and slippery butter to the mix, as kernels failing to pop are one of the surest ways to break off precarious cusps and previously filled teeth, if any. What you've achieved so far is a perfect recipe for total tooth disaster. This is how Real Life vacations in DREAMLAND get funded--for those who do the drilling, at least.

The story is of a poor woman with two hungry children who pass by a bakery one day to see all the sweets in the window. They drool over the wonderful food. The baker sees them and goes in to get the poor kids a treat but the children are gone when he comes back - luckily the two men know where the kids live. Meanwhile, the kids arrive home where all their mother has is stale, hard bread to feed them. They eat then off to bed where the two kids dream of a wonderland of baked goods, candy, ice cream, popcorn, a carousel and other sweet delights. The next day the children awake a bit depressed but enter into the kitchen where the baker and his friends have brought a feast for the entire poor family.

A colourful and beautiful little heartwarming tale of a better tomorrow.

9/10.

These are really poor children with a mother who is at her wit's end to feed them. They are out in the cold collecting wood for a fire in their little hovel. They live for their dreams which take them out of this for a few hours. But don't underestimate the love of strangers. This is depression era and many found themselves in this type of poverty. Nice color animation.