Somewhere in Dreamland

I grew up in Northern NJ. Each Thanksgiving, after the Macy's parade was finished, WPIX (channel 11) showed "March of the Wooden Soldiers" with Laurel & Hardy. As long as I could remember, my sister and I watched this until I was 16, and they stopped the tradition.

Invariably, after the movie, there was filler time. They showed "Somewhere in Dreamland" as well as another classic Christmas cartoon that showed Santa's workshop (I REALLY wish I could remember the name of this cartoon.) These cartoons initiated the Christmas season for my sister and I as much as the parade or "Soldiers" did.

Recently, at my holiday party, someone won "Santa Conquers the Martians" as a gift. The DVD included Fleischer's "Somewhere in Dreamland." As we watched the cartoon, I felt as if I was 7 years old. What a great cartoon!

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.

. . . 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.

A lovely Dave Fleischer short animation, seductive for drawings, details, the spoon of nostalgia and the social message, for a dream easy to be assumed by poor people and about generosity.

Sure, an idylic story , its dosis of unrealism being the basic sin, at first sight. But significant, in this case , is the social context, the memories about Great Depression, in its many senses being not so far.

Off course, the children are exactly the same from many films by Mr. Fleischer, reminding, too much, the Renaiscence little angels.

But the care for details defining the trip in Dreamland, the imaginative solutions and the morning after are just beautiful and their are the most significant aspects in this case.

In short, just lovely..

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.