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.

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.

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.

It's MGM with puppies, so you can be pretty sure of saccharine cuteness throughout-- and yet this rather unfocused piece turns uneasily dark... Two realistic small boys and their sister come downstairs on Christmas Eve to see what Santa's brought, followed by Black Pup and Brown Pup. Santa seems to have brought enough to stock an entire toy store and half a pet store as well! The pups react quite naturally when encountering all these new objects, and I thought Black Pup's bristling at a large stuffed dog particularly amusing in a mild way. The little girl exclaims over the new doll that says 'Mama', while the boys wind up a train, ride a trike, and then --fatefully-- wind up a toy tank, which brings it to conscious and malevolent life. At this point the cartoon seems to have been taken over by someone new; the children disappear, presumably having returned to bed, and leaving the pups in possession of the field. Brown Pup is discovered to have dismembered the 'Mama' doll, and manages to swallow the 'Mama' device, with consequent schtick. The vicious toy tank pursues and attacks anything that moves, murdering two other live toys-- where will it all end?

A very traditional cartoon for it's time, and in that context it no doubt delighted the theater patrons who saw it on the big screen during the 1936 Christmas season.

I can understand how people who are into "The Simpson's", and/or other contemporary animation, might be easily bored, but the tiresome habit of constantly trying to measure the art and entertainment of a bygone era to today's commonplace output is specious and moot.

True, in it's own day, "The Pups' Christmas" does not have the type of high humor one might see in the great Porky Pig cartoons turned out by Warners, nor does it have the multi-faceted cleverness of Max Fleischer's 1930's Popeye & Betty Boop cartoons. However, it IS a beautifully animated piece, and it captures the mood of Christmas quite nicely.

Recommeded.