Christmas Comes But Once a Year

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA.

Christmas Comes But Once a Year is a 1936 animated short produced by Fleischer Studios and released on December 4, 1936 by Paramount Pictures. It is part of the Color Classics series.

The short begins in an orphanage, where the orphans are all asleep, awaiting Christmas morning. Just then, the clock chimes, a puppy in the place of the cuckoo jumps out, then slides down a ramp and licks on one of the orphans. The first orphan to wake shouts to the others, "Merry Christmas, everybody!" They all jump out of bed and make their way to the hall, singing and dancing to the title song where they grab the toys from their stockings, and get ready to play with them. However, they discover the terrible truth that the toys are old, worn and already broken when they completely fall apart when played with. The children are traumatized and burst into tears over losing them and having no other Christmas presents.

This cartoon is very sweet. It is very inventive. Children will enjoy this but parents will love it. If you can't find it on DVD itself because it sold in DVD COLLECTION of Christmas cartoons and films. The set I have it in is called "10 MOVIE COLLECTION SET" which also features "Roxanne's Best Christmas Ever", "The Littlest Light on the Christmas Tree" and much more

Both Christmas Comes But Once a Year and 1948's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer have great nostalgic value, and to me still hold up as Christmas classics(as well as classics as cartoons in general) now as a 22-year old. What were especially good in Christmas Comes But Once a Year were the animation and the story. The animation is wonderful and unmistakably Fleischer, not only rich in colour with a real eye for detail and atmosphere but it also looks amazingly real, especially the animation for the inside of the orphanage and the effect of the rotating Christmas tree. The latter was a visual wonder and fairly ahead-of-its-time back then. The characters are cutely drawn too, Grampy comes across quite well in colour. And it is difficult not to like the story too, seeing the children upset over the broken toys was a heart-breaking sight while Grampy's actions are enough to warm up the iciest of hearts, they make for funny stuff and his inventing is quite clever here. It is an adorable story if not quite escaping the inevitable trap of falling into schmaltz and a fun and touching one as well, perfect for Christmas and puts you in a good mood. Grampy- beautifully voiced by Jack Mercer- is a great lead character, he comes across as very kindly and good-humoured and he's also quite lovable. The orphan children are genuinely sweet and not too annoying at all(which is not easy for orphan children in cartoons). The dialogue makes one smile, the pacing is nice and controlled and the music is lusciously orchestrated and lively in tempo. The title song is also irresistible, with a very catchy melody that is easy to sing along to, since viewing the cartoon on Christmas Day I can still sing the song and remember the lyrics. All in all, a Christmas classic that every Fleischer fan should see at least once. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I just happened on a DVD that contained a number of classic cartoons in a local convenience store and I feel like I stumbled onto a gold mine. I was amazed at the technique of Christmas Comes Just Once a Year and I'll See You Somewhere in Dreamland where it looked to me like the characters were animated over a backdrop of photographic backgrounds in the dream sequence. There were other great cartoons on the video, but these two really stuck out in my mind. I am just a spectator and I don't pretend to know anything about animation but anybody that has even a remote interest in animation should at least find these cartoons interesting. Now and again I come across Max and Dave Fleisher(sp?) cartoons and I snatch them up like candy.

I found this cartoon short on my Scrooge (1935) DVD. I couldn't get the song out of my head. I wished that they would play "Christmas Comes But Once A Year" on the radio around Christmastime. Anyway the story is about orphans and Christmas. Regardless of the animation of the time period. I found the cartoon short to be cute and enjoyable about orphans who find the joy of Christmas even with broken toys. The song should make a comeback to the radio and compact discs. You can't help but start singing "Christmas Comes But Once A Year" around the house this time of year. The animation in the 1930s was still in it's infancy. If you study animation history, you will note how it's advanced from drawings on paper to the computers. Still, it's priceless and charming to watch the old animated shorts and cartoons where I felt that the characters were more friendly and cute rather than odd looking as in today's animation.

Christmas Comes But Once a Year (1936)

*** (out of 4)

Fun Max Fleischer cartoon has a bunch of children at an orphanage waking up on Christmas morning and becoming sad because all of their toys are junk and either falling apart or they simply don't work. A happy-go-lucky older man comes by, notices that the kids are unhappy so he decides to take the run down building and turn it into a happy place with brand new toys. Fans of the Fleischer type of animation are going to get a real kick out of this one. As you'd expect, the animation is extremely nice and I really loved the look of the orphanage. It's rather dark and ugly but it's so fitting of the type of place it is before the old man gets there to fix it up. I also thought the look of the children was a good one and there's no question that the Grampy character is very memorable. The overall story probably isn't something that would get made today but that's why watching these older films are so special.