Happy Tots

Ben Harrison had been co-directing the Krazy Kat cartoons for more than a decade when he took a break to head this sort of sentimental slop that Charles Mintz' cartoon factory was turning out in this period.

This saccharine bit about fairies celebrating their king's edict that Movies Are Your Best Entertainment by doing the Lindy Hop to songs is not as treacly as some of the stuff cranked out; Harrison's sense of gag construction and comedy timing pokes its head up every now and then. But it's not particularly good, except for parents who think their children are morons.

It is really a shame the lack of technical data in this one because, although Happy Tots does not have anything that can be called a script (the typical "bunch of elves dancing" thing) it has instead an excellent character design and a level of production rarely seen in the Columbia shorts. Impossible to know if Ben Harrison had anything to do with it. Animation is somewhat erratic, but tends to be better than Average Columbia at times. It seems Manny Gould got a hand on it.