Christmas Comes But Once a Year

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.

one of seductive short films. for atmosphere, songs and simplicity. for noble subject and for the smart doctor changing everything in ingenious manner. short, a must see. not only as Christmas film but for ideas and for touching feeling about happiness and generosity. so, a lovely film. and, I admit, one of my favorites.

. . . clueless trespassers who traipse around looking for undefended homes and businesses in which they can propagate a Reign of Chaos. One such malingering miscreant, a perpetrator known to law enforcement as "G. R.amps," aka "the Green Gobbling Sledder," is featured during CHRISTMAS COMES BUT ONCE A YEAR. This trouble-making malcontent seeks out a dormitory full of wailing orphans, and quickly turns all their kitchen utensils and cleaning supplies into impractical short-term attention grabbing gizmos doomed to be totally mislaid and forgotten within a week. Such useless whiz bangs may exude a momentary charm, but what happens the next time the orphans get hungry, or need to clean up their mess?

This is another great entry for christmas cartoons. Fun, and it has got one catchy title tune! The plot: An inventor helps some discouraged children at a funeral home have a merry christmas. I suggest that you buy the Cartoon Christmas collections Amazon.com has, they're great.