User reviews

If you're a "Jingle Bells" fanatic you may be upset by this cartoon or you may be happy. Most of the time the song is shortened to one stanza and a refrain. If you're lucky you might get an additional stanza or even three total. But with this screen sing-a-long you get neither. So if you're really tired of hearing every other version, then this one is for you. On the other hand, purists will be upset. For what we have here, apparently, are new lyrics added just for this cartoon. And it's a shame that some people think this cartoon version 'has the original lyrics'!! They are being misled! What are some of the original lyrics? Here's a sample: "Now the ground is white, go it while you're young, take the girls tonight, and sing this sleighing song. Just get a bob-tailed nag, two-forty for his speed..." Now 'if' you are a Jingle Bells fanatic, you will know that even the original lyrics vary. Instead of "bob-tailed nag" some are transcribed as "bob-tailed bay"; and instead of "two-forty for his speed" there's "two-forty as his". As for me, the cartoon bothered me a little as I expected the original lyrics. The rest of the cartoon was good, though.

This is a good deal of fun. It's December 21 and winter has struck. First, animals must go to the furriers to get their winter coats. Once done, the fun begins and especially the skating. From alligators to centipedes, everyone seems to have some kind of skate or skating device. The use is colorful and clever. I never really cared for the bouncing ball stuff. I actually remember going to a couple movies where these were done, but even in the Fifties the audiences were a little harsh. We really wanted the Road Runner.

Snow Foolin' (1949)

*** (out of 4)

Entertaining animated short has a rabbit turning the calender to the first day of winter, which brings a ton of snow. The animals all gather around and play in the snow, skate and do other winter events until we get a sing-along for Jingle Bells. SNOW FOOLIN' is one of the better sing-along shorts that I've seen as we're given more than just the bouncing ball to follow as we sing. This one here actually has some pretty funny stuff going on before we get to the singing and I really enjoyed the majority of the characters here. This includes a very funny skating sequence where we see someone get "eight the hard way" and later we see an alligator crash into a tree and become luggage. I thought the film did a very good job at showing how much fun one can have in the snow and while watching this you'll be wishing it would start snowing so that you could go out into it. The version of Jingle Bells here was a pretty good one and it's such a powerful version that I'm sure people in 1949 had no problem getting charged up to join in and sing.

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. I AM HONEST ABOUT THESE FILMS

In this cartoon short Various animals prepare for winter and enjoy a variety of winter sports. A hen invites ..... SNOW FOOLIN' is one of the better sing-along shorts that I've seen as we're given more than just the bouncing ball to follow as we sing.

Nothing really special but it is worth watching. There is some clever sight gags. This Animated Short will entertain almost everyone.

. . . low-effort, lazy, static, one-slide, unimaginative, indolent, cheap, tawdry, embarrassing, shameless, patronizing, abusive, demeaning, out-of-touch, clueless, misdirected, controversial travesties from the self-proclaimed "Famous Studios." As Einstein famously observed, "Not everything that flutters is famous." If famous is as famous does, SNOW FOOLING's day of infamy may well last six or seven Eternities. If the producers had exercised an ounce of imagination, they might have come up with some humorous original lyrics along the lines of "Grandma got run over by a reindeer." Instead they curse us with 18 more banal verses of "Jingle Bells."

What I appreciated in here were the innovative sight gags, things I hadn't seen in the hundreds and hundreds of other animated shorts from the 1930s, '40s and '50s. Some were subtle and clever, others as subtle as the fox turning his calendar, observing "Hey, it's the first day of winter" and immediately having a ton of snow dropped on his head!

The "clever" material including a skating ostrich who did eight "the hard way" with his skates, little mice finding a way to use an elephant as a cannon in a snowball fight, and more. . Kudos to Isadore Klein for the story.

The sight gags come fast and furious in here as we see how animals all have fun with the winter. However, this is one of those "Screen Song" sing-a-long cartoons, so once the jokes end, you have the spend the last two minutes singing "Jingle Bells," which lowers the rating of the cartoon.

However, it is still recommended.

Both previous commenters have gotten certain animals mixed up: It's a rabbit who declares the start of winter just before snow falls on him and a hen who tells us to follow the bouncing "hen egg". Now that I cleared that up, I thought this was a highly amusing, if not hilarious, cartoon with wonderful gags that lead to the song before the last gag afterwards. Loved the ostrich doing "eight the hard way", and the skunk saying, "Nauseating, isn't it!" (What's he responding to? Watch the cartoon!) And then there's a kangaroo and her son falling down from the sky (don't worry, the son is all right!). When "Jingle Bells" is playing with the bouncing egg jumping on the lyrics, you also see the second and third verse which I don't think I've ever heard anyone else singing whenever I listen to Christmas songs on the radio. On that note, Snow Foolin' is worth seeing for anyone who loves holiday cartoons.

On paper, 'Snow Foolin' doesn't actually sound very promising in my view. Part of me on my first watch some time ago was certain that, judging from the plot synopsis (less appealing than the cartoons that on watch transpired to be among the series' worst), it was going to be another dull, sugary sweet, too overly cute and very corny cartoon from the interesting but very up and down Screen Songs series that looked and sounded pretty but not much else. Which has been the case with some of the Screen Songs cartoons.

Recently decided to rewatch all the cartoons in the series during such a terrible time and living as a relative recluse. Most of which had not been seen in years, and that is including 'Snow Foolin' here. On first watch when younger, 'Snow Foolin' was actually a lot better than expected. It actually was even better on rewatch, easily one of the best of the series, one of the few very good ones and one of the few to have a singalong portion that actually worked (often a weak link in the cartoons).

'Snow Foolin' is very slight in the plot, though actually on reflection at least it is not non-existent unlike a vast majority of the Screen Songs cartoons, and can be very formulaic. Perhaps slightly too cute later as well.

However, there is very little to find issue with it, am so happy about that being somebody that was preparing myself to be very critical of it. As ever with the Screen Song series, the animation and the music are the best things. 'Snow Foolin' is beautifully animated. The colours are vibrant and there is meticulous attention to detail in the backgrounds, the wintry atmosphere of them is quite stunning on the eye. If there was one aspect that was consistently good in Famous Studios' 1940s and 1950s output, it was the music scoring.

And it is outstanding here in 'Snow Foolin'. The orchestration has a lot of energy and there are some truly luscious sounds throughout. Of all the singalong portions of the whole series, 'Snow Foolin's' has one of the best, being one of the few that worked. Not only is it a great song ("Jingle Bells", which is a perfect fit also) but it is one of the few singalong portions to make me want to get up and dance and sing along rather than cringing, it is amusing and energetic and actually gels with the rest of the cartoon (instead of the cartoon of two halves feel we too often get in the series).

Of all the Screen Song cartoons, 'Snow Foolin' is among the funniest. There are plenty of gags in namely the first two thirds and all raised at least a chuckle, the eight the hard way skating gag is one of my favourite gags of the whole Screen Songs series and am not joking there. It is never dull too, going at a fast and furious rate without getting too hectic. The characters are very colourful and engaging.

In summary, very, very good and one of the series' best and funniest. As well as having by far one of the best singalong portions. 8/10.

This cartoon starts with a bunch of animals putting on their winter coats and quickly gives way to lots of animals skating and what appears to be body-slalom with various happenings which I suppose were supposed to be jokes, but I didn't find very funny.

Then, a kangaroo tells to follow the bouncing egg we're suddenly in a bizarre sing-along version of Jingle Bells. The amazing part about this is they do all the verses, then a little more skating, then it's over. There's no real plot, not even a slapstick joke-plot and the gags were all done better in other cartoons of the era. Certainly odd and interesting to people who are into early (pre-TV) animation, but not going to be a holiday classic anytime soon.