Snow Foolin'

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.

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.

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.

. . . 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.