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"A Silly Symphony"
Synopsis
Characters
Credits
Cut Scenes
Bloopers
Videos
Laserdiscs
DVD
Technical Specifications
Released by United Artists Pictures
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A sequel to this short, "The Night Before Christmas", was made in 1933.
From Lelila : I've seen this short many times on the Disney channel, and it's a charming little thing. However, I would just like to note that the scene where the dolls get scared and have their hair curled has been in most versions I have seen.
From Ryan : This is one of my favorite Silly Symphony cartoons. I enjoy the way Santa had been drawn; a very cartooney figure with a round, red nose. The elf who reads the list of NAUGHTY and NICE children sounds a lot like the Practical Pig from the "Three Little Pigs" shorts. I dislike the censored version, which is shown on TV where a black doll comes down the chute and says "Mammy!"
From Sharon : Got to be a 10! My kids watch this every year over and over. Its not christmas without it. And they are all late teens now!
From Josef : This is one of my favorite Silly Symphonies cartoons. Here in Sweden where I live this cartoon has been shown every Christmas since 1960! They also show "Mickey's Trailer" and other classic Disney shorts every christmas. The animation in this shorts were very good too.
From Chris Perdue : Awesome! A ten! My sister and I have the original release of A Walt Disney Christmas and watch it every year. This is one of our favorite shorts. We love every second. One of my favorite scenes is the march of the toys into Santa's bag After seeing this short for the first time when she was three years old or so, my sister went Santa Claus crazy. She would talk about nothing but Santa even long after Christmas was over. And she would always say, "Poor ole Santa" when he caught the airplane in his mouth. To make a long story short, this short has been a part of our lives for years and hopefully it will be for many more years to come. Unfortunately, our videotape is starting to wear out. I hope that someday Disney will issue this short, uncensored, on DVD.
From Ida : Santa's Workshop is 10 of course! It´s a lovely Silly Symphony. I love it! Santa is so funny in this short! And the music is very nice, too.
From Dino Cencia : Another great Christmas short! Santa is awesome in this short! I love Christmas shorts. I give this a 8000. Christmas is the best holiday ever!
Referenced Comments
This is the first Walt Disney classic featuring Santa Claus and his elves, known as the "Merry Merry Men of the Midnight Sun", according to the jingles at the beginning and end of the film. One elf alerts the others by saying to get a move on because tomorrow is Christmas Day. There were elves cleaning the reindeer, the sleigh, and other things as Santa prepared for his yearly journey to deliver presents to children.
We notice our first sight of Santa as he reads kiddie letters to an older elf, who is checking to see which children are naughty or nice. Molly wants a dolly, and the elf says she has been good, so no problem there. Billy Brown chose the National Geographic route for his presents; and because of how many animals he wanted, Santa kids around and says he would get him Noah's Ark instead. (Does this give you a peculiar thought if Santa was ALSO Father Noah a few months later? Hmmm...) The older elf points out that for seven years, Billy hasn't washed behind his ears! So, Santa compromises by asking an elf to include a keg of soap in his package.
Returning to the workshop, we see the elves hard at work putting together toys for the kiddies. We notice one assembly line putting a horse together in chronological order, then a few others painting dolls and checkerboards (with corny paint, mind you) followed by an elf scaring the wits out of the dolls. This elf nests a spider in front of her face, causing the hair to naturally stand up. As it does, the curlers come down, and they take care of curling the hair.
The next part has me so perplexed. Santa then stamps "OK" on the dolls, until a black one comes down the chute and as Santa stamps it, the doll says "Mammy!" I noticed recently that the newer version of the Walt Disney Christmas videotape does not have that scene in there, but the original release does. It is once again a case of the Walt Disney Grinch Company trying to force censorship down our throats. No wonder the earth is going downhill.
Following this, Santa throws a plane which he catches with his mouth. Disliking the taste, he throws it again and the plane crashes into all the shelves of toys there is, harmlessly landing into a perfect display in front of the tree. A long sequence of many varieties of dolls come marching in, such as a black marching band, wooden soldiers better known as Radio City Rejects, several penguins, an elephant, a donkey, two oriental dolls blowing their hair straight up, a Charlie Chaplin doll with a cop, a black doll on a donkey cart, Noah's ark, a few ducks, tumbling teddy bears, two piggy banks, a Russian dancer, and a jack-in-the-box. They all marched into Santa's bag, and upon conclusion, the elves helped carry it to his sleigh.
Santa then sings his goodbyes to everyone and away he and the reindeer went on their journey. Keep in mind the disclaimer in physics logic is that Santa would not need 8 or 9 reindeer to pull the sleigh...he would need 360,000 of them, but that is for discussion another time.
--- Tom Wilkins
