Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives" is a 7-minute black-and-white sound cartoon from almost 85 years ago. It is a collaboration between Schlesinger Studios and Warner Bros and can be categorized under Merrie Melodies. The topic here is Christmas, not only because Santa makes an appearance, but because several Christmas tunes are included. The music is one of the film's strengths and same goes for the animation which is really clean and with more love to detail than most films from that era. Unfortunately, the story here is fairly uninteresting, almost non-existent, basically a collection of scenes with no real plot. This is also why I give this one a thumbs-down. Not even Harman and Ising can make this one work. I do not recommend it or really only during the holidays. Oh yeah, and it is not racist, do not be fooled by the politically correct plebs.

Michael_Elliott The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives (1933) *** (out of 4)Good short from Merrie Melodies has an orphan stumbling through the snow on Christmas Eve when she eventually bumps into Santa Claus. The jolly fat man takes the child for a ride and they land at a house where all the toys are being made. With a good song and dance sequence, we see the toys come to life and perform for the child. THE SHANTY WHERE SANTY CLAUS LIVES runs just around 7-minutes and it's pretty delightful from start to finish. Even though the film is in B&W I think a lot of kids today would still enjoy it because the visuals are terrific, the song is nice and there's no question that there's just something unique about seeing Santa in B&W. That big red outfit is just so familiar that I always enjoy seeing these shorts where Santa is shown in B&W. Perhaps this is just a strange thing of mine but I think the vintage image that comes with B&W just really adds an extra layer to the Santa myth. I was also very impressed with the images and especially the winder wonderland and the stuff dealing with Santa flying through the air.

ccthemovieman-1 There's not much special about this good-hearted, warm cartoon expect that it is just that, and kudos for that. A little boy, moping along at Christmas with no gifts and who lives in a barren shanty is suddenly taken to another shanty at the North Pole by Santa Claus himself.From that point, the cartoon is a musical where the title song is sung several times and we see little toys coming to life, singing and dancing. When one of them accidentally sets the Christmas tree on fire, the kid saves the day by figuring out a way to put it out. He's the hero; end of story. The song is catchy and typically upbeat '30s stuff. In one part, there is a little takeoff on Kate Smith (or at least someone who looks like her.) I saw this as one of the bonus features on the "Lady Killer" DVD. That's the Lady Killer film starring Jimmy Cagney.

tavm This Hugh Harmon-Rudy Ising Merrie Melodies cartoon short produced by Leon Schlesinger for Warner Bros. tells the story of a poor boy who gets invited by Santa to go with him to his shanty to watch all the toys come to life. That's basically the plot of the story with some unfortunate blackface stereotypes in some scenes. Still mostly enjoyable with some entertaining musical sequences like the title song and a Kate Smith doll singing, "Shine on Harvest Moon". It was during this period that the Merrie Melodies shorts' purpose was to showcase a song that was published by the Warner Bros. publisher in each short with the showcased song's title the name of the film. That's the case here. Recommended for anyone who are Warner cartoon completists.