Jack Frost (1934)

A young grizzly bear, undaunted by his mother's warnings of the coming winter, runs away from home only to be confronted by Old Man Winter himself.This is an enjoyable animated short. I have a problem with the fact that it is "SOLD" in a DVD collection of "Christmas Animated Shorts". this is not a Christmas short. It takes place in Winter. There is no "Santa" or even a "Christmas Tree". However it is an enjoyable thing to watch. This Animated Feature has some very impressive animation (For it's time). It is available;e for free on many streaming sights.

This cartoon is from Ub Iwerks--the guy who did most of the animating in the early Disney Company cartoons, such as "Steamboat Willie". After a few years with Disney, Ub decided to go out on his own--and less than a decade later, he was back with Disney. Although he was very talented, and you can see some of it in "Jack Frost", you can also see why he failed. On the plus side, the cartoon's animation is very nice. Not as nice as the Silly Symphonies and Mickey cartoons coming from Disney, but still very nice. The cartoon also had color. While it wasn't the Technicolor that Disney was using (they had exclusive rights to it for several years), the Cinecolor looks very nice and has a wider color spectrum than many Cinecolor films--with some actual blues. BUT, despite looking good, the cartoon itself is insipid mush! It consists of lots of happy singing animals in the forest, Jack Frost and Old Man Winter singing and cavorting--and not a single trace of humor!! All in all, this is like torture to have to watch today, as the cartoons were amazingly dull (aside from Disney's) during this era. Cute characters and singing...YECCH!!!

For a start, I loved all the rich amber tones in the woodland backgrounds, and even more so later on with the the frozen scenery, all exceedingly beautiful to look at. Also the music was very nice and kept things moving at a good pace. The family of bears that is featured look a lot like the ones from the 1935 Iwerks short "The Three Bears." The momma bear sounds like a black women did the voicing. She may give Billy-Bear a spankin', but it probably hurts her more than it does him! Ha, now that's the good old-fashioned 1930s parenting right there folks! For some strange reason a really crummy-looking picture that hangs above the little bear's bed really made me laugh! I don't get the strange moment where there's an apparition hovering saw cutting a log above the sleeping bear parents... A visual pun on the saying "slept like a log"? The only thing that I dislike was the annoying little song the bear kid seemed to sing about every two minutes! I just think it sounds completely childish and brings down the tone. I liked the slightly creepy character of the trickster sprite Jack Frost, who deems to teach young bratty-bear a lesson the hard way about respecting the cold. This short boasts several very impressive and spooky sight gags, like a hopping quartet of pumpkins whose collective "Whooo!" sound is genuinely eerie to listen to! And then there is my absolute favourite part of the whole short, an awesome scatting scarecrow whose wild movements and bluesy freewheeling sounds still sound extremely catchy and cool today! Not to mention totally hilarious. That scene reminded me very much of the trio of dark and fantastical Betty Boop Fleisher shorts to feature a dancing, rotoscoped Cab Calloway! Specifically 1933's "The Old Man of the Mountain." I also thought the design of the cackling wicked Old Man Winter was similar to the old man of the Fleisher short. I thought the animation of the striking character was more polished than in his earlier appearance in "Summertime." During the chase through the icy woods I love the snow-covered objects in the background that look very much like human figures frozen in agonised poses. Quite a dark and Gothic touch, I thought. I think Jack Frost was Old Man Winter, their faces and noses looked alike, and Jack's enigmatic wink to the audience at the "Finis" confirmed it for me. What a great little peril in winter wonderland animation this is. It's well worth anyone's time, and makes for an especially pleasant watch come Christmas time. Overall quite a charming rare old vintage show!

This is another of those moralistic cartoons in which kids are given the message to listen to their elders, or they'll be sorry. In this case, it is the warning from "Jack Frost" that winter is fast approaching and you better prepare for it.A little grizzly bear thinks because he's fuzzy and warm and a bear, the cold won't bother him, so he disobeys his parents, tries to sneak off, gets caught and gets spanked and then, after wiping away his tears decides to run away from home. (Hey, we've all been there, at least in thought!) Of course, the bear doesn't find he's as strong and insulated as he thinks he is and gets chased all over by Old Man Winter, who is blue and looks like The Grim Reaper. That character was seen in a couple of these old Celebrity Productions color cartoons of the day.The songs in here were very good. Most of the dialog is sung and the little bear's tune and voice sounded reminiscent of Shirley Temple. In all, a cartoon and message mainly for kids but one that adult can be mildly entertained.