Santa's Surprise (1947)

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 Santa's Surprise is a 1947 Christmas-themed Noveltoon animated short. It was originally released by Paramount Pictures on December 5, 1947.As Santa delivers presents to Audrey and some other children, they slip into his sleigh to repay him by cleaning up his house, often with a clumsy Dutch boy's antics.This animated short is cute. Keep in mind there was no such thing as politically correct when this was made. Some images "MIGHT BE" offensive to some.

"Santa's Surprise" is from Famous Studios--the cartoon factory owned by Paramount. Up until the early 1940s, it had been Fleischer Brothers, but the brothers were long gone by the time this cute cartoon was made.It begins with Santa making Christmas deliveries--and several kids from around the world (including Little Audrey in her first cartoon) sneaking onto his sleigh. No, they are not terrorists but nice kids who want to do something nice for him when he returns home. So, the kids clean up Santa's place and leave his a Christmas tree with a present just for him.While this cartoon is pretty cute (especially the very end), I am pretty sure it's damned by good intentions that haven't kept up with changing times. Some of the kids (especially the black one) are real stereotypes and I am sure some folks would take offense, though the Dutch kid is by far the stupidest one and I assume the Dutch have thick enough skins to handle that. All in all, quite enjoyable but not up to the standards of the best cartoon shorts of the day--which were mostly coming from Looney Tunes and MGM.

Santa's Surprise (1947) *** (out of 4)It's Christmas Night and Santa Claus is traveling around the world dropping off gifts for the little kids. When he gets back to the North Pole he goes right to bed not realizing that several kids have followed him home and have a surprise for him. What this short basically teaches us is that Santa Claus is so busy that he's unable to clean his own house, which leads to a lot of messes and dust. The kid's decide to be nice and clean the house while he catches up on his sleep. Overall this here is a pretty entertaining short that certainly has its heart in the right place but at the same time I'm sure most parents will have a lot of explaining to do to their kids. I say that because there are quite a few stereotypes on display here that are obviously going to offend many people today so parents will be explaining that this type of thing was at one time normal. The black kid and the Asian kids all have stereotypes about them and this includes the black kid shining Santa's shoes. Even with this stuff I still thought the film was entertaining. All of the characters are charming enough and even the Santa here is quite memorable. Another major bonus is that the song the kid's sing is actually pretty catchy in its own right.

Santa's Surprise is a charming Christmas short from Parmount's Famous Studios cartoon division that features the first appearance of Little Audrey. Santa sings of bringing presents to children around the world. We see him stop at various children's houses in countries such as Russia, China, Holland, and America as represented by Little Audrey whose stocking has a hole at the bottom so when the presents fall out, they land in a wagon below! We then see Santa stop at his house in the North Pole where, since there are no elves or a Mrs. Claus, it is messed up beyond recognition. Audrey and her diversified playmates sneak in and clean it up. After they leave, Santa finds a present under his tree which has a circular music box that shows through a small screen inside, all their faces passing through...While some of the ethnic characterizations of the kids do come close to being stereotypical (the young Negro kid offers to shine shoes, the Dutch boy wears wooden clogs that are too loud), there's no real harm involved in such depictions and besides, they're all working for the greater good. So if you're looking for some Christmas cartoons that isn't Charlie Brown, the Grinch, or the Rankin/Bass Rudolph, put in a tape or DVD that has this and other public domain cartoons and marvel at the charms you'll get from something made 50 years ago!