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One-A-Day: 'Bottles'


After Tom & Jerry's The Night Before Christmas and Alan's festive Snoopy, I want to share this nugget of nostalgia with you - MGM's Bottles, released in 1936. It's not Christmassy in the slightest - indeed, Halloween would be more appropriate - but this Happy Harmonies cartoon looms very large in my memory and synchs somehow with Christmas Eve, and the idea that toys etc. have secret lives. Indeed, when Alan and I were recently discussing favourite, formative cartoons, this one came up as a shared touchstone - an emotive 'hot-key' to our respective childhoods. Do a bit of research around this animation, and you'll see Alan and I are not alone in our respect for it. Enjoy!


Comments

  1. Brilliant! I remember this...probably haven't seen it for about 35 years! I love the characterisation of the various bottles - the gargling mouthwash, the snakecharming Indian ink, the vanishing cream...
    (I think the drug squad might need to investigate just what that pharmacist is brewing up in there, though!)

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  2. Hey Jackie! How was Germany? Hope you didn't get trapped in 'travel chaos hell'? Looking forward to your Christmas pudding - and those mince pies you left lasted about a nano-second! It's funny - this particular cartoon seems to loom large in the collective imaginations of a certain age-group. Certainly an animation the first years should be looking at in preparation for Unit 5...

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  3. i love this animation i have seen it lots.

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  4. that's adorable! Really enjoyed that. It's a shame those kind of cartoons no longer exist.

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  5. Haha I guess this cartoon was made before the disney rule when it come to something terrifying that scene must be followed by a cute or light hearted scene, MGM just leave you disturbed asking too many questions...I think that guy was making anthrax judging by how evil the death bottle was.

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