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!
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...
ReplyDelete(I think the drug squad might need to investigate just what that pharmacist is brewing up in there, though!)
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...
ReplyDeletei love this animation i have seen it lots.
ReplyDeletethat's adorable! Really enjoyed that. It's a shame those kind of cartoons no longer exist.
ReplyDeleteHaha 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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