Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

TheLittleSongbird Not one of my favourite Christmas cartoons by all means, but still well worth watching at once.The story is very slight and drags ever so slightly in places, and the portrayals of some of the children are very stereotypical. Stereotypes that understandably may not (big emphasis on that) be for the easily offended and the way they're portrayed is very "of the time" and can be seen as outdated now.However, the animation is rich and colourful, with very meticulous and beautifully drawn backgrounds and well-rendered character designs that don't look too stiff. Winston Sharples provides yet another outstanding music score, even in mediocre or worse cartoons Sharples' music was never among the flaws (if anything always one of the strengths or the best asset). Love the lusciousness of the orchestration here and how characterful and whimsical the music was without going overboard in either, even better was how well it fitted in the cartoon and how it merged with the action. The main song is very infectious too.'Santa's Surprise' while not hilarious still offers plenty of amusement, with the funniest material coming from the Dutch boy, while also telling the story with the right amounts of charm and warmth, everything feeling very sweet and heart-warming by the end. While stereotypical the children are appealing and amusing, not falling into the traps of cloying sentiment or annoyance. Look out for Little Audrey in her first cartoon. The voice acting is dependably good.All in all, stereotypical and slight but very sweet, well-made and charming. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Robert Reynolds This is a cartoon in the Little Audrey series from Famous Studios. There will be spoilers ahead:This short begins with Santa making his rounds and singing as he does so. There are scenes with children trying to sneak a peek as Santa leaves gifts. The last child shown is Little Audrey. There's a nice gag with a mouse peeking out a hole, Santa spotting him and leaving cheese in a little stocking! Santa returns home and goes right to bed and to sleep. But he had some passengers-Little Audrey and a number of other children, each to one degree or another stereotypes, though the main source of comic relief is a Dutch boy wearing wooden shoes. The kids want to do something nice fore Santa for a change, so they sneak in and clean his home.They do the basic chores involved, rather humorously and a couple of the bits are very stereotypical in nature. The kids sing their own song while working. The Dutch boy, of course, nearly gets them found out more than once, amid disasters, but they finish the job just before Santa awakens. He finds everything arranged and a present under the tree to boot. He opens it and the last gag is too cute to spoil, so I won't.This short is worth watching once.

Michael_Elliott 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.

Syl Okay there are plenty of flaws in this cartoon or animated short. The cartoon is about a group of kids who want to thank Santa Claus for all he's done for them. Yes, the film is over 70 years old so it's outdated especially regarding stereotypes about the children. But I didn't pay attention much to that as part of the cartoon's message about thanking Santa Claus and gratitude. If you overlook the stereotypes and realize that the country was another time and place, you might appreciate the early animation in this short and how Christmas was part of American history in post-World War II America. I didn't see the stereotypes or the offensiveness. To me, it's a cartoon for children and audiences. While it might be seen as offensive now, I'm sure it wasn't offensive when it was released. Still, the message is about gratitude.