SANTA’S WORKSHOP (1932)
Article 4850 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-18-2015
Directed by Wilfred Jackson
Featuring the voices of Pinto Colvig, Walt Disney, Allan Watson
Country: USA
What it is: Silly Symphony

Santa and the elves prepare for Christmas day.

I think I’m beginning to get a handle on these Silly Symphonies from Disney. With the emphasis on music and rhymed dialogue, it has become fairly obvious to me that what these shorts were aiming for was whimsy, not comedy. Whimsy differs from comedy in that when the choice is given between something cute and something funny, whimsy will opt for the cute, and there’s a lot of that here. And though there’s no doubt a lot of creativity and excellent animation on display here as we see the elves going about their toy-making business, a little bit of whimsy goes a long way, and even though I may smile a bit at this, it never turns into a laugh, and the fact that the cartoon lacks anything in the way of a plot just makes it a little duller.