The Elf and Mr. Little (1953)
Article 6010 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-11-2021
Director unknown
Featuring the voices of Tommy Alexander, Jack Beveridge, Carol Blessing
Country: USA
What it is: Either a deservedly obscure TV Christmas short or a horror classic waiting to be rediscoveredAr

Toymaker Mr. Little is feeling grouchy after years of trying to keep up with the Christmas demand and offers anything in the shop to someone who will work for him. An elf volunteers. Will the elf lead the toymaker back to the true Christmas spirit? Or will they all be destroyed by fiendish creatures from another dimension?

What happens when you cross A CHRISTMAS CAROL with THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER and PUPPET MASTER. This, and it ain’t pretty. Sure, it’s meant to be a heart-warming variation on the Scrooge story (all done with marionettes), but you’ll suss that out quick enough. No, what makes this memorable (though probably not in the way intended) is that the sight of the boys’ choir that sings all the carols throughout the short is something to make you run screaming; they’re simply nightmarish. They’re the only puppets in the short with movable mouths, and once you see them, you’ll understand why the others don’t have movable mouths. This is the Christmas short the bad little kids got in their stocking.