It doesn't matter how old it is (from 1942), to me, this never gets old:

https://youtu.be/gSh1eLrxiqs

I remember how every year for years on The Wonderful World of Disney, they would run this sequence during the annual Christmas episode, but it would always cut away before showing the aftermath of Bambi and Thumper crashing into the snowbank at the end...

A Walter Lantz Oswald (The Lucky Rabbit) short in two-strip technicolor:

https://youtu.be/taTWEv2EbXs

This cartoon has been censored, but in all the wrong places. The first snip occurs when Santa is getting his posterior painted -- when the elf filled in the bulls-eye, Santa got goosed! The second censoring doesn't even make sense, but it's right near the end when Santa blows the cake off the table -- you just know that it hit Laurel and Hardy, but for some unfathomable reason, that part was cut out. Go figure.

Edit: and now it looks as though whole cartoon has been censored. Thanks a lot, FooTube. All that's left is this 1 minute version.

Another European cartoon, this time from Czechoslovakia.

https://youtu.be/xOMQOoUzWdI

No translation should be necessary.

Once more remembering Jerry Nelson, the muppet puppeteer who died earlier this year. He performed the title character from Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas:

https://youtu.be/pDiXtvuZOfk

This may seem kind of strange, but I have never actually seen this Christmas special in its entirety. I don't own a copy of it on DVD or VHS tape. Guess I was too busy with college and stuff when it was first broadcast. I doubt if I'm ever going to get to see it, because they never sell it at Target or Wal-Mart or Best Buy, and nobody's allowed to upload the complete special onto YouTube. So if any of you are lucky enough to own a copy -- hang onto it!

This is the closest that the Cattanooga Cats ever came to doing a Christmas-themed song/video:

https://youtu.be/H-IhFTTOzYs

This cartoon may start out as oh-so-sweet and cute-looking, but keep watching and you'll find it becomes rather disturbing about two-thirds of the way through it...

https://youtu.be/AuJnb-wNw-I

An old and obscure Fleischer cartoon about a tribe of polar bears and the love they have for one another:

https://youtu.be/rOA4e7zJ21s

Parts of this cartoon are reminiscent of another Fleischer theatrical, The Song of the Birds.

Last year, Gumby and Pokey put a stop to an unrepentant Scrooge's mischief. This year, the old miser recruits the evil Blockheads to help him get revenge!

https://youtu.be/GSxkwW6Pzek


Plus, here's a bonus winter-themed Gumby adventure!

https://youtu.be/0XONrl7fSl0

A Grasshopper and the Ants story, with Woody Woodpecker in place of the grasshopper:

https://youtu.be/UARA_jpoH24

Another Russian cartoon, though this one has been dubbed into English for a change:

https://youtu.be/P4n_oHkpfpU

According to comments posted on YouTube, this was originally actually a New Year's Eve cartoon (hence the significance of the clock chiming 12), and that in old Soviet Russia, the people did their Holiday celebrating on Dec. 31 instead of the 25th.

In past years I've spotlighted what the Pink Panther does during December. Now let's take a look at what his associate, the Aardvark, is up to during the winter:

https://youtu.be/zvuEErh_RYM

Logically, that ant should stay asleep underground when the snow falls, and no aardvark/anteater could ever survive for long in such a cold climate. But what the heck, it's a cartoon!

Some vintage Muppet antics here -- from 1979, when they all still had their original voices.

https://youtu.be/TH7Z8cJBQd8



A bit different from the performance heard on the Muppet Christmas album that was released the same year.

https://youtu.be/FeOAF44MYHk

The Waltz of the Flowers brings together the Autumn Fairies, Milkweed Dancers, Frost Fairies and Snowflake Fairies in a spectacular finish to Tchaikovsky's ballet:

https://youtu.be/Mh30AX55JFc

"All this beautiful music has appealed vividly to the imagination and humor of Walt Disney. He has made an interpretation wholly his own, in which flowers and leaves and snowflakes dance in the wind and float on the surface of water, and in which we pass through the cycle of spring, summer, autumn and winter in harmony with Nature. It is a masterpiece of fantasy, the peer of the great and delightful music of Tchaikovsky." ~ Leopold Stokowski.

The Trepak, or Russian Dance features the Thistle Boys and Orchid Girls:

https://youtu.be/ceKPQEV9wH8

As with the Blossom Ballet, the book's description of this lively dance is quite lengthy, and it details a number of antics from the Bug Orchestra, which of course never made it to the final film. Here's an excerpt:

The trombones blared out the tune, low and strident, as the rest of the orchestra accompanied them brightly. The potato-bug trombonists blew with all the breath they had, blew until the flower ends of their horns trembled violently. Their little assistants raced back and forth frantically, pushing the trombone slides, now up, now down, to make the right notes come out. They kept their eyes on the conductor's baton, which waved up and down in faster and faster tempo. They got to the last trombone notes, and just in time, for the rest of the orchestra snatched the melody from them and dashed ahead with it. Flutes, oboes, clarinets, English horns, bassoons and strings raced merrily along, as the tambourines crashed in time to the stamping of the Cossacks' boots.

The first violinist's right arm was weak from so much furious bowing. It fell to his side, but the conductor reached over and wrapped the musician's knuckles with his baton. Back to work went the vionlinist. The upper lip of the flute player was swollen and sore, but he kept on playing, looking longingly at the end of the page and the last note of the whirlwind dance. One of the bass viol players could no longer hold down the big strings in his instrument. Several bees, who saw his difficulty, came from the woods and helped him by sitting down hard on the strings in just the right places.

Despite these difficulties the music went on, still growing louder, still growing faster. On the stage, the thistles were doing breath-taking acrobatic stunts as the climax of the dance. Cartwheels, front flips, back flips, all in perfect time with the pounding music. Then, with a tremendous crash of tambourines and a thundering roll of the drums, the music stopped! The dance was ended. From the orchestra -- not a sound. On the stage -- not a movement. There was nothing but a clump of thistles and orchids blooming in the sun on the banks of a quiet stream.

The Arabian Dance is transformed into the Water Ballet:

https://youtu.be/NNktdqz3nxU

And the Fantasia book's description:

The lights on the stage grew dim as the musicians in the orchestra tuned their instruments during the short intermission. A weird and mysterious green glow filled the stage as the scene shifted to the depths of the water at the bottom of the pool. Faintly waving shapes could be seen -- tall weeds and grasses moving to and fro in the current, an underwater forest. A thin beam of sunlight caught a flash of color and held it. A strangely beautiful fish swam slowly into view, followed by another and another. They glistened with every color in the rainbow, and their long, waving tails were like trailing veils of smoke.

The bugs had muted their violins and cellos, and were playing softly. The clarinet started a haunting melody that entranced one of the most beautiful fishes. She fluttered her tail and began a slow, graceful dance, winding in and out among the reeds and grasses.

Something stirred in the water, sending a cloud of bubbles upward. As they disappeared, a second group of fish, black and mysterious looking, swam into the shaft of sunlight, as the oboe's plaintive sound took up the exotic, rhythmic melody. The two groups of fish circled in and out, black nose to gold tail, weaving intricate patterns. The light faded once more as the fish swam away, leaving a trail of bubbles that rose to the surface and burst.

The Dance of the Reed Flutes is presented as the Blossom Ballet:

https://youtu.be/StvbtZfm-Jw

The picture book's description of the Blossom Ballet is a bit lengthy, so instead I'm going to post the text that talks about something that was cut from the final version of Fantasia's Nutcracker:

After a short pause, a brisk march was struck up by the orchestra, which slowly appeared from the ground in front of the terrace. It was a bug orchestra! Beetles and crickets and dragonflies and caterpillars, ants and spiders and grasshoppers and butterflies -- all playing musical instruments. The violins were made of graceful leaves, and the bows of long thin twigs. This big bass viols were so large that the bugs could hardly hold them up. Every musical instrument was a flower. At the end of the march the trumpets, made of bright morning-glories and trumpet-vine blossoms, blared out their strongest notes.

This seems to indicate that originally Disney had planned to do a sequence interpreting the March of the Toy Soldiers, using it to introduce the Bug Orchestra that was providing the music for the performance. The book itself contains literally dozens of marvelous sketches -- many of them in full color -- of the various members of the insect orchestra. I wish I could share some of these with you, but alas, that would be breaking both copyright and FA rules.

The Chinese Dance, which became the March of the Mushrooms.:

https://youtu.be/ZJYN1d3f2dc

Here's how the 1943 picture book described this scene:

There was a short pause as the bugs settled themselves for the next number. A breeze blew across the terrace and shook the dewdrops from a cobweb onto a clump of mushrooms below.

The mushrooms shook themselves. Suddenly, they no longer seemed to be just plain mushrooms. They were fat little Chinese Mandarins, looking very solemn in their long robes and coolie hats. They hopped to the center of the stage and began a dignified dance to the grotesque but charming accompaniment of the orchestra. They all stepped together in time to the music, except for one little fellow, named Hop Low. As the others marched about in a circle, Hop Low ran back and forth trying to find his place.

The grasshoppers plucked the strings of their cellos and double basses in a merry pizzicato, but when the big mushrooms hopped to the music, Hop Low's feet were planted firmly on the ground. When they squatted, he hopped. When they turned to the right, he turned to the left.

The piccolo player seemed very concerned that little Hop Low could not keep in step with the others. At each mis-step he gave a shrill whistle that sent Hop Low scurrying to do the right thing. But it was no use. As the others bowed solemnly, Hop Low was spinning like a top, and when the music stopped abruptly he fell right off the stage.

The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, presented here as the Dance of the Dewdrop Fairies:

https://youtu.be/usAHZ4cYBkQ

As many already know, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite is a traditional Christmas ballet. Disney's Fantasia interpretation of the music, while not overtly Holiday-themed, shows the changing of the seasons from summer to fall and ultimately to winter in the final sequence. I intend to spotlight one act each day for the next several days.

A very old and treasured children's picture book of the Fantasia Nutcracker that once belonged to my dad (it was published in 1943) has this intro at the beginning of it:

Once on Christmas, a long time ago, a little girl named Marie received a wooden nutcracker carved in the shape of an ugly old man with a movable jaw. It was her favorite toy, and when she went to bed that night she put it under the Christmas tree with the rest of her gifts. At midnight, hearing strange sounds, she crept downstairs and found that all the toys had come alive.

Some mice, attracted by the smell of sweets, were eating the gingerbread men. The toys, led by the Nutcracker, were fighting them off. When Marie came down, the mouse king was attacking the Nutcracker. Marie quickly threw her slipper at the mouse, who dashed away. Immediately the Nutcracker was transformed into a handsome prince.

"Do not be startled, Marie," he said. "Your kindness has broken the spell which made me a nutcracker. As a reward, I will take you to Fairyland.

"It is the land of the flowers, the leaves, the brooks, and the little animals. They will show you a beautiful spectacle. You shall see who decorates the flowers and grass with dewdrops in the quiet hours before dawn; who paints the leaves gold and red each autumn; who sheathes the ponds and brooks with sparkling ice on the first cold days of winter. You shall see all the woodland folk at play, and shall hear the music of Nature."

In a twinkling, Marie found herself sitting beside the Nutcracker Prince in a deep wood. It was so dark that she could just make out the trees and the open terrace, which looked almost like a stage. From somewhere she heard the soft music of a little Overture, and she knew that the show was about to begin.

Today's the day I finally join the Half-Century Club, thus this week's CotW has a birthday theme:

https://youtu.be/lSKzy44ZqiM

Ummm.. that was pretty muddy, even for a cartoon about a pig. Let's try another one:

https://youtu.be/OoVITK3rfww


Oh well. I tried...
Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving yesterday.

Though not as funny as Holiday For Drumsticks, this romp with Daffy, Porky and a turkey is still good for a few laughs:

https://youtu.be/-Q-qW3lvzDw

Happy Thanksgiving on Thursday!

Thanksgiving is only a couple of weeks away, so turkey-themed cartoons are on the menu:

https://youtu.be/2aEZqY_sIAs

Though we can't be certain, it's possible that the Hays Office insisted on changing the ending by causing the studio to add the last 15 seconds of this cartoon -- what do you think?

Fall has finally fallen here in California, and so here's an old singalong theatrical featuring the song "Shine On Harvest Moon":

https://youtu.be/oXKzbTXuNKg

I have to say, though, the dancing female horse near the end serves to remind me why I can't stand seeing lipstick on cartoon animals -- the girl pig and the cow looked a lot more appealing than that hideous red-lipped mare!

Whether you're still young enough to go trick-or-treating, or you've got a party of your own to attend or not, have fun tonight and enjoy this classic cartoon:

https://youtu.be/eZbydkCvtsM

Almost done with the Halloween cartoons for the year. Here, in a sort of combination of Boy Meets Dog and Heavenly Puss, we see Pluto having a devil of a nightmare as a result of his own bad conscience:

https://youtu.be/IUT0PYEeH6o

One more themed cartoon to go -- look for it on All Hallow's Eve!

Couldn't let Halloween go by without featuring a good Jekyll and Hyde cartoon:

https://youtu.be/LUEY0lCtA5I

This is one I really would have liked to have seen in a dark movie theater -- imagine the close-ups of that monster creep's face filling up the giant screen!