Despite the fact that Chuck Jones is best known now for fast paced slapstick comedy (such as his coyote and roadrunner cartoons), he started his directorial career out doing some of the cutest and slow paced Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodie cartoons. He started directing in 1938 with a film called The Night Watchman (earlier he had worked as an animator for both Tex Avery's and Bob Clampett's units). At this time the Warner Brothers cartoon studio was fully know for fast paced crazy comedy. Because of this Chuck's films really didn't quite fit what the rest studio was doing.
The most pure examples of the early Jones style were his Sniffles cartoons. These were extremely cute and also much slower than what Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Frank Tashlin were doing at the time. Sniffles cartoons were rarely the best films coming out of the studio (or even the best Chuck was making in this early period), but they had their charms. One of there greatest charms was Robert McKimson's (he was an expert at more realistic and precise animation, and his was also one of the studios' best animators or animators at any studio) animation, which fit perfectly into this type of cartoon.
The story of this film is very simple. Sniffles tries hard to stay up to see Santa Claus on Christmas Eve night, and doesn't find the task very easy. This story is what makes this one of the best Sniffles cartoons. It is simple, but very relatable and speaks to the child in each of us. This simple story gets rid of one of the series major faults, the story amounting to almost nothing. Here even though it has the same slow pace, and minor story, the film offers a slice of life type of storytelling that could have made the rest of these cartoons much more charming.
The animators on this film include Robert McKimson, Ken Harris, Rudy Larriva, Robert Cannon, and Phil Monroe. The story was written by Rich Hogan and Tedd Peirce. They were the two most common writers for Chuck in this early period. The voice of Sniffles was provided by Marget Hill-Talbot, who Walter Lantz fans may recognize as one of the voices of Andy Panda.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resourses Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032244/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt
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