This film was the fourth color Silly Symphony. The first was Flowers and Trees released earlier the same year. That cartoon became such a huge hit that afterwards all Silly Symphonies would be in color.
This film was directed by Wilfred Jackson one of the best Disney directors at this time. He had directed such previous Disney shorts as The Fox Hunt, The Ugly Duckling, The Whoopee Party, The Spider and the Fly and Mickey's Follies.
This cartoon went through the assembly line very quickly. The story was completed in September 1932, and by October animation had already begun. The film was released on December 10th of the same year. Despite this the cartoon maintained a high quality. The animation was fantastic, the story was sweet and simple, and the humor was really good. On top of this the film just has a great sense of energy that is a joy to watch.
The story is very simple. Here Santa and his elves get ready for the Christmas Eve flight.
The animators on this cartoon include Les Clark, Art Babbitt, Norm Ferguson, Tom Palmer, Ben Sharpsteen, Jack King, Fred Moore, Eddie Donnelly, Jack Kinney, Ed Love, Clyde Germoni, Nick George, Jack Cutting, Joe D'Igalo, Marvin Woodward, Dick Williams, Harry Reeves, Louie Schmidt, Paul Fennel, George Drake, and Chuck Couch. The animators were not yet assigned specifically to characters as would be common in later Disney animation. For instance Santa is animated by Norm Ferguson when he is reading his list, by Jack King when checking the dolls, by Clyde Germoni when marching out the door, by Eddie Donnell when saying goodbye and by Louie Schmidt when flying off into the night. The only character to be handled by one animator was the bookkeeping elf, who was animated by Tom Palmer. Art Babbitt's scenes of the elves taking care of the reindeer are great examples of the animator at his best. In fact Art Babbitt and Norm Ferguson are probably the two animators whose work in this film would be most recognizable to Disney buffs familiar with their animators as both are completely in their element here and their work looks like them. Despite this every animator does a fantastic job in this cartoon and the whole film is lovely to look at.
Overall this is a fantastic cartoon, showing the Disney studio was at the top of their game before they ever made a feature. By the way listen to hear an elf voiced by Walt himself.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/disneys-santa-workshop-1932/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023422/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
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