tavm Review of Santa's Surprise

Santa's Surprise (1947)

See Little Audrey's debut in Santa's Surprise

[7/10 · 26 November 2006]

Santa's Surprise is a charming Christmas short from Parmount's Famous Studios cartoon division that features the first appearance of Little Audrey. Santa sings of bringing presents to children around the world. We see him stop at various children's houses in countries such as Russia, China, Holland, and America as represented by Little Audrey whose stocking has a hole at the bottom so when the presents fall out, they land in a wagon below! We then see Santa stop at his house in the North Pole where, since there are no elves or a Mrs. Claus, it is messed up beyond recognition. Audrey and her diversified playmates sneak in and clean it up. After they leave, Santa finds a present under his tree which has a circular music box that shows through a small screen inside, all their faces passing through...While some of the ethnic characterizations of the kids do come close to being stereotypical (the young Negro kid offers to shine shoes, the Dutch boy wears wooden clogs that are too loud), there's no real harm involved in such depictions and besides, they're all working for the greater good. So if you're looking for some Christmas cartoons that isn't Charlie Brown, the Grinch, or the Rankin/Bass Rudolph, put in a tape or DVD that has this and other public domain cartoons and marvel at the charms you'll get from something made 50 years ago!