Purely Joyful Movie!

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

These 25 minutes here are the second of 3 Chester Cricket movies and came out over 40 years ago, one year after "The Cricket in Times Square" and one year before the trilogy's last installment. It's another collaboration between Chuck Jones and Mel Blanc, both legends in the animation/cartoon industry and both were already in their 60s when this was made. The best about this short film is, without a doubt, the music. There are so many famous Christmas songs/melodies included in here which really elevate the material. Unfortunately, in terms of the story, there is nothing too memorable about it. It is the usual issues with people forgetting the real purpose of Christmas and Chester and the gang of course manage to solve that issue at the end. It really came a bit of a sudden and felt fairly random with the power outage. All in all, only a mediocre Christmas special. Cannot truly recommend it, unless you loved the first film.

This 1973 Xmas special, directed by Chuck Jones, is a sequel to The Cricket in Times Square which was shown earlier that year. I never knew this until after viewing, so I was a little puzzled by the storytelling.It opens in a grubby, but psychedelic, New York with a mouse named Tucker and a cat named Harry reading Xmas stories in a storm sewer. They are depressed by the hustle and bustle of the big city so they buzz off to the country to bring back a cricket named Chester who chirps his legs like a violin. Maybe his cricket rendition of Silent Night can bring holiday magic to the throngs of human traffic.I have to honest, I wasn't smitten by this grubby, cheap-looking cartoon. There are better holiday specials out there.

Oh, I thought I'd NEVER find this. I remember seeing both this and the original a few times as a kid around 1980 on TV. Something about it really stuck in the memory and its been great to finally track it down.I remember the final montage in particular and the general upbeat, feel-good atmosphere of both.Its funny how some things stick so long in the memory, even if, like these shorts, nothing spectacular actually occurs. Maybe its just the time and its ambiance itself we remember and these films act simply as a prop.At any rate, well worth the seeking out and sharing with a new generation.

This cartoon, a sequel to the far superior A CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE, re-unites the Bronx cat and mouse, as they seek out Chester, the musical savant cricket to bring back the holiday spirit to the cold and bitter big city. Not a bad cartoon, though Chuck Jones seems to be coasting on this one---until the final Christmas montage...which must rank among Jones' best work ever. The video, still available as a 'discount' purchase, is a must-see for that alone.