SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

. . . Warner Bros. Movie Studio's strongest warnings as to what could be in store for America, if Capitalism ever is allowed to run roughshod again over the backs of Average Citizens, as it had done in the early 1900s. (As the PBS offering MINE WARS recently documented, back then callous "businessmen" were murdering workers in multiples of one hundred ALL THE TIME in Non-Union Coal Mines for the "privilege" of earning starvation wages, and heavily armed People's Armies numbering in the thousands--led by America's World War One Heroes--shot it out with the Capitalists' Hench People during military campaigns spanning entire states.) In HOLIDAY FOR STRINGS, Warner's animators depict America's Worker Bees as elves, helping out a malingering shoe repair shop owner who feigns an "illness." Then these underpaid Capitalist Pawns notice that the "sick" businessman (or "job creator," in Fox "News"-speak) is trying to sneak away to play golf. Warner shows the worker elves immediately revolting, nailing down the Fat Cat miscreant in a helpless position of House Arrest, and going out to golf themselves. Under U.S. Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, Rich People paid more of their fair share for the American Dream--about a 90% top tax rate. Warner shows in HOLIDAY FOR STRINGS the sort of chaos that results when the rate falls to all-times lows, like today, and the Wealth Disparity explodes to unconscionable record highs.

This is one of Friz Freleng's musically driven shorts from Warner Brothers studio. There will be spoilers ahead:There are only a couple of segments which have dialog and what little there is was recorded at higher speeds, though it hardly matters. The animation is set to various pieces of classical music and the timing of things is superb The basic plot is straight out of fairy tales, namely "The Shoemaker and the Elves". A shoemaker is laid up in bed and needs help in his shop. Cue the music and the elves. There follows a series of scenes, each set to some piece of classical music, with the animation timed to the music-and excellently timed at that.There are really nice bits like two elves doing a turn on Charlie Chaplin's "little Tramp", two others who do Laurel and Hardy and various other bits such as Russian elves to some Russian music. Different types of work is done to music. one of the highlights is when two less than bright elves try to hammer in a nail. The scenes are done perfectly, with a typical Warner's conclusion.The ending of the short is a twist on the original, with the shoemaker trying to sneak off to play golf, only to be caught by the elves. It's a beautiful ending.This short is available on DVD and is worth finding. Most recommended.

This cartoon features two great Looney Tunes writers, Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce, along with the direction of Friz Freleng and the music of Carl Stalling. Often the latter gets unnoticed by the casual observer but animated short buffs know and appreciate the incredible work of Stalling. His music and instrumental sound-effects were always good. Sometimes they stood out in a cartoon. This is one of the times. Of course, it's easy to say that in a cartoon that has no dialog, just sight gags and music, but Stalling, nonetheless, is often taken for granted. I plead guilty to that sometimes, myself.This cartoon really isn't a story, just a bunch of gags based around watching elves work at night making and repairing shoes at "Jake's Shoe Repair.". The shoe styles are interesting, since several of them are long out of style.The title of this cartoon, by the way, was a play-on-words to a very popular song in 1940s called "Holiday For Strings."Some of the elves are takeoffs on Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. The music comes from a number of classic composers. The jokes are all musically-synchronized. For classic music lovers, there is a lot of music they'll recognize here.

to some of my favorite music. These elves are cool, and how about when the cobbler decides to sneak out for a round of golf? I love this cartoon. I hope WB or whomever has control of these cartoons puts them out on dvd so we can enjoy them at our leisure.