''Holiday for Shoestrings'' is a 1946

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

'' Merrie Melodies'' cartoon short directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on February 23, 1946. The film is a spoof of the fairy tale "

The Elves and the Shoemaker "The Elves and The Shoemaker" (German: ''Die Wichtelmänner'') is a set of fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm (KHM 39) about a poor shoemaker who receives much-needed help from three young helpful elves. The original story is the first o ...

". The plot concerns a pack of elves who help a shoemaker, Jake. The cartoon is set to a number of classical music pieces, some of which are used as running gags, especially from " The Nutcracker Suite". The title is a play on the David Rose number " Holiday for Strings". However, that tune is not played in the score. The cartoon is done largely in

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speaking ...

, with the occasional (unintelligible) bickering of elves, many of which look like miniature versions of Elmer Fudd with elf-like ears (anticipating a similar role played by Elmer 10 years later).

Plot

Based on the classic Fairy Tale, the cartoon concerns a pack of Elmer Fudd-like elves who help a shoemaker, Jake, who has advertised for help. The cartoon is done largely in

with the gags timed to a number of classical music pieces, from such composers as

Johann Strauss Johann Baptist Strauss II (25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (german: links=no, Sohn), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed ove ...

Frederic Chopin Frederic may refer to: Places United States * Frederic, Wisconsin, a village in Polk County * Frederic Township, Michigan, a township in Crawford County ** Frederic, Michigan, an unincorporated community Other uses * Frederic (band), a Japanese r ...

, and

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

, with the occasional (unintelligible) bickering of the elves. The twist on the usual story is that the bedridden shoemaker, suddenly feeling much better upon seeing the elves working feverishly, tries to sneak out to play

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

, possibly implying that the shoemaker was actually faking his illness the whole time to avoid from doing his job. The elves, realizing this, drag Jake back to bed, tie him down ala '' Gulliver's Travels'', and are seen dragging the golf clubs out of the house for themselves to play a round with, at iris-out.

Notes

*According to the 1999 ''

Toonheads ''ToonHeads'' is an American animation anthology series consisting of Hanna-Barbera, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., and ''Popeye'' cartoon shorts, with background information and trivia, prominently about animators and voice actors of the shor ...

'' episode "Night Of 1000 Elves", the reason why the elves resemble Elmer Fudd is because director Friz Freleng apparently hated Elmer and therefore did such to make fun of the character. *At one scene one of the elves replace the shoe stickers from 4F to 1A. Those "4F" and "1A" were military terms used during World War II to describe the person's capability in the army, where "4F" means unfit for military service. However those references became dated during the cartoon's release, as at the time the cartoon was released in theaters, World War II had already ended. *Caricatures of Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Charlie Chaplin briefly appear in the short.

References

External links

Big Cartoon Database The Big Cartoon DataBase (or BCDB for short) is an online database of information about animated cartoons, Feature film, animated feature films, Animated television series, animated television shows, and cartoon Short film, shorts. The BCDB proj ...

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Merrie Melodies short films 1946 animated films 1946 films American Christmas films Animated films without speech Short films directed by Friz Freleng 1940s Warner Bros. animated short films Films with screenplays by Michael Maltese Films scored by Carl Stalling Films about elves Films based on fairy tales {{Christmas-film-stub

Plot

Notes

See also

References

External links