"In about 1 hour, 33 minutes, and 47 seconds, Santa Claus will be here!" So says Sniffles, a cute mouse from Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) during the '40s. He's trying to stay up late waiting for the bearded man in the fat red suit by drinking coffee, listening to the radio, etc. Will he succeed? Chuck Jones, the one animation director during this period of Looney Tunes-Merrie Melodies that didn't go for straight gags, takes his own sweet time in finding various ways to get Sniffles' attempting to stay awake as entertaining as possible for the next 6 minutes. Nothing hilarious here, just some mild chuckles but Jones succeeds in his goal. I was especially amused by one magazine ad that reminded the mouse of sleep that had a boy toddler in nightgown holding a candle with the slogan, "Time To Re-Tire" which was an actual one for the now-defunct tire company Fisk (there was still one in the Baton Rouge area when I first moved there in 1975). For fans of both Christmas cartoons and those made by the folks at Termite Terrace, I highly recommend Bedtime for Sniffles.
