Holiday for Shoestrings

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.

While not quite among Fritz Freleng's masterpiece, though the man did so many great cartoons, 'Holiday for Shoestrings' is still wonderful stuff.

For what it lacks in plot, saying that the cartoon's light on it in fact is being generous, it more than makes up for in its entertainment value, terrific animation and some of the best use of classical music of any cartoon seen recently. The animation is simply terrific, with gorgeously vibrant colours, backgrounds that are rich in detail and the characters are smoothly drawn.

'Holiday for Shoestrings' is very funny stuff as well, all visual and gag driven with no dialogue or voices. The Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy bits are particularly hilarious, while the cartoon deserves a lot of credit for giving enough variety to the running gag with the two elves to not make it feel stale or repetitive. The ending couldn't have been a more beautiful or clever twist on a story as old as 'The Elves and the Shoemaker'.

The characters are endearing, but the best asset is easily the music, all pre-existing and brilliantly arranged by Carl Stalling. Tchaikovsky with 'The Nutcracker' dominates, but there are also healthy doses of Chopin, Strauss, Mendelssohn and Liszt. The music itself is magnificent and how it's utilised in 'Holiday for Shoestrings' makes it even more special, the synchronisation of gag and music is a seamless match throughout.

Overall, light on plot but high on entertainment and quality. 9/10 Bethany Cox

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.

Among the greatest Warner Bros. cartoons were the ones putting the action to music. One example is Friz Freleng's "Holiday for Shoestrings", taking the children's story of the shoe cobbler whose work gets secretly done by elves, and having the elves work to the "Nutcracker" music...with a few gags along the way. If you ask me, this is the way to get people into the holiday spirit; don't bombard people with that awful music and advertising that we have to experience every November and December. This cartoon (plus "Gremlins", "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and "The Ref") create the perfect amount of yuletide feeling. Just recently became available on DVD on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 5 Disc 2.

PS: one of the elves looked a little bit like Elmer Fudd.