Christmas Toyshop (1945)

• 31%
• 1945
• Animation
• Frank Moser
• Paul Terry

Christmas Toyshop (1945) is a 10-minute black-and-white short beginning as a live-action film of a family sending the children off to bed on Christmas Eve. While the kids are sleeping, mom and dad set up the tree and gifts. The Sandman sends the children off to sleep, but they are awakened by Santa crashing down the chimney. Santa lulls them back to sleep by telling them the story of what happens in a toy-maker's toy shop when he goes home for the night. The film switches to a cartoon where the toys come to life performing a vaudeville act and fighting off an attack from a spider. After the toys are victorious, the children wake up and the live action returns to the family enjoying Christmas morning. Christmas Toyshop is a prime example of 1940s short film-making with the cartoon segment clearly an earlier vintage as film distributor Official Films was known to buy and reissue older films, combining them with newer footage.