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Fresh and Exciting

Don't listen to the negative reviews

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I grew up watching this as a part of the 1983 Disney Channel Christmas special. I wasn't born until 1989, but my parents taped it back when it aired, along with several other classic Christmas cartoons, and we watched the tape every Christmas. I always enjoyed this cartoon. It has a charming and old-fashioned Christmas feel with the horse-drawn sleigh, clothing, and music. I also love the interplay of the animals, almost more than the people. While the idea of the females having a temper tantrum and then fainting at the sight of danger is a terrible, tired stereotype, if you understand the context of the times in which this cartoon was made, you can overlook it. Once Upon a Wintertime will always be a Christmas Classic.

This cartoon was originally part of Melody Time, an animated anthology of musical cartoons made by Disney. It's a sweet little story about a couple in love at wintertime taking a sleigh ride and playing around on the ice. There's also a very cute rabbit couple. It's got a cozy seasonal vibe to it that I liked. The animation is colorful and lovely to look at. Frances Langford sings the title song and she has a beautiful voice. It's only a few minutes out of your life so really what's the harm in trying it out? If possible, I'd recommend watching it in Melody Time as you get to see many other musical cartoons as well.

This is the first short that was used to make up the full-length film from Disney, "Melody Time". Following WWII, Disney Studio was a mess--a terrible strike and the war (where many of the workers were drafted and many more were assigned to wartime animation work) decimated the studio and many of the old animators were gone. As a result, Disney did not get back to making traditional animated feature films for several years. In the meantime, their 'full-length' films were really odd compilations of shorts--and of a rather lackluster quality compared to earlier and later work.The animation style and quality of this short is hardly reminiscent of classic Disney (such as "Snow White" or "Bambi"). Gone are the lovely detailed backgrounds and fine drawn characters. Instead, splashy solid color backgrounds and super-simplistic drawings filled this cartoon--such that it's hard to recognize it as a Disney product.As for story, it's only fair--and something that seems intended for older audiences. The film has no dialog and has singing by Frances Langford. The story consists of two young lovers cavorting about--ice skating and enjoying the great frozen outdoors. Later, the simplistically drawn lady nearly falls down a simplistic waterfall and is saved by her simplistically drawn boyfriend--then away they zip through the simplistic countryside on a simplistic sleigh. If you haven't guessed, the word for the day is 'simplistic'--a great description of this fair cartoon that is easy to skip.

Originally released as part of the omnibus animated feature Melody Time (1948), Walt Disney made Once Upon a Wintertime as a separate short subject five years later. With the score consisting entirely of Francis Langford's rendition of the title song with a very long instrumental bridge, we watch a young adult couple riding on a sleigh accompanied by a similar male and female rabbit one down below on the blades. Then some little argument ensues before some thrilling thin ice danger brings everyone to a crescendo before the romantic happy ending ensues. Beautiful animation throughout and one gets that warm feeling nearly the entire time despite the cold setting. Well worth seeking out on YouTube which is where I watched this when I linked from the Saturday Morning Blog.