ReFrederator Blog

This week we’re all about pixies, gnomes and such, so we’re kickin’ things off with a real eye-popper, 1936’s “To Spring.” Turns out there’s a parallel universe where all those flowers in May are a direct result of hundreds of scary looking little men pumping millions of gallons of volcanic goop through an underground pipe system. These guys may be geniuses when it comes to mixing up spring colors, but a single pair of trousers present mechanical principles beyond their ken — one gink spends THE ENTIRE CARTOON trying to put on his pants! (Which probably explains why most of these little buggers are happy to work semi-naked.)

When Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising produced this film, they were in an ever-escalating animation/arms race with their former boss, Walt Disney — which studio could cram more mind boggling, obsessive compulsive detail in each new ten minute short? The depression was hard, labor was cheap, and one imagines entire departments devoted to eyelash inking or chin shadow painting. In any event, this one is certainly a jaw dropper, and one of the most remarkable MGM Cartoons cartoons of the era.

So we are calling it Elf Help Week here at ReFrederator. Take a minute and tell us what you think.

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Dave Kirwan