The Snow Man (1932) [PG] Warning: This aint Frosty The Snowman, kids! A cute little Eskimo and his animal friends build a snowman. But this is no friendly Frosty. The snowman attacks them and wreaks havoc until its destroyed by the Northern Lights. Directed and Animated By Ted Eshbaugh (February 5, 1906 - July 4, 1969) NOTE: This controversial animated short was originally produced for Van Beuren Studios and released by RKO Radio Pictures on July 05, 1932. It was then edited and reproduced by Film Laboratories of Canada, Invincible in 1933. You are watching the original and unedited 1932 version. The story takes place in the frozen north. Our hero the Eskimo is bedding down for the winter. His pet, a seal that barks like a dog, beds down too. In the spring, everybody gets up. We find that the seal/dog has had pups! All is well and happy. All the cute little animals frolic and play in the snow, building a snowman. Suddenly, the mood changes. The snowman comes to life and starts attacking everybody! He eats a fish in a rather gruesome display, gains a big deep voice, and wrecks a church. It looks like there is no stopping him, but our hero the Eskimo knows what to do. Even the eaten fish has the final laugh. In the early thirties, the success of James Whales Frankenstein made the film a point of reference. New films, even plain mysteries, were advertised or critiqued as being Frankenstein-like, or in the vein of Frankenstein. It even applied to cartoon shorts, as in this curious review by James Francis Crow in a Hollywood Citizen News entertainment column dated August 24, 1933: Ted Eshbaugh, touted as the first worthy competitor to Walt Disney, has completed the first color cartoon of The Wizard of Oz series, and it will be released soon by a major studio, this column hears. Another of Eshbaughs creations, called The Snow Man, in an Arctic locale, applies the Frankenstein theme to cartoon comics. The snow man builded by the little Eskimo hero and his animal pals comes to life and spreads havoc in the north country. But our hero runs to the North Pole Power Plant, turns on the Aurora Borealis, and melts Mr. Snow Man. A fish the icy Frankenstein has swallowed is found swimming in the placid lake formed at his demise. As far as being a worthy competitor, Ted Eshbaugh was indeed the first of Disneys would-be rivals to produce color cartoons, but he was never a true contender. He would produce or direct a handful of titles, the most significant being a 1933 adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, with music by Carl Stalling. Promoted as the first of a series, the short was embroiled in legal problems and never reached theaters. The record is unclear, it was either a case of Walt Disney having an exclusive agreement with Technicolor, or Samuel Goldwyn owning the film rights to the property. The Snow Man, produced in 1932, features a nasty North Pole bogeyman with scary claws and a literal stovepipe hat. The Frankenstein theme suggested by reporter Crow is incidental, the snowman being a creature assembled, brought to life and going on a rampage. A year later, the film might have been compared to King Kong instead. The 8-minute film survives today in black and white. Too bad, the aura borealis finale must have been stunning in color. The theater mentioned in the article, Tallys Criterion, was called The first truly deluxe movie theatre in Los Angeles when it opened, as The Kinema, in 1917, boating 1800 seats and a spectacular organ. It was one of the first theaters to install the Vitaphone sound system in 1927 and Al Jolson himself traveled cross-country to attend a showing there of The Jazz Singer. The theater cycled through several names until it was damaged in a fire, abandoned, and demolished in 1941. Other shorts directed by Ted Eshbaugh Capn Cub (1945) Japanese Lanterns (1935) The Sunshine Makers (1935) Pastry Town Wedding (1934) Goofy Goat Antics (1933) The Wizard of Oz (1933)
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 09:00:00 +0000
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