Alicia
I love this movie so much
IslandGuru
Who payed the critics
Plustown
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
Roman Sampson
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Santa's Surprise" is an 8.5-minute cartoon from 1947, so this one has its 70th anniversary this year. The names of director Seymour Kneitel and voice actors Mercer and Questel may be known to those who love animated (short) films from the old days, the Golden Age of Animation. This one here is a little work for Christmas and the tables are turned as a gang of kids gets the presents to Santa this time and they come from all kinds of different places as you see from their looks and skin colors. This is basically all the story that is to it. The introduction to Santa in the first 2 minutes felt really random and the story overall was a bit thin here. This Little Audrey film by Famous Studios never really makes an impact, even if it admittedly gets a bit better after the first 2 minutes, mostly because the character animation for the kids is way better than Santa's. But the plot is never really on an interesting level and even the music is underwhelming. Quite a shame. This could have been much better with more attention to detail as the general idea is fairly solid. I give this one a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
MartinHafer
"Santa's Surprise" is from Famous Studios--the cartoon factory owned by Paramount. Up until the early 1940s, it had been Fleischer Brothers, but the brothers were long gone by the time this cute cartoon was made.It begins with Santa making Christmas deliveries--and several kids from around the world (including Little Audrey in her first cartoon) sneaking onto his sleigh. No, they are not terrorists but nice kids who want to do something nice for him when he returns home. So, the kids clean up Santa's place and leave his a Christmas tree with a present just for him.While this cartoon is pretty cute (especially the very end), I am pretty sure it's damned by good intentions that haven't kept up with changing times. Some of the kids (especially the black one) are real stereotypes and I am sure some folks would take offense, though the Dutch kid is by far the stupidest one and I assume the Dutch have thick enough skins to handle that. All in all, quite enjoyable but not up to the standards of the best cartoon shorts of the day--which were mostly coming from Looney Tunes and MGM.
atinder
This yet another Christmas short, This is only nine min9 short CartoonI though this was really well made,The cartoon as some very sweet moments, there also some good musical moments which are really limited, the songs were decent and fitted the inreally well. This short as very good and funny, fun for the whole family.The writing was really good too,The Animation was good, for the times, some may find it a little out dated.I think kids, even these days, will really enjoyed this short, it very wellI going give this 8 out of 10
richard.fuller1
Actually it is seven children (Lil Audrey, a black child, an Asian, a Hawaiian girl, an Hispanic girl, a Dutch boy and a Russian boy) who sneak into Santa's sleigh and follow him to the North Pole to surprise him by cleaning his home and doing his dishes while he sleeps.Yes, the black child is very Sambo-ish and the Asian child is sinisterly slit-eyed (notice how he sees Santa; by looking over his own shoulder into a mirror), but in the end the comedy relief is all on the Dutch boy; noisy shoes, breaking dishes, caught in the washing machine.In some ways, this is a charming predecessor to Star Trek, with its international lineup (as well as possessing a previous enemy to America, the Asian child, and a product of the upcoming cold war, the Russian).There is a surprise here in this unlikely 1947 cartoon, for Santa as well as for the rest of us as to when people started opening their eyes.And it began with the kids, apparently.