Vancouver animator dusts off the holiday cartoon classics you've never heard of
We've all heard of the Grinch but have you heard of Little Audrey?
Before people gathered in front of the television to watch such holiday classics as How the Grinch Stole Chistmas and Frosty the Snowman, they would watch Chirstmas cartoons in movie theatres.
Capilano University animation instructor Michael van den Bos is working to bring these old, unfamiliar cartoons back into the limelight.
"Before Rudolph and Charlie Brown on television, there were cartoons made in Hollywood in the 1930s, 40s and 50s," said van den Bos.
Van den Bos said these early cartoons, created by Hollywood giants like MGM and Warner Bros., were seminal in the creation of later holiday specials that are now more prominent.
As the use of televisions became widespread in the late 50s, the production companies sold the old cartoons to television networks, who began broadcasting them seasonally.
"They really helped set the seasonal stage for the television Christmas cartoon," said van den Bos.
He said the first made-for-television Christmas special wasn't A Charlie Brown Christmas or The Grinch but rather Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol, originally broadcast in 1962.
"That's the one that really kicked things off."
Prior to 1962, said van den Bos, Christmas audiences would have been more familiar with such tales as the 1947 cartoon Santa's Surprise. That colourful short, released by the now defunct Famous Studios, follows the story of Little Audrey as she and her friends help Santa save Christmas.
And then there is the little known story Alias St. Nick. The cartoon, released by MGM Studios in 1935, tells the story of a mischievous cat who dresses up as Santa on Christmas Eve to trick a family of mice.
And who can forget Ski for Two, the 1944 Woody Woodpecker cartoon which follows Woody's journey to a ski lodge in the Swiss Alps.
"These stories hit a beautiful message. They're timeless stories," said van den Bos.
With files from The Early Edition