Movie Project: Day 5 - Santa's Workshop & Pluto's Christmas Tree

There were a couple of features that I tried to watch with Rini today: Cinderella and Johnny Lingo (1969). With Cinderella, she watched about 20 minutes before she went to 'go look for mommy' and with Johnny Lingo she was constantly squirming and got up and left not even five minutes in. She came back around the middle for the wedding feast, but I think that was more of an accident.

By the end of the day, we were faced with only a few minutes before bed, and I was thinking that I would have to strike this day. However, I knew that Mickey's Christmas Carol was not that long in run time, and might work as a last minute feature.

I decided to err on the side of brevity though, and instead we watched two of the three other shorts included on the disc. I knew she had seen Small One before, but Caitlin said to try Santa's Workshop first, since she was less familiar with it. It's a cute, whimsical little short typical of the Silly Symphonies, and Rini particularly liked the penguin toys!

After those six minutes of simple, yet charming animation, we watched Pluto's Christmas Tree. This six minute short was cute enough that Rini wanted to watch it again, and being only six minutes, I figured I would indulge her. To say that there is any sort of lesson to be learned in this short would be a bit of a stretch, since the plot revolves around the miscommunication between Pluto and Mickey. Once Mickey snaps out of his indifferent state of mind and starts to strangle Pluto for wrecking the tree, he sees the two chipmunks, Chip and Dale, and he welcomes them into their home for Christmas, instead of chasing the vermin out of the house or encouraging Pluto to eat them. Still, it's cute, the chipmunk voices of Chip and Dale are enough to send you into giggles, and it has enough cartoon violence to tolerate two viewings back to back.

Was it the best thing to show her on Sunday? Probably not, but it was short, and she actually sat still for everything. As an added bonus, she went to sleep with little to no fuss! I'm just hoping that we can build up her attention span so that she'll sit through Toy Story 3.