This Month In Children's Media : December 2016 (Part II)

50th Anniversary edition VHS from Republic Home Video

A 1985 Home Video Release from Hal Roach Studios

December 20, 1946 - It's A Wonderful Life hits theaters

While it thought of more as a family film in general, It's A Wonderful Life tells the story of a man with 4 children, who come to regret his life, and is reminded of the significance of it by his guardian angel, who also watched his life from the time he was a boy. Plus younger viewers tend to like this one too.

Cover of Chicago Tribune's TV Week, December 17, 1966

December 18, 1966 - How the Grinch Stole Christmas premieres on CBS

A little disappointed that there wasn't a special feature for the the 50th anniversary of the Grinch (like the one for last year's ABC special for A Charlie Brown Christmas). Oh well, there are still fond memories of the 30 anniversary special that premiered on TNT in 1996.

Motion Picture Herald, November 24, 1934
From the Media History Digital Library

 

Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales, December 10, 1961. This comic strip sometimes illustrated the latest Disney film, even beginning a run before a theatrical premiere.

Babes in Toyland (March of the Wooden Soldiers) (1934)

Babes in Toyland (Disney, 1961)

Not sure if it is just a coincidence but the two most famous film versions of Victor Herbert's operetta "Babes in Toyland" debuted on the same day (December 14) decades apart. Personally I prefer the Laurel and Hardy version, colorized or in black and white, but both are charming and have been shown on television (more infrequently in recent years) for decades. Recent generations were reintroduced at times to both films through cable presentations on WGN and Disney Channel. This blogger recalls the days in the late 1990s and early 2000s when both were shown at Christmas time on the WGN Superstation.

Babes in Toyland (1934 version) was retitled "March of the Wooden Soldiers" for re-release in 1949, and it was this version that began to appear on television around 1954. Disney's Babes in Toyland premiered on television as a two part episode of the Wonderful World of Disney on December 21 & December 28, 1969.