Studio: Famous Studios
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Produced by: Sam Buchwald
Short Synopsis
Marcella, a small girl, lies ill in bed through a long winter, and the doctor says that only spring, with sunshine and fresh air, will make her well. Her doll Raggedy Ann, coming to life when nobody is watching, decides to fetch spring herself. She climbs to the sky and pleads with the Sun, who is willing but cannot get past the clouds; she takes the case to the court of the weather, where Old Man Winter and his storm clouds refuse to give way before their time. Raggedy Ann argues, is rebuffed, and finally wins the Sun and the gentler weather over to her side, and together they break through the clouds. Spring arrives early, suddenly, over Marcella's garden, and the child, carried to the window, begins to recover, with the rag doll back in her arms and silent again.
Why It Matters
- The second Raggedy Ann cartoon, following the Fleischers' two-reeler of 1941, is a sentimental Technicolor fable in the manner Famous Studios inherited from the Fleischer Color Classics, with the weather court as its one real set piece and Winston Sharples's score carrying the mood; it is a good example of the studio's early Noveltoons, before Casper and Little Audrey took the series over.
- The film is in the public domain in the United States, its copyright among the Noveltoons that National Telefilm Associates let lapse, and it was reissued theatrically in December 1949; it is one of the few 1940s cartoons built on Johnny Gruelle's character, licensed from his estate.
Notes and Trivia
- Shane Miller, the story man, had been a Fleischer background painter.
- The Fleischer Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy of 1941 is the only earlier screen appearance of the doll.
- See also: Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy (1941), A Lamb in a Jam (1945), The Wee Men (1947).