Studio: Van Beuren Studios
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Produced by: Amedee J. Van Beuren
Short Synopsis
Plot documentation for this short is thin, and this summary follows the surviving film. In a snowbound settlement in the far north, a crowd packs the doorway of the general store and post office, and Cubby Bear sets out as the mail carrier with a dog sled. The townsfolk cheer and wave their hats as he goes. His route takes him past icy peaks, where a scrawny vulture watches from a snowy crag, and into a forest blizzard. Cubby has a bulging sack marked "Mail", and at one point he rides on top of it as it skids through the snow; later he is seen crouching in the snow beside another figure, in what looks like trouble on the trail. Whether that is a rival, a villain or a rescue, and how the delivery ends, is not described in any source this book could check.
Why It Matters
- The snowy backgrounds are the visual pleasure, a frontier town buried in drifts, frozen trees and craggy mountain peaks, and the film turns a simple delivery run into a miniature northern adventure.
- It is from Cubby Bear's first months as the star of Van Beuren's Aesop's Fables series, when the studio was trying to build him into a rival for Mickey Mouse. Seen beside Opening Night, it shows the studio testing Cubby in very different settings, a concert hall and a wilderness, to find out what kind of hero he could be.
Notes and Trivia
- The Cubby Bear series ended in 1934 after Van Beuren fired the animators who had attended union meetings.
- See also: Opening Night (1933).