The Calico Dragon (1935) User Reviews

So Cute I Could Puke

[boblipton · 5/10 · 29 October 2022]

A little girl -- I should write "widdle gir-rl" because that's how she would say it -- reads the end of a story, then goes to sleep. Whereupon all toys come to life and do cute things while singers sing cute songs.

Whoopee. Clearly this was the effect that Harman and Ising were trying for -- cuteness, I mean. They certainly do a fine job of color design with their two-strip Technicolor effects, where everything looks like calico, cheap decorated cotton fabric. It got that name because it used to be imported for Calcutta in Indian.

Anyway, if you have a taste for this sort of thing, or need a good purgative, this is a cartoon for you.

Amiable time-passer

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 21 December 2006]

I am a huge fan of Hollywood films from the 1930s. I simply adore the movies and shorts and can't get enough of them. There is, however, an exception--most cartoons of the 30s were pretty insipid. Sure, there are some notable exceptions (such as SNOW WHITE), but Disney, Warner Brothers and MGM (among others) insisted on cranking out a huge number of terrible musical films that were just awful. Please understand I am NOT knocking Mickey Mouse or Donald--but the musicals referred to as "Silly Symphonies" (Disney), "Merry Melodies" (Warner) or "Happy Harmonies" (MGM). These cutesy films were pure drivel with practically no humor and no edge--just lots of awful singing and characters so treacly sweet that they are just about unwatchable. The edgy Bugs Bunny or Tex Avery cartoons we know and love today were produced in the following decades. You know it was a bad decade for toons when Popeye and Betty Boop were among the BETTER toons of the age!!! Despite these films being so bad, I recently forced myself to watch a trio of Happy Harmonies shorts. Part of this must be because I am a masochist, but part of it is because I love reviewing the more obscure films--as there is a real scarcity of reviews for older and seldom-seen movies and shorts.

This was the third Happy Harmony short shown on TCM. And, while not a particularly good cartoon, it was light-years better than the two other offerings that day! That's because although it's filled with terrible music, it is creative and the calico dragon and the other characters who look like homemade stuffed animals are pretty creative and it was a clever idea rather reminiscent of Raggedy Ann. Decent animation make this worth seeing if there's really nothing better on TV.

This brief cartoon begins with an innocent young American girl . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 12 February 2017]

. . . enjoying what appear to be her harmless stuffed pets in the safety of her own bed. Since the contemporary audience for this animated short croaked long ago, their expectations for and reactions to THE CALICO DRAGON are now just so much Dust in the Wind. But what are We--Today's viewers--put in mind of by a fierce three-headed dragon arising from the bedspread folds covering this slumbering lassie's defenseless form? When WE were her age, was Our American President bragging that he could grab the genitalia of ANY female within his reach simply because this was every Billionaire's Birthright? Did WE have to worry when OUR sisters, daughters, classmates, and cousins approached Puberty that they would have NO access to Planned Parenthood's smorgasbord of services, and instead be subjected to Forced Birthing as a result of Rape and Incest, no matter how young they were? As Our Youthful Selves snuggled in our childhood beds, did frets over rampant fracking earthquakes, imminent extinctions for America's favorite animals due to Endangered Species Law Violations, the sell-off of all public lands to Big Polluters, accompanied by the elimination of all laws providing clean air and water trouble our sleep? Most kids--then and now--would vote to go to bed under the watch of a Three-Headed Dragon rather then trying to nod off in Today's Kingdom of Deplorable Rumps.

CHILDHOOD FAVORITE STILL WORKS!

[JTBWRITER · 9 June 2002]

THE CALICO DRAGON is truly a beautiful, enjoyable cartoon tale about a little girls stuffed animals coming to life in her dreams and looking for adventure. The calico dragons and their song are engrained in mine and my friends minds and having seen "Calico" on CartoonNetwork last year, it still holds up. I only wish it was available on video along with some of the other MGM classic cartoons, or that CN would have a regular MGM Classic hour!

fake doll look

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 29 October 2022]

A little girl reads the fairy tale story, The Princess and the Dragon, to her dolls. She falls asleep. In her dream, her dolls come alive. A doll rides a horse to battle the dragon with a little dog in tow.

It's Happy Harmonies from MGM. It's a Hugh Harman - Rudolf Ising cartoon. It's an old-style animated cartoon. It's colorful but dull looking. It's the age of the animation. It's not one that I particularly like. The little girl is a bit problematic. She has the fake doll look. I do like the concept of these stuffed animals coming alive. It's a good short. They just need to make a better girl.

Beautiful artwork and backgrounds, if occasionally too cute for words.

[llltdesq · 9/10 · 31 January 2001]

This cartoon's use of color and background detail is excellent. Sometimes, the story and the action is just too cute for my tastes, but it more than makes up for this visually. The dragon is great! Nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short, this runs on Cartoon Network occasionally and, when TCM does its annual "Salute to the Oscars" in March, this has been used as filler between features in years past as have other shorts, both animated and live-action. Recommended.

Calico cuteness.

[Auntie_Inflammatory · 8/10 · 4 May 2019]

In short, it's a cute cartoon. :)

There's nothing earth-shattering here, just some winsome characters and nice artwork.

Three toy pals; a Peter Pan-looking doll, a horse, and a plaid Scottie set off on a quest to find a dragon. They travel through a patchwork landscape comprised of the bedspread of their little-girl owner and things you'd find lying around the bedroom. The animation is imaginative and rather charming. A bra becomes a couple of birds' nests, a jacket is a tree, a girdle is a bridge, spools of thread make up a tree trunk, and a union suit is a house with the flap in back functioning as a drawbridge.

The music and singing is typical of cartoons of the period. The little girl at the beginning has the usual Betty Boop/Olive Oyl voice.

Not extraordinary but sweet.

Going to Calico Land

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 31 July 2018]

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes, Hanna Barbera, Studio Ghibli and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. With significantly broader knowledge of different directors, animation styles and studios, actually appreciate and love it even more now.

'The Calico Dragon' is fairly typical of Rudolf Ising, leaning towards the cute kind of cartoon with a lot of sentiment in alternative to the laugh a minute and hilarious kind, the latter being the one that a lot seem to prefer (understandably, though am hardly biased against the former). This approach has varied with Ising. In some instances it has been very sweet and charming, in others it can be cloying and too cutesy. Generally 'The Calico Dragon' belongs in the former category, despite the danger of falling into the latter with the premise.

'The Calico Dragon' has a lot to like and far from undeserving of a nomination and deserving of more attention.

Yes it gets a bit too saccharine in places, like with the lyrics of the narration, and it is best perhaps to not talk about the story because there really isn't much of one.

What 'The Calico Dragon' does so well however eclipses these problems. The animation is rich in detail for design and backgrounds, vibrant in colour and crisp. Composer for the prime-era 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons and regular Tex Avery composer Scott Bradley provides a lush and atmospheric music score.

It is hard not to fall in love with the irresistibly adorable dragon, and it has enough likeability and personality to not be dull. 'The Calico Dragon' is rich in natural sweet charm and some very imaginative ideas and visuals. There is not much hilarious and the cartoon's hardly laugh a minute, but a good deal of it does raise a smile. The pace avoids being draggy.

Overall, lovely cartoon. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Impressive patchwork textile designs make for quite a unique and beautifully done short

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 8/10 · 20 May 2013]

So, my appreciation and enjoyment of this lovely short animation is mainly due to the ingenious quilt-world design that is featured throughout, I found it so different and cute and charming. I mostly found the beginning part of it with the weird doll-faced girl reading just a little on the dull side, but things definitely perk up toward the ending as the cuddliest dragon ever shows up, I found him very interesting to look at and way too cuddly to be scary! The form of the dragon reminded me a little of that old stop-motion animated show Bagpuss, and that thing the dragon did with its tongue was so startling with the creepy noise of one of those funny paper birthday party whistle thingies! That foul lil' noise actually gave me a tiny chill and I'm supposed to be a grownup! Something that I found pretty amazing and enchanting about the ending was how the landscape and everything subtly changed back into the little girl's bed covers and toys, revealing everything to be the classic "just a dream" twist in the tale, I actually thought it was remarkably similar to what it's really like when you awaken from a dream as a child. I have never really come across another animation quite like this. Many of the best cartoons I've ever seen were made in the 1930s, and while I grant you that a lot of them weren't perfect, but the ones that really counted were pure animated magic! True animation art, and they are still 😊