Holiday for Shoestrings

Holiday for Shoestrings is a 1946 Merrie Melodies cartoon short directed by Friz Freleng. The plot concerns a pack of elves who help a shoemaker, Jake, who has advertised for help. The cartoon is set to a number of classical music pieces, some of which are used as running gags, especially from "The Nutcracker Suite". The title is a play on the David Rose number, "Holiday for Strings". However, that tune is not played in the score.

The cartoon is done largely in pantomime, with the occasional (unintelligible) bickering of elves, many of which look like miniature versions of Elmer Fudd with elf-like ears (anticipating A Similar Role played by Elmer 10 years later). The twist on the usual story is that the bedridden shoemaker, suddenly feeling much better upon seeing the elves working feverishly, tries to sneak out to play golf. The elves drag Jake back to bed, tie him down ala Gulliver, and are seen dragging the golf clubs out of the house for themselves to play a round with, at iris-out.

Censorship
After one of the elves fell into a bucket of water, the other two elves look like snakecharmers, and one of the two is playing the flute to tie the boot's shoelace neatly. When it aired on Cartoon Network, it was cut out.

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