February 25th, 2022 
Michael Lyons 
The Winter Olympics have just past, but excitement of winter sports go on forever – at least in cartoons. In fact there is much comfort to be had during uncertain times and we thought it would be worth looking back at some of the classic cartoon shorts that celebrate many of the sports featured in the winter games.
The Art of Skiing (1941) and Hockey Homicide (1945), Disney
This pair of “How to” Goofy cartoons are sly, satirical commentaries on both sports.
The Art of Skiing is narrated by John McLeish, in overtly serious tones that are in stark contrast to Goofy’s comedic, physical gymnastics on the screen. The short comments on just how challenging the sport can be as Goofy gets continually tangled in his skis at the top of the mountain, even though McLeish notes that the steps he is describing “are really quite simple and can be easily mastered by the greenist amateur.”
Directed by Jack Kinney, it features ingenious, kinetic animation, particularly at the end of the short, as Goofy winds up taking flight with his skis and dives straight down the mountain and into his bed.
Kinney was also at the helm for Hockey Homicide, which is jam-packed with not-so-subtle observations on the sport.
Narrated by Doodles Weaver, the short features Goofy playing all of the roles, as two hockey teams, the Loose Leafs and the Ant Eaters, who face off in a game that is filled with creatively violent cartoon action, as well as a sense of cartoon danger. Not even the referee (named “Clean Game Kinney,” after the director) is safe, and he is clobbered at the first puck drop.
From here, two players never get out of the penalty box and a goalie winds up drowning in pucks, among other catastrophic cartoon moments.
There are also plenty of Disney “in-jokes,” such as the players bearing the last names of several Disney animators, such as Al Bertino and Norm Ferguson. The game’s surreal crescendo includes brief scenes from the studio’s other films, such as an airplane from Victory Through Air Power and Monstro, the whale from Pinocchio.
These shorts are gleeful in their humorous celebration of skewering skiing and hockey.
Ski For Two (1944), Universal
This Woody Woodpecker outing, directed by Shamus Culhane, is more about food than skiing but is still full of plenty of the character’s hyperactive antics.
Sifting through travel brochures, Woody decides to go skiing and heads out to the “Swiss Chard Lodge.” After taking a train, he skis to the resort, hyperactively singing the operatic tune “The Sleigh (a la Russe),” accompanied by some well-timed animation.
Once at the resort, Woody proceeds to torture one of his usual targets, Wally Walrus, the inn’s proprietor. Woody wants to come in and enjoy the food but doesn’t have a reservation, so Wally refuses. What follows are the woodpecker’s ongoing attempts to get the food (including disguising himself as Santa Claus).
The short ends with Wally imitating Woody’s laugh and throttling the woodpecker. It seems that if annoyance were an Olympic sport, Woody would get the gold.
I’ll Be Skiing Ya (1947), Paramount
This cartoon short is more skating than the skiing hinted to in the title, but it’s still classic Popeye.
In it, both the Sailor Man and Olive Oyl are at “Stuffy’s Tavern, Where the Elite Beat the Heat” (a take-off of the popular radio show Duffy’s Tavern). It’s located in “Lake Plastered, NY” (another take-off on real-life Lake Placid, NY, which would ironically host the Olympics in 1980).
Here, Popeye teaches Olive to skate when the skating instructor Bluto (with a Russian accent) becomes obsessed with Olive. What follows is the usual paradigm of Bluto looking to get Popeye out of the picture so that he can have Olive all to himself.
There are many clever sight gags during this, including Olive’s “rubber hose” legs getting tangled around a tree and Popeye frozen into the shape of a walrus.
Bluto kidnaps Olive, and a St. Bernard comes to Popeye’s rescue with a spinach can.
Directed by I. Sparber, skiing does factor into the conclusion of the short with some great detail and lush backgrounds as Popeye rescues Olive. Then, the Sailor hauls off and punches Bluto, sending him to Florida.
Hey, who needs bronze, silver, or gold, when you’ve got spinach!
Mice Follies (1954), MGM
In this ingenious and beautifully animated Tom and Jerry short, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, Jerry and his friend, Tuffy, turn the kitchen of a home into an ice-skating rink.
The two do this by first turning on all the water and letting it flood the room, and then they use the wires from the refrigerator to freeze the water. As all the ice takes over the floor and freezes up to the pipes, some beautiful effects animation is on display here.
Additionally, there are some creative touches. Tuffy moves a flashlight through Jell-O molds in the ‘fridge to create different colored lighting for some skating routines employed by he and Jerry.
Of course, when Tom finds out, he is out to ruin the fun the mice are having, but the cat can’t get his traction on the ice, that is until he finds a pair of ice skates in a nearby closet. After this, the usual chase is on with some fun, wintry sight gags: as Tom skates by and covers the mice with ice, they each turn into a miniature “snow mouse” and as Tom skates under a door, he is flattened and turned into a sled.
Throughout, the short employs the beautiful music of Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty Waltz” and ends with humorous gags in which Tom is frozen in place like a giant statue that Jerry and Tuffy can skate around.
In terms of Tom and Jerry’s classic fun, judges should award Mice Follies a 10!
Animalympics (1980)
This animated feature shows the “broadcast” of the Olympic Games (both summer and winter) in the animal world (on the “ZOO” network) with very inspired touches. A dragon lights the torch; bears and bulls square off for ice hockey, beavers and squid compete in the toboggan races, and a chicken and a lizard perform a perfectly choreographed skating routine.
Animalympics features fuller animation than other television offerings from the time. Additionally, the character designs of the anthropomorphic animals are fun to watch, and the script is sharply written, satirizing everything from politics to broadcast journalism.
Animalympics also features an all-star cast of voices, including Harry Shearer, Gilda Radner, and Billy Crystal.
Additionally, the film was directed by Steven Lisberger, who would bring the world Tron just two years later. Several animators who worked on the film were also talents on the rise, including Roger Allers (who would co-direct The Lion King) and Brad Bird (The Incredibles).
Sadly, Animalympics never received the audience it deserved. It was initially produced as a two-part special for NBC. The first part, the Winter Games, aired in early 1980, but when the United States decided to boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow, NBC canceled their TV coverage and the second part (the Summer Games) of Animalympics.
The two specials were eventually paired together as a feature film but never received a significant release. Animalympics deserves a revisit, particularly during this Olympic season.
Any, or all, of the animation here (which is by no means a definitive list), will add to the fun of the spirit of the Olympics. Here’s to the games!
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