Shortenin' Bread (1949) Online

This is a musical more than anything else with cookie characters dancing and singing. We seen visual puns on the various types of sweets, such as Lady fingers walking, an upside- down cake on the ceiling, a drunk rum cake, a goofy nut cake, etc., all going to the famous "Cookie Carnival."

At the carnival, "Danny Doughnut" does a death-defying dive into a cup of coffee

After the jokes, we come to the second part in which that southern favorite "Shorten' Bread," leads us and the bouncing ball into chorus of the song by the same name. This is strictly for young kids and for kids most likely 60 years ago. This is a bit corny for today's crowd, except maybe really young children.

Note: The title on the cartoon reads "Short'nin' Bread," which is spelled differently than what's on the title page here.

This is a Screen Song produced by Famous Studios. There will be spoilers ahead:

There's really not much special here. It's main point of differentiation from other Screen Songs is the fact that there's an additional song here done before the traditional "bouncing ball" singalong which closes the short.

Otherwise, it follows the basic formula. Here, instead of fish or cute little animals engaged in some project or game, you have a small bake shoppe which is closed for the night and tonight, the gingerbread boy announces the "Cookie Carnival" is about to start. He's the emcee/ringmaster. We hear a song all about the "Cookie Carnival" and get to see various puns and visual gags with baked goods like ladyfingers, upside down cake, a tipsy "Rum Cake" and a couple of policemen who are "Cop cakes", among other things.

When the carnival starts, we see some acts, including a cookie high-wire act which ends with the best gag of the short. Then out comes a shortbread cookie to cue the song for the singalong, "Short'nin' Bread". The closing bit is the final singing of the closing like of the song and it's a nice gag. The short's not a show stopper, but it's not the cartoon equivalent of the dog act in a vaudeville show either. It's okay.

This is available on DVD and it's worth tracking down if you like the Screen Songs.