Good Night, Elmer Review

Good Night, Elmer is a 1940 animated short film from the Merry Melodies series. It is a very cute short.

Elmer is in his room trying to sleep, but the candle constantly lights up and disrupts his sleep. Eventually, after many failed attempts to stop it, he destroys the candle and the entire room, lies to sleep, but the morning arrives and the sun stops his sleep leading to his frustration. Yes, this entire film sounds and feels too much like a Disney flick, but admittedly a good Disney flick.

It’s an underrated flick that, although quite slow, is actually stupendously executed in terms of gags and I loved each and every scenario with the candle. The ending is of course the clever highlight, but the whole film is quite fun, cute and I felt for Elmer who is here at his most frustrated. The animation is simply terrific with all the lights and shadows being superbly executed.

Good Night, Elmer definitely needed faster pacing, but the animation is stellar and the plot is actually quite interesting with a lot of fine situations.