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A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Van Beuren cartoons are extremely variable, especially in the number of gags and whether the absurdist humour shines through enough (sometimes it does, other times it doesn't), but are strangely interesting. Although they are often poorly animated with barely existent stories and less than compelling lead characters, they are also often outstandingly scored, there can be some fun support characters and some are well-timed and amusing.The "Rainbow Parade" cartoons are a fairly good example of this. The series is a very mixed bag, with some good cartoons and not so good ones, though none of the series' worst are as bad as the worst of the studio's Tom and Jerry and Cubby the Bear cartoons for examples. 'The Sunshine Makers' is one of the series' best, it's one of the good ones and one is surprised it comes from Van Beuren, with it being in a different league to most of their efforts. A classic 'The Sunshine Makers' isn't quite. The story is slight, with the conflict fairly predictable. Plus anybody wanting a funny cartoon with gags coming thick and fast and laugh a minute is best watching something else, 'The Sunshine Makers' isn't that kind of cartoon with it having a serious subject and message. If one knows what to expect, it won't be a problem. Really liked the animation here though, generally Van Beuren came on a long way when they went to colour technically even though simple in colour scheme and not exactly advanced. 'The Sunshine Makers' is one of the best looking of the "Rainbow Parade" cartoons, and adopts a wider range of colour in accord to the sunshine-filled good and gloomy evil sides, it is lusciously coloured, there is more refinement in the drawing than one would expect from the studio and the backgrounds meticulous in detail.Even better is the music score, it is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated, is great fun to listen to and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action. Particularly in the war scenes and climax, which is a quite powerful one. The title song is unforgettably catchy. While not a "funny" cartoon, the good versus evil concept while predictable provides a good deal of emotional power and the message conveyed is potent and relevant still today without preaching. 'The Sunshine Makers' is cute (mostly in the characters) without being too sugary or saccharine, suitably strange without being incoherent or muddled and dark without being too frightening, a lot of it is charming and makes one happy. Characters are not too bland.Overall, enjoyable and one of the better cartoons in the series. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I'm happy when I'm sad. No you're not! Eat molten bombs of sweet purification comrade!!! Ah the glorious cosmic incubator that is the mighty Sun, bringer of light, giver of life to all! Ahem, so..okay, there are such beautiful colours in this strange and wonderful short. I love the really old cartoons that feature merry gnome-like sprites, and I especially love the great animation gems of the 1930's, they're so unique in style and are so carefully and artistically constructed, there's a certain aesthetic to them that you just don't get from any other animations. And this one in particular has some very striking imagery and animated effects regarding the two polar opposite factions of gnome folk. I love all the crazy details in the machinery of the Smurf-like residents of..let's call it Sunnyville, as they harness and prepare the rays of the sun into an elixir to be delivered like so many bottles of milk! And all the richly Gothic gloom of the decrepit hamlet of the dark gnomes is just as well done and appealing in its own very different way. The shadows are terrifically done and are paid great attention to in the story. And I love the beautiful effect of the sunshine arrows that make sunlight appear wherever they hit, I think it looks downright amazing to say that this short is so very old! This really is one of the special old cartoons, I think it's all beautiful. I love the sky, the lighting, everything, this is just wonderful to look at. "Sunshine, sushiiine!" Oh, that song will stick in your ears for hours! But on the other hand the scene is so hilarious where the bad gnomes are singing(?) about how happy they are being sad! Apparently they were just begging for a hostile together and thorough brainwashing by the clan of the sun worshippers! There's something a little whoa and off about about the whole militarisation of sunlight in the story, the way the gnomes launch the sunshine artillery and drop the sunlight bombs, smiling all the while, and completely disregarding the choices of their grumpy downbeat cousins until they're completely *forced* to convert! That was so unfair! True they did attack first, but the majority of them appeared to be minding their own business, and I do think the happy-go-lucky guys went a little too far, I mean it was only one person who attacked, and they went all word war three and bombed them with sunshine till their grim landscape was absolutely no more and they were all happy-happy-happy!!! What a lesson to teach little kids - if someone disagrees with you, hurt them until they do! Positivety cannot be force-fed, and can a person be too happy? I would freaking-well say so! It's a little sickly-sweet in places, but what a great show, I loved it. I thought it had some pretty cool and scary ideas! It's a beautiful day as I write this, everything's so much nicer when the sun's out. Hey sun, you should come out more often, things are so much better when you're around!

As now, I had a voracious appetite for movies and television and a memory that doesn't quit even after 61 years. As a kid growing up in northern NJ, I had access to the NY/NJ television broadcast market from my youngest years. The first time I saw The Sunshine Makers it made a deep impression on a 3 to 4 year old that I carried through the years. It was broadcast on Newark's Channel 13 and was shown as a "cartoon" along with "Farmer Gray" and the mostly middling fare of which I discerned even then. I had even visited the NJ studio and sat in what is now considered the "peanut gallery" of the old Uncle Fred's Junior Frolics several times. Unfortunately, The Sunshine Makers weren't shown during my presence or I would have had my Aunt and cousin to remember or discuss it with. Now I glad I hadn't seen it in person and hadn't discussed it with them because their opinions, in hindsight, may have dismissed it.It was like no other cartoon that I saw in those early days of television. While I couldn't express terms like theme, plot, character, etc., I tried to convey to my parents and friends what I saw and the impression it made on me. To this day I had never encountered another person who had seen it until I read the comments on this media. The movie was only 15-16 years old when I saw it! While I won't describe what I saw (mainly because it would be repetitive to Raymond's, cc...'s, & HippieRockChick's description) the good vs evil theme affected me in a primitive way. But the biggest impression was the song/refrain "I'm only happy when I'm sad" in the bass tones came back to me more than a few times during my disaffected 'yute' (as Vinny Gambini might say) or when I had the blues.Where can I get a copy of it?

(SPOILER although it isn't much.) In its eight years of existence from 1928 to 1936, the Van Beuren animation studio never achieved the illustriousness of other studios like those of Walt Disney and Max Flesicher. They never developed a star like Mickey Mouse or Betty Boop and their cartoons, on a whole, did not create a lasting impression. However, the studio did produce a few authentic gems. THE SUNSHINE MAKERS is one of these gems.The story isn't much. Cheerful gnomes spread happiness through bottled sunshine milk. Miserable goblins decide to spoil the fun with gloom-inducing gas. A battle erupts and the gnomes bombard the goblins with sunshine milk, turning them into happy, lovable creatures.What makes the cartoon memorable is the way the story is presented. First of all, the animation crew under the direction of Ted Eshbuagh and Burt Gillette devise a picturesque fantasy world. Even in the faded print I saw, the contrast between the gnomes' rosy world and the goblins' grim milieu is well established. The gnomes are depicted in bright hued in sunny, pastoral surroundings. On the other hand, the goblins are drably hued in a bleak, Gothic environment. Winston Sharples's music enhances the atmosphere, buoyant for the gnomes and sombre for the goblins.Then there's the climactic battle. The animation stuff imaginatively illustrates the effects of sunshine milk on the goblins and their environment. Particularly memorable is a scene where two goblins undergo the effects of sunshine milk. Their skin brightens, they begin to smile, and they start to sing and dance. Meanwhile flowers sprout in the background, brightening their milieu. Sharples' score enhances the war scenes, building to a lively crescendo.One cannot fully appreciate THE SUNSHINE MAKERS from reading this review. It's one of these pictures that seem trite on paper but are remarkable on the screen. One cannot articulate WHY it's so remarkable-one can only feel exhilarated from watching it. If all of Van Beuren's cartoons were so memorable, the studio might have dominated the animation field rather than dwindled into oblivion.