Happy after Christmas, or happy 2nd day of Chanakah, or just simply… Happy Holidays!
Pioneer Christian film producer C.O Baptista, and his company, Wheaton, Illinois-based C.O Baptista Films is a fascinating chapter in the history of film, and especially the history of evangelical and Christian-based education films. A Venezuelan immigrant, Baptista served in World War 1 in fighting for the United States, and became a Sergeant. He started his small company in 1942, after spending some time selling movie projection equipment in Latin America. Chicago was already the home to several projector companies, and it’s interesting to note that this little low budget film studio even manufactured several 16mm projectors, with one called the miracle projector. The company switched to producing film strips in the 50s, but sadly were never able to do well enough to sustain the business, and went bankrupt in 1964. C.O. Baptista sadly died the next year.
If you’ve ever seen one of the Baptista films from the 40s, you could guess what the flavor of them would be.
This particular film was made in 1945. The film starts with a father who decides to tell a story to his son, who is board because his sisters are playing with their dolls. The father exclaims “Any real boy would rather play with trains and soldiers” and tells him a story about a toy soldier.
The story starts with a Toy soldier in a toy shop. He was the best toy in the store because he’s made of wood — but most importantly he was also a Christian soldier. He ends up being a present to a kid named Gregory. Soon, there’s a conflict when Gregory’s friend James tires to take the solider for himself. We cut back to our live action Dad, who informs us that the toy soldier knew Gregory wasn’t Christian because he quarreled with James, and Christian girls and boys don’t quarrel.
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he toy soldier jumps out a window to get away from the kid. Harold, another kid who wanted a soldier, takes him but on the way home stops to shoot marbles, not caring if he’s late for school. Our judgmental hero, hearing the kid doesn’t care about being late, thinks that this child doesn’t love the Lord either, so he leaps into a gutter. Another kid, Joe, finds the toy and takes him home. He doesn’t like this kid either, after he’s afraid of a dog and a nail, and not wanting to go to sleep. The soldier slips into a waste basket, thinking ‘A soldier can’t live with a coward! If Joe were trusting in the Lord Jesus he wouldn’t be afraid’
The soldier is thrown into a garbage truck and taking to the dump, where he’s thrown into some sort of processing facility, but he’s not afraid because of his faith and is rescued by a garbage worker. The garbage worker takes the toy home to his little boy, who is described as “lame” and has to stay home. The little boy says that despite his pain, the lord Jesus has been with me, so he doesn’t mind. Our hero the Toy Soldier likes this situation and smiles as the film ends.
The film was produced by “Scriptures Visualized Institute”, and that appears to just be CO Baptista films’ production unit. The animation is sometimes quite smooth, and the choices made on what to animate and what not to animate seem off compared to animation studios with more production experience.
Apparently the studio later made an animated feature film called “Pilgrim’s Progress” as well as designed a multi-plane camera of some sort.
Despite the heavy handed message, I sort of enjoyed this little film and the bizarre nature of this little tale. I feel bad that all these kids had a judgmental toy in their possession, and wonder how long it was before the soldier ended up smiting its new owner as well. So, in this day after Christmas, I hope you enjoy this tale as well. I wonder if kids with tin soldiers ever pondered the faith of their toys?
This print is courtesy of Tommy Stathes, who was kind enough to lend it for scanning.
Have a good week all!
Steve Stanchfield is an animator, educator and film archivist. He runs Thunderbean Animation, an animation studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has compiled over a dozen archival animation DVD collections devoted to such subjects at Private Snafu, The Little King and the infamous Cubby Bear. Steve is also a professor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
It’s not easy to be a pioneer in any field, let alone Christian film production. In the 1940s, many evangelical Christians still shunned motion pictures altogether for glorifying sin and licentiousness, the Hollywood Production Code notwithstanding. C. O. Baptista would have faced an uphill battle persuading congregations to spend their money on film projectors. Even then, I imagine that many of the children who sat through these films would have been as bored and fidgety as the little boy in this one.
Baptista’s director of animation was one Severi Anderson or Severt Andrewson (I’ve seen both spellings), who was mainly an illustrator of religious books. His magnum opus was the monumental four-volume “Character Sketches: From The Pages Of Scripture Illustrated In The World Of Nature”. Judging from his animation of the grocer’s dog in this cartoon, you wouldn’t think that Andrewson was a gifted wildlife artist, but such was indeed the case.
As for the question of whether a wooden toy soldier can have a soul, or is competent to judge whether or not a child is in a state of grace, I’ll leave that to the theologians. Merry Christmas!