Swing Wedding
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| Swing Wedding
Happy Harmonies series |
|
|---|---|
| Directed by | Hugh Harman |
| Produced by | Hugh Harman Rudolph Ising |
| Animation by | Larry Martin Tom McKimson |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | February 13, 1937 (USA) |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 8 min (one reel) |
| IMDb profile | |
Swing Wedding is a 1937 animated musical short by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed by Hugh Harman, it is part of the Happy Harmonies cartoon series.
The cartoon portrays a wedding celebrated by a group of frogs in a swamp. The frogs are designed as caricatures of various African American celebrities of the 1930s, such as Ethel Waters, Stepin Fetchit, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller and the Mills Brothers.
Though once hailed as "'one of the finest one-reelers in all of animation",[1] many commentators have derided the use of Zip Coon-type figures and stereotypical dialogue (including expressions such as "Who dat?" and "Yowza!").[2] The film is also controversial for a scene in which a frog musician uses his trumpet valve as a syringe. The scene plays on the stereotype of black jazz musicians using drugs before performing.[3]
This cartoon was re-released in a shorter version called "Hot Frogs" in 1942.
[edit] Note
- ^ qtd. in Ian Conrich, et al. Film's Musical Moments. Edinburgh University Press, 2006. 23.
- ^ Ian Conrich, et al. Film's Musical Moments. Edinburgh University Press, 2006. 23.
- ^ Jesse Hamlin. "Jazz in the City Benefit." The San Francisco Chronicle. 21 August 1988.
[edit] External links
- Swing Wedding at the Internet Movie Database.
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