Swing Wedding

Swing Wedding
Happy Harmonies series
Directed by Hugh Harman
Produced by Hugh Harman
Rudolph Ising
Animation by Larry Martin (unc.)
Tom McKimson (unc.)
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) February 13, 1937 (US)
Color process Technicolor
Running time 8 min (one reel)
Language English

Swing Wedding is a 1937 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Happy Harmonies cartoon directed by Hugh Harman.

A "sequel" to The Old Mill Pond, 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 hailed as "'one of the finest one-reelers in all of animation" by some commentators,[1] others have derided the use of Zip Coon-type figures and stereotypical dialogue (including expressions such as "Who dat?" and "Yowza!").[2] The film also contains a controversial 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.

References

  1. ↑ quoted in Ian Conrich, et al. Film's Musical Moments. Edinburgh University Press, 2006. 23.
  2. ↑ Ian Conrich, et al. Film's Musical Moments. Edinburgh University Press, 2006. 23.
  3. ↑ Jesse Hamlin. "Jazz in the City Benefit". San Francisco Chronicle. August 21, 1988.


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