Swing Wedding
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Rudolph Ising
Tom McKimson (unc.)
| Swing Wedding | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Hugh Harman |
| Produced by | Hugh Harman Rudolph Ising |
| Animation by | Larry Martin (unc.) Tom McKimson (unc.) |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 8 min (one reel) |
| Language | English |
Swing Wedding is a 1937 MGM Happy Harmonies cartoon directed by Hugh Harman.[1]
A "sequel" to the 1936 short 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,[2] others have derided the use of Zip Coon-type figures and stereotypical dialogue (including expressions such as "Who dat?" and "Yowza!").[3] 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.[4][5]
This cartoon was re-released in a shorter version called "Hot Frogs" in 1942 as a "soundies" format.
The story parallels a Mill Pond sequence but without a wedding in the plotline. In Swing Wedding, Ethel-like Minnie sings "Let Me Take You Down to Chinatown (It's Minnie the Moocher's Wedding Day)" quite well, backed up by the Boswell Sisters sound-alike gal frogs, who wear flimsy long gowns that reveals their very chorus-girl legs right up to their crotches. In The Old Mill Pond following a big number by Frog Calloway, Ethel as Minnie sings "Jungle Rhythm" without back-up singers, although she is attended by a chorus line of dancing gals. Cab's appearance is delayed in Swing Wedding until cued by his intention to steal Minnie away from Smoky Joe.
— Wild Realm Reviews, The Jazz Frogs
