Swing Wedding (1937)

Directed by

Hugh Harman

Genre

animation

Country

United States

Runtime

8 min

Rating

8.0 of 10 from 2 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In this animated short, frogs in a swamp celebrate a wedding with music. The frog characters are caricatures of famous black entertainers from the 1930s.

whimsicallivelydatedstereotypicalmusicalfast-pacednostalgicoffensive

What happens

Swing Wedding is a 1937 MGM Happy Harmonies cartoon directed by Hugh Harman. 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, others have derided the use of Zip Coon-type figures and stereotypical dialogue (including expressions such as "Who dat?" and "Yowza!"). 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. This cartoon was re-released in a shorter version called "Hot Frogs" in 1942 as a "soundies" format. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• The Old Mill Pond (1936)
• The Old Oaken Bucket (1941)
• Ain't We Got Fun (1937)
• Bunny Mooning (1937)
• Educated Fish (1937)
• Tale of the Vienna Woods (1934)
• The Old Plantation (1935)
• I Only Have Eyes for You (1937)