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Swing You Sinners! (1930)

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Absolutely amazing!, 6 November 2005

Author: simpfann from Philadelphia, PA

They don't make them like this anymore. The complete surrealism of early Fleischer cartoons is working on all six cylinders here- everything has a life of its own and the very background pulsates to the jazzy soundtrack.

It starts out simply enough with some pretty basic cartoon gags, but it slowly builds to a completely mind-blowing finish: as if tombstones growing rubbery faces and singing weren't weird enough, once the scene switches to a barn, there's no turning back from this nightmarish world: a bag of grain becomes a pig, a rake becomes a scythe which then grows a mouth and speaks, the animation becomes more and more grotesque and the imagery becomes completely abstract, with random shapes and strange creatures forming from out of nowhere: a scat-singing quasi-frog, a big human face sprouting from a tree-like shape, until the final, macabre image of a skull zooming towards the camera.

It's hard to believe this dark, insane, Daliesque phantasma was a TYPICAL product of the Fleischer studio at this time, and even harder to believe that something like this was produced in an era before marijuana and LSD were commonly used. If you can find this cartoon, watch it- it might scare the hell out of you, but it's an absolutely incredible film!

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Dark and Memorable, 23 June 2004

Author: laffinsal from California

This cartoon seems to get better and better, every time I watch it. Bimbo the dog is seen by a policeman trying to steal a chicken, and hides in a graveyard. Once inside, the ghosts rise from their graves and teach him a lesson, singing him the title song.

The animation in this early Fleischer Talkartoon is distinctly primitive looking when compared to their later shorts. There are some very simple drawings here, but the timing, music and mood add so greatly to this toon, that you simply can't forget it. The theme in this one is very similar to the later, "Minnie the Moocher", which also uses a popular jazz song, but this cartoon goes a little bit darker. As Bimbo is menaced from the graveyard, inside an old barn, and out again, the drawings become more grotesque, more rubbery, and macabre. The final outcome, with the spooks chasing him into what looks like Hell, is quite creepy for a cartoon.

One of the great ones. This one seems to be difficult to view these days. It was included as part of the "Betty Boop Confidential" which toured theatres in 1995, but I have never seen a video release of it. It's worth tracking down. One of the best shorts of the 1930s, and of the Fleischer studio.

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Swing You Sinners is one of the most surrealistic Fleischer cartoons ever!, 6 June 2007

Author: tavm from Baton Rouge, La.

Bimbo, who gets his comeuppance for stealing chickens, encounters various talking gravestones with faces, many farm animals, a walking barn, and plenty of spooks and ghosts in one of the most musically jazzy surrealistic cartoons I've ever seen. Both the music and the animation makes you wonder how much drugs were taken to get the images that were presented here in the pre-Code era. Everything presented here is so unusual, so collage-like, that there's no way this would pass muster on Saturday morning television. Anyone with a love for both jazz and Fleischer animation should definitely check this one out. Hard to imagine Disney doing something like this, even when he made Fantasia.

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One of the better early Fleischer Studios sound shorts-which is quite a compliment!, 18 December 2006

Author: Robert Reynolds (minniemato@hotmail.com) from Tucson AZ

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In the 1930s, it was Fleischer Studios which was the most competitive studio to Disney. In fact, the argument can be made that in the very early 1930s (1930-31) that they were better. This short is an excellent example of what the studio was doing at the time. Because I want to discuss this in some detail, this is a spoiler warning:

I think, at least for me, the most fascinating aspect of this short for me is the rhythm of this short. The animation and the music are synchronized beautifully throughout. For example, watch the movements of the chicken in relation to Bimbo's movements very early on and then the movements of Bimbo in relation to the cop who catches him trying to steal the chicken. It's all basically in time with the musical score. The beginning is very good.

When Bimbo enters the graveyard, it turns from very good to outstanding. This is a very visually impressive short. After about thirty seconds in the graveyard, Bimbo probably wishes the cop had caught and arrested him. There's an incredible run of sight gags, all of them eerie to one degree or another. Ghosts and skeletons predominate and some very bizarre things happen.

Then Bimbo goes into a barn, which is like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. There's a beautiful "call and response" bit where various creepies accuse Bimbo of various misdeeds and with Bimbo replying that he doesn't do that "no more". The cartoon just keeps getting stranger and stranger, right up to the end. It can hold its own, even after 76 years. At their best, there really is nothing quite like a Fleischer cartoon. This one is definitely worth the effort to track down and watch. Most highly recommended.

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