Scrub Me Mama With a Boogie Beat has enough redeeming merits that stop it from being terrible or unwatchable, but it is actually very easy to see why many object to it and find it difficult to defend.
Getting onto the good things, the best thing about Scrub Me Mama With a Boogie Beat(and most other Lantz cartoons) is the music which throughout is fantastic, it's so lively and catchy and there isn't one second in the cartoon where you're not tapping your feet or trying to sing along. Also much enjoyable was most of the animation, the backgrounds are smooth-looking and rich in detail while the colours are warm and vivid. Especially good in this regard was the opening with the lush colours, the vivid setting and the way the camera moved. One character engaged and that was the lady reminiscent of Lena Horne, a very sexy and charming character. The cat and dog sequence was hilariously brilliant and there were a few other amusing touches. The voice characterisations are right on point, Mel Blanc voices the most characters but Vivian Dandridge is the real star, she brings such big sultry personality to her singing.
On the other hand, none of the other characters are engaging and are just shallow stereotypes. Stereotypes are not always a bad thing but when they're clichés or done in a negative fashion, like the stereotypes here are, it is. It was a huge turn-off and brought down the cartoon, for all its fine qualities, by quite some degree. It is not just the way they're drawn, which to put it politely is hideously exaggerated(i.e. the big lips) but also, and more so, the way they look, act and are portrayed as lazy and lethargic. It was cartoon racism at its worst and because the funny moments came in spades rather than consistently it was not so easy to excuse it. Speaking as a white person but knows plenty of African-Americans, things like with the pigs tails and watermelons were distastefully offensive. Sure it may have been of the time and Lantz probably did have no intention of offending anybody, but taking that into account and also that the cartoon caused controversy at the time as well when the stereotypes are exaggerated this much that's when it becomes harder to defend. As said previously Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat had some funny moments but despite the lively pace and such the laughs didn't come consistently, and the character designs apart from the lady are done in a rather ugly way, which was a shame after seeing so much care for the rest of the animation.
All in all, didn't really work personally but at the same cannot bring myself to hate it with such vehemence as others have done. Because there were a lot of fine qualities and one big thing that brought things down significantly, so it rates a 5/10, a rating usually meaning average but there have been times where I've used it for stuff "difficult to rate" and that was the case with Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat. Bethany Cox
Getting onto the good things, the best thing about Scrub Me Mama With a Boogie Beat(and most other Lantz cartoons) is the music which throughout is fantastic, it's so lively and catchy and there isn't one second in the cartoon where you're not tapping your feet or trying to sing along. Also much enjoyable was most of the animation, the backgrounds are smooth-looking and rich in detail while the colours are warm and vivid. Especially good in this regard was the opening with the lush colours, the vivid setting and the way the camera moved. One character engaged and that was the lady reminiscent of Lena Horne, a very sexy and charming character. The cat and dog sequence was hilariously brilliant and there were a few other amusing touches. The voice characterisations are right on point, Mel Blanc voices the most characters but Vivian Dandridge is the real star, she brings such big sultry personality to her singing.
On the other hand, none of the other characters are engaging and are just shallow stereotypes. Stereotypes are not always a bad thing but when they're clichés or done in a negative fashion, like the stereotypes here are, it is. It was a huge turn-off and brought down the cartoon, for all its fine qualities, by quite some degree. It is not just the way they're drawn, which to put it politely is hideously exaggerated(i.e. the big lips) but also, and more so, the way they look, act and are portrayed as lazy and lethargic. It was cartoon racism at its worst and because the funny moments came in spades rather than consistently it was not so easy to excuse it. Speaking as a white person but knows plenty of African-Americans, things like with the pigs tails and watermelons were distastefully offensive. Sure it may have been of the time and Lantz probably did have no intention of offending anybody, but taking that into account and also that the cartoon caused controversy at the time as well when the stereotypes are exaggerated this much that's when it becomes harder to defend. As said previously Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat had some funny moments but despite the lively pace and such the laughs didn't come consistently, and the character designs apart from the lady are done in a rather ugly way, which was a shame after seeing so much care for the rest of the animation.
All in all, didn't really work personally but at the same cannot bring myself to hate it with such vehemence as others have done. Because there were a lot of fine qualities and one big thing that brought things down significantly, so it rates a 5/10, a rating usually meaning average but there have been times where I've used it for stuff "difficult to rate" and that was the case with Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat. Bethany Cox