Cartoon Director of the Month Project

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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Swing You Sinners! (1930)

I wasn't expecting something this great right away, but I loved watching this film. It has that same rhythm and motion I expect from Fleischer, and really it's almost like Fleischer just directed the greatest music video of seen... eat your heart out Childish Gambino, but this film is more creative and just as dark, even if it goes for more slapsticky stuff (btw I still haven't seen that music video that everyone was spraying out to, I just thought it would be fun to talk some sh*t) I don't know if our main character was executed and then went to hell or if he was just freaking out or if any of that matters, but we get some top notch creepy, animated, hellish imagery that makes great use of the black and white limitations. One thing I noticed was how Fleischer would animate both background and foreground very well, with the background sometimes being the focal point such as when the main character and the bird tussle at the beginning and we get a dizzying effect from the background being twisted and spun around to reveal a mashup of the two characters that is pretty much lighthearted stuff with an undertone of discomfort that would set the tone for things to get darker and darker with the progression of the film. Eventually they make it to the graveyard or hell or whatever it's supposed to be and at times the background would almost feel like it was melting or quivering or something like that and just felt uneasy. And of course there are a lot of ghastly figures popping up from graves and descending onto the main character, all of most of which had rounded shapes which just added to the weird vibes like something Dali would paint if he decide to do a graveyard cartoon instead of melting clocks. I'm probably overrating this because it's the first time I saw it and I didn't know what to expect, but first impression, I'd give it a full

I just finished watching Swing You Sinners!. I thought it started off kind of slow, until it got to the cemetery part. That's where it gets spooky, but in a fun way. It's interesting that you compared it something that Dali might paint because I thought parts of it reminded me of Dali, but some of the ways that the characters were twisting reminded me of Escher too.

I thought the music enhanced the spookiness of the cemetery at the beginning of that part, but as it went on, the music became a bit more upbeat, and it started to work against the images. It made me expect the short to end as a dream, rather than something that might actually be happening to the main character.

But I like Fleischer's style. The way he makes the characters kind of "bop" around when they move gives them a little bit of a fun feel to them, even while this nightmarish stuff is going on around them.



Let the night air cool you off
Bimbo's Initiation

This toon has pretty much all the things I look for in a cartoon short, but something is a little off for me. I don't know if pacing is the answer or if it's just that I wished everything in the film gelled a little better and had more coherence. Not that I mind a film being a disconnected series of gags or whatever, but this film is connected by the initiation hazing, yet I still don't find the inbetween "Do you wanna be a member?" scenes just holding it together. If that makes any sense. I am a big fan of the circular designs in Fleischer's films so far and he has made some really dark sh*t that fascinates me. I could see myself coming around to this at a later point, but I don't thin I can honestly say I like this film overall. I do love aspects of it though.

Popeye the Sailor

I just think Popeye is a cool character. I like that he is a good-hearted, quick-tempered, kinda dumb, but strong as hell character. This film isn't great and I even think that the animation isn't as great as some of Fleischer's others, by that I just mean that at times it feels lazy compared to Bimbo's Initiation and Swing You Sinners. And not at all times, I really liked the animation of Popeye punching things and the carnival stuff. I don't really know why Betty Boop's hula dancing scene is there from an artistic standpoint, but I guess whatever. I do like this film decently enough. I like a lot of the gags, but most of them aren't Avery/Jones/etc. level. I really love the ending. RIP Train.



Out of the Inkwell:


Decided to start with one neither of you have reviewed yet. Never watched a Betty Boop cartoon i don't think unless i was very young and i'm misremembering. My whole exposure to Boop throughout my life has been my mum who collects Betty Boop things mainly statues, some pretty expensive ones too, she doesn't watch the cartoons far as i'm aware.

OMG, the second this started i knew it was the controversial one JJ mentioned. The live action Jim Crow caricature black man, my lord America. Well it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be when it started, he was just a lazy stupid black man with a ridiculous voice, kind of let out a sigh when it finished as this sort of racism is almost welcomed when you consider how far some of these old cartoons went. There's a part Betty Boop turns his face white which makes him go back to work, but i'm probably reading into that as it only goes white for a second. Anyway the animation was fun i was just bracing myself for the whole thing so can't say much beyond that.



Swing You Sinners!




Oh yeah, i was into this. The rhythm like JJ pointed out was what made it. It was all so well coordinated so the movement went with the music, like a weird trippy dance. I didn't read either of your reviews before watching it so initially it reminded me of a Buster Keaton short with the wiliness and misunderstandings and policeman character, i was on board with that then the cemetery took it to something beyond that. The design of the graveyard was too perfect, all of the gravestones slanted and facing different directions, hills and a black tree in contrast to the white moon and gravestones that looks like it's defying gravity the way it was leaning, not to mention it looks like a demon with a pitchfork to me (which may just be pareidolia) i used it as my screenshot. I found this surprisingly aggressive for a childrens cartoon this old, one that was trying to be scary or not with stuff like the walls closing in on him and the raging looks on some of the characters not to mention i think...yeah i think it ends with his death , was awesome. The actual Swing You Swinners scene with the band music was so great, just the moving building alone even without the doped up looking chicken and weird humanoid creatures and i never thought that type of fun upbeat music would go so well with scary, makes sense though as it's fast and nonsensical at times which goes perfectly with this type of disorientating fever dream. For my money the most horrifying thing was the frog thing rubbing its stomach near the end haha. Yeah great pick Camo, you did well buddy! You did ok too Fleischer.

I know a guy who makes Halloween packages, basically downloads around Halloween full of Halloween episodes of tv shows and spooky cartoons and stuff, will let him know about this as i've never seen it on any of them it rules.



(btw I still haven't seen that music video that everyone was spraying out to, I just thought it would be fun to talk some sh*t)
Screw the music video just watch Atlanta, it's the best show on tv! Although the video is pretty great too, the director of it directed several episodes of Atlanta as well.



Let the night air cool you off
The only Donald Glover thing that I know of that I like is Mystery Team, but Atlanta is on my radar. I hear exclusively great things about it. I don't have time for it sadly, I only have time for the high art that is Supergirl. But right now I am spending too much time playing Fallout 4 again.



Let the night air cool you off
Red Hot Mamma (1934)

If she was so red hot, why did Hell freeze over? I guess I just don't understand what was happening or why in the cartoon, but the animation was fine. I don't understand Betty Boop the character yet though, is she supposed to be a hot but dumb chick? Does she have some kind of superpower like Superman where she can shoot frost breath or whatever that was? I was mostly confused during most of this cartoon, but it felt like a throwaway toon.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Bimbo's Initiation

This toon has pretty much all the things I look for in a cartoon short, but something is a little off for me. I don't know if pacing is the answer or if it's just that I wished everything in the film gelled a little better and had more coherence. Not that I mind a film being a disconnected series of gags or whatever, but this film is connected by the initiation hazing, yet I still don't find the inbetween "Do you wanna be a member?" scenes just holding it together. If that makes any sense. I am a big fan of the circular designs in Fleischer's films so far and he has made some really dark sh*t that fascinates me. I could see myself coming around to this at a later point, but I don't think I can honestly say I like this film overall. I do love aspects of it though.
Bimbo's Initiation was only okay for me too. The tune of the "Wanna Be A Member?" song was kind of catchy, and the danger scenes were pretty good, but the ending was just a complete letdown. I liked the cutesy stuff, like the knife that looked kind of like Jaws, and the dancing flames, but I expected a better "catch" at the end. On a good note, I thought it was kind of cool that Mickey Mouse was the one who locked him in when he fell underground.

There's a definite pattern in these shorts of the characters bopping all the time, even when they're standing still. It's cute for a while, especially when the music makes you want to "bop" along with them, but it gets kind of annoying when they just never seem to stop moving.


Popeye the Sailor

I just think Popeye is a cool character. I like that he is a good-hearted, quick-tempered, kinda dumb, but strong as hell character. This film isn't great and I even think that the animation isn't as great as some of Fleischer's others, by that I just mean that at times it feels lazy compared to Bimbo's Initiation and Swing You Sinners. And not at all times, I really liked the animation of Popeye punching things and the carnival stuff. I don't really know why Betty Boop's hula dancing scene is there from an artistic standpoint, but I guess whatever. I do like this film decently enough. I like a lot of the gags, but most of them aren't Avery/Jones/etc. level. I really love the ending. RIP Train.
I've never been a big fan of Popeye, but it was interesting seeing Popeye the Sailor in what appeared to be his first short. It had just about every cliche that I remember about him, Olive Oyl, and Bluto, so it was just okay for me, but kind of boring overall.

When I was in grade school, (many years ago), whenever it rained, we couldn't go outside to play in the playground so they would bring us into the auditorium and play these shorts. I've seen a lot of them, but it was so long ago that I don't remember much about them except some of the generic stuff about the characters. I never knew that there was any connection between Popeye and Betty Boop until I watched this short. I didn't see the point to her being there either, except that maybe they thought that the Betty Boop fans would watch the short and want to see more of Popeye.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Out of the Inkwell:


Decided to start with one neither of you have reviewed yet. Never watched a Betty Boop cartoon i don't think unless i was very young and i'm misremembering. My whole exposure to Boop throughout my life has been my mum who collects Betty Boop things mainly statues, some pretty expensive ones too, she doesn't watch the cartoons far as i'm aware.

OMG, the second this started i knew it was the controversial one JJ mentioned. The live action Jim Crow caricature black man, my lord America. Well it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be when it started, he was just a lazy stupid black man with a ridiculous voice, kind of let out a sigh when it finished as this sort of racism is almost welcomed when you consider how far some of these old cartoons went. There's a part Betty Boop turns his face white which makes him go back to work, but i'm probably reading into that as it only goes white for a second. Anyway the animation was fun i was just bracing myself for the whole thing so can't say much beyond that.

I liked the concept of Out of the Inkwell, but it kind of annoyed me that they read a book about hypnosis, but it seemed like what she was doing was more like magic or witchcraft than hypnosis. I also was impressed with the combination of live action and animation, considering that this was made back in the 1930s.

I can see why people thought this was racist, but I don't think it was that bad. It's not all that strange to see a black man working as a janitor back then, and with the shorts being in black and white, rather than in color, there aren't a lot of choices of what colors to make things, like his face changing colors when she puts a spell on him and the inkwell. Maybe they would have been different colors, like his face turning green from the spell, and the ink being red or blue, if this short had been made in color.

Unfortunately, I don't understand why people love Betty Boop as a character. She just seems like a sexy woman with an annoying voice.



I can see why people thought this was racist, but I don't think it was that bad. It's not all that strange to see a black man working as a janitor back then, and with the shorts being in black and white, rather than in color, there aren't a lot of choices of what colors to make things, like his face changing colors when she puts a spell on him and the inkwell. Maybe they would have been different colors, like his face turning green from the spell, and the ink being red or blue, if this short had been made in color.
It was racist because it was a black man caricature, something that purposefully makes black people look bad/stupid/lazy/etc to appease its racist audience, it was used frequently around these times. I said myself i didn't think it was as bad as it could've been but yeah it was definitely racist. Like i said i may be reading into the face changing colour, but it doesn't change colours it changes once to white and that suddenly spurs him on to be not lazy anymore, i don't get why they'd change his face a different colour at all and i wouldn't be surprised if it was intentional.

Not sure why you're defending it so much.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
It was racist because it was a black man caricature, something that purposefully makes black people look bad/stupid/lazy/etc to appease its racist audience, it was used frequently around these times. I said myself i didn't think it was as bad as it could've been but yeah it was definitely racist. Like i said i may be reading into the face changing colour, but it doesn't change colours it changes once to white and that suddenly spurs him on to be not lazy anymore, i don't get why they'd change his face a different colour at all and i wouldn't be surprised if it was intentional.

Not sure why you're defending it so much.

I'm not defending it. I'm not saying that it's not racist. I just don't think it's as bad as it seems. I think people might be reading more into it than what's actually there.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
I'm not sure if we're still doing this, but I watched Somewhere in Dreamland (1936) tonight, and I liked it a lot. It's very upbeat for a cartoon set during the Great Depression. I especially liked the music because it helped set the tone of the short.

In a strange way, it kind of reminded me of Alice in Wonderland meets the Candy Land game. And the Popcorn Field looked like fun.