The Old Mill Pond

MGM presents Happy Harmonies, a Harman-Ising cartoon. Frogs have gathered around the old mill pond to sing and dance. It's jazzy and swingy. There's a Cab Calloway frog and his band as well as froggy representations of other performers of the day.

It's definitely of an era. One does have to know who these performers are supposed to be. It's a time capsule blending two art forms; animation and popular black music. Instead of studio musicians, it would be interesting to have the real performers. This seems to have a relatively low score. I can only guess that some find the animation less than flattering for their favorite musical act.

Hugh Harman directs this cartoon in which pond life, mostly frogs, puts on a radio broadcast that looks like a show at the Cotton Club.

It features froggy caricatures of various well-known Black entertainers of the period, including Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, 'Bill "Bojangles' Robinson', Louis Armstrong, Stepin Fetchit, Ethel Waters and The Mills Brothers. While the vocal talents do imitations that are not spot on, there's little doubt that this is as good as Harman and Ising got in this period, with their color work, character design, and background work rivaling Disney's Silly Symphonies, aided by interesting Dutch Angles.

I just saw this cartoon for the first time and recognized the caricatures of famous black entertainers... Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, (not Josephine Baker or Sophie Tucker, who was white), Thomas "Fats" Waller, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Stepin Fetchit (notwithstanding) Louis Armstrong and the chorus girls are out of the famed "Cotton Club" in Harlem. True... stereotypes are there, but this was the way it was... and these cartoons were meant as adult entertainment at your local cinema before the main feature.

Harmann & Ising cartoons tended to be more "cutesy" and more upscale, (after all... we are talking about M-G-M) than the standard animated short done over at Warners, Paramount, Universal, Fox, RKO or lowly Columbia. Even Disney's very early Mickey Mouse had loads of barnyard humor before Uncle Walt cleaned him up just before he went "Technicolor".

Disney had some cartoons with caricatures of black entertainers as well... for example, 1937's Silly Symphony "Woodland Cafe". But we have to remember that these films are part of a certain time and place. 50 years from now... clips of the Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park will be also scrutinized, analyzed... and even vilified by future viewers.

The Old Mill Pond is more of a tribute to the African-American entertainers of the '30s than any denigration of the entire race (Stepin Fetchit caricature notwithstanding). Besides who I just mentioned, there's also frog or fish versions of Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Joesphine Baker, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Louis Armstrong. This Happy Harmonies cartoon from Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising is very entertaining musically with perfect characterizations all around. They all sound so much like the real thing that half of me thinks they could possibly be. If not, they're certainly very flattering impersonations. Even the lazy, shiftless Fetchit characterization gets an exciting workout here when he gets chased by a tiger as "Hold That Tiger" plays on the score. Highly recommended for fans of '30s animation and jazz music.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

Know Hugh Harman for his cartoons that have a cute approach with a lot of sentiment. There have been times where this approach has been done sweetly and charmingly, there have also been other times where it can be too cutesy and cloying. 'The Old Mill Pond' is one of the former for me. It is cute and charming, but there is not as much cutesy sentiment as other Harman cartoons and it's more humorously entertaining than most.

'The Old Mill Pond' caricatures famous musicians of the time, and much of the caricatures are done with respect. They are stereotypes and not all are subtle, but personally found nothing to be offended by (there are far worse, more blatant and more insensitive inclusion and writing of stereotypes in animation). A large part of the fun was recognising the caricatures and this is one of not many caricature cartoons where none went over my head.

Animation is rich in detail for design and backgrounds, vibrant in colour and crisp. Composer for the prime-era 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons and regular Tex Avery composer Scott Bradley provides a lush and atmospheric music score. The songs are just awesome and performed with such liveliness.

Characters here engage and despite their appearances are not too cutesy. They are not personality-deprived either. Pacing is energetic enough if needing a little more extra kick in some parts.

For all those outstanding qualities they are not quite enough to disguise that the story is one that is immediately forgotten by the viewer quickly and it's best to keep it that way. There's nothing new about it, not much of one at all and it's not hard to tell where it's all going to go.

With all that being said, 'The Old Mill Pond' is a nicely done and underrated cartoon. 8/10 Bethany Cox