Swing You Sinners!

If you're a fan of animation, this is a must watch. The animation itself is perfect and there's so much going on with such cool designs on par with other works by Fleischer's.

The sound design is perfect with an awesome song to boot.

There isn't much story at all, but it flow seamlessly and it really doesn't need any at all.

THE STORY & GENRE -- Bimbo tries to rob a hen-house, then gets his comeuppance from ghosts & demons. Fleischer Studios.

THE VERDICT -- Wow, this is weird! I LOVE IT.

FREE ONLINE -- Two versions available. The original Paramount and the UM&M re-release. Online, the UM&M is clearer and there doesn't seem to be any content difference other than the title cards.

In one of the Fleischer Brothers more famous Talkartoons was its September 1930 "Swing You Sinners!" Designed by a couple of newly-hired animators, Ted Sears and Willard Bowsky, the cartoon introduced a surreal quality to cartoons never seen on the screen before. Its final product was a testament to the Fleischers' more liberal outlook when they green-lit this wildly abstract cartoon. The short film looks at death and the moral consequences its lovable pup, Bimbo, has to pay for attempting illegal acts. The dog tries to steal a chicken, only be to chased by a cop into a cemetery. There, the ghosts of the dead rise up to dole out punishment to Bimbo. Motion Picture News wrote, "The clever cartoon pen of Max Fleischer again demonstrates itself in this Talkartoon. An off-stage chorus sings the lyrics to the rhythm of the action and the result is usually diverting."

The Fleischer Studio was undergoing a staff changeover at the time, where the more conservative animators were leaving for its competitors while younger, more daring animators were taking their place. The studio, which later introduced Popeye the Sailor Man to the public, became one of the leading cartoon creators for theaters. The publication 'Cracked' in 2012 listed "Swing You Sinners" as the top "Five Old Children's Cartoons Way Darker Than Most Horror Movies."

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.

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!