Boogie Woogie Man Will Get You If You Don't Watch Out

. . . the title of this picture seems to run on for twelve--yes, 12, as in the War of 1812, the 1812 Overture or a typical Tigers at Royals baseball score--words, some of which are rejected by this site's spell checker. Oops, a recount just tallied in at eleven words, which is two less than a baker's dozen. However, when a title uses up all of the letter "O's" is the vowel box for a movie marquee, it's probably time to quit counting, and shorten the heading to something such as BLAH BLAH BLAH. That way, you can save yourself eight O's, which is enough to pinion every tentacle of an octopus, should the need to do so ever arise.

Did like the premise for 'Boogie Woogie Man', which did sound both entertaining and spooky. Have always been a massive fan of animation, ever since pre-school and every bit as much in the late-20s age bracket. While not one of my favourites, Walter Lantz was more often than not dependable and he produced many good to great cartoons, and this is including the uneven but mostly very interesting and well Swing Symphony series.

With one of the series' better cartoons being 'Boogie Woogie Man'. Really liked how it used its setting, ghost towns are always great locations in animation and when used well they are not only very spooky but also a lot of fun. It is also incredibly well made and scored, and is overall just immensely enjoyable. Regardless of how unexceptional the story is, which is to be expected for the Swing Symphony series and a common not so good thing about it.

'Boogie Woogie Man's' weakest link is the story, which is more a series of gags and scares and takes a little time to get going.

However, everything else is very good to outstanding. The music once again steals the show, just love its characterful energy, vibrant rhythms, sumptuous orchestration and how cleverly and enthusiastically it's performed all round. Close behind in quality is the animation, which is lush and colourful with vivid attention to detail and inventive movements in the sight gags, the ghost town setting is very atmospheric and meticulously detail. The ghosts' designs are suitably spooky.

Regarding the gag count, 'Boogie Woogie Man' is hardly short changed and while they are not hilarious they are clever, well timed and a lot of fun. The energy is non stop, the surreal atmosphere was quite intoxicating and all the characters are colourful in energy and well used.

Concluding, very well done. 8/10.

Very entertaining short - I got to see it screened along with "Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat" which I liked a little bit more, but the imagery of the ghost town and the spirits inhabiting it until daybreak was a lot of fun, and the music was also. I found myself wondering if R. Crumb had ever seen this film - one of the "old" ghosts with a long beard sure looked like "Mr. Natural" - Crumb does have a fascination with old music . ..