Along with 'Yankee Doodle Swing Shift', this is one of the lesser known and rarer Swing Symphony cartoons. It could be that the Swing Symphony series is not a series that all animation afficianados know much about, apart from a few. It's more likely though because of the stereotyping, a few of the cartoons in the series were highlighted because of that and racism and one of them was this cartoon. It is not my belief however that any offense was intended.
While the title and plot summary may put one off, 'The Greatest Man in Siam' is in my mind not too bad a cartoon. It is not the greatest cartoon in the series (it's got nothing on something like 'The Hams that Couldn't be Cured') and it's not even my definition of great. Having said all of that, to me it was good fun and it was hard for me to be too hard on it despite a few eyebrow raising instances. There is better in the Swing Symphony series, particularly in the first half of it.
It is easy to criticise this cartoon. While there is signs of a plot, it is very slight and there is not much new here. Also found the king on the annoying side.
There are viewers that won't be able to get past the stereotyping and it is not hard to see why. The cartoon is populated with it, with little of it being subtle, particularly funny or new, not to mention it does age the cartoon. Did find myself cringing to how the men reacted to the daughter's entrance.
On the other hand, a lot works. It is beautifully animated, it may look sparse and rushed looking to begin with but once the suitors contest kicks in it becomes a lot more vibrant and ambitious. Particularly liked how the movements of the characters synchronised so well with the orchestration. Even better is the music, which is amazing. Such a clever arrangement of the title song that sounds so upbeat here, and genius use of instruments and sound effects (particularly later on).
Despite the story being thin, the energy is non stop and it is utterly joyous energy. The suiting contest comes over as a truly joyously celebratory occasion, which was great to see. There is also enough variety in the suiting to stop the cartoon from becoming repetitive, there was the worry it would be, and the gags are amusing. The song and dance number really does capture the swing atmosphere brilliantly, everybody involved really did understand the swing style and clearly loved it (that was obvious in every single cartoon in the series).
Summing up, not for everybody but to me it was fun if flawed. 7/10.
