This is a masterpiece!(Of sorts) Every time I believe I've seen the very freakiest of Fliescher shorts a new one pops up to take its place, and this one really takes the cake! This has gotta be a serious contender for the weirdest and scariest cartoon ever made! If you thought the later offerings were Gothic and disturbing, just wait till you feast your eyes on this little animated horror show. I knew this was gonna be a good one when the cemetery gate swallowed that key and then shifted to a smooth wall, it just set the tone so perfectly. Everything in these particular kinds of cartoon terror-tales are always twisted and kind of alarming-everything constantly morphing and hopping around, seemingly just for the sheer heck of it. Somebody sure had one ferocious imagination! The imagery seen here is an acid trip before they were even invented! While I guess you can't deny the evidence of "inspiration", keep in mind that at the time the medium of animation was still very new, with endless possibilities, and there's a remote possibility that the animators simply wished to push things as far as they would go. And it really paid of more than they knew, these things don't age, it's fresher than it ever was! As great as it is, it's not quite up to par in the animation department compared to the artfully surreal flow that entries such as "Minnie the Moocher" or the "Snow White" one put out. The design quality of some of the ghouls and ghosts are very sketchy and crude. That said, it also has the very special distinction of quite possibly being the most spooky and demented of all the Fliescher shorts, which is really saying something indeed! All the numerous twists and turns are heightened and topped-off by a surprisingly jolting conclusion. It does start out a little slow and average, but soon takes off in style, in both music and creativity. It fleshes out like an inky nightmare, and then ends just as abruptly as one. Also extremely worth mentioning is the song, which has some very distinctive and downright vicious lyrics. In the final mad rush that ushers in the end things just go totally nuts! So much endless invention... The hordes of demons that spew out of every nook and cranny, the warping walls and backgrounds, even humble inanimate objects-they all spring to musical and malevolent life! I felt strangely hypnotized at the complete and utter creepy chaos! "Get ready, brother-your time has come!!!"
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planktonrules16 August 2012Cracked Online recently posted an article listing five cartoons that are DARKER than most horror movies. "Swing You Sinners!" was #1 on the list! They also said "...there's no way it was created without massive doses of acid being pumped into everyone involved". And, after seeing it, I would have to agree.
This is an early talking cartoon from the Fleischer Studios--the same folks who made Popeye. This film stars Bimbo, Betty Boop's friend the dog. Bimbo tries to steal a chicken and is chased by a cop into the cemetery. There, a completely surreal nightmare occurs--as if drawn by Salvador Dali...on drugs! It's really hard to describe but is very imaginative, splashy, weird and morbid--with lots of corpses, ghosts, knives and razors trying to kill Bimbo and the like! And, by the end of the cartoon, you really have no idea whether or not poor Bimbo even survived!! Overall this IS a fun film with very catchy music but it's not something to show the kids...it's more a morbidly curious film to show older audiences to get their reactions! -
austinliskey17 January 2020If you are a fan of fleischer studios cartoons this one is a must watch. It's very dark and surreal, it has quite a good score to it and it is very catchy.
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simpfann6 November 2005They 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! -
laffinsal23 June 2004This 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. -
Horst_In_Translation29 August 2016"Swing You Sinners!" is an 8-minute black-and-white sound cartoon from 1930 and it stars Betty Boop's best friend Bimbo, a star in his own right, even if more people know Betty today I guess. It is already over 85 years old and has Bimbo roam around at a cemetery which may not be a good idea at all as all kinds of inanimate objects start to live quickly and scare the crap out of poor little Bimbo. Story is really non-existent here, but that's nothing new for Bimbo/Betty cartoons. They live through the absurdity and also through the music and Fleischer delivered impressively in both areas. A very good watch for cartoon lovers and while Disney had skeletons dancing in their works, their competition show their class as well when it comes to a mix of horror and animation. i can very well imagine people back then found this actually scary. And they probably got in the groove here as I did too. Thumbs up.
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Bimbo, who gets his comeuppance for stealing chickens, encounters various talking gravestones with faces, many farm animals, a walking barn, and plenty of spooks and ghosts in one of the most musically jazzy surrealistic cartoons I've ever seen. Both the music and the animation makes you wonder how much drugs were taken to get the images that were presented here in the pre-Code era. Everything presented here is so unusual, so collage-like, that there's no way this would pass muster on Saturday morning television. Anyone with a love for both jazz and Fleischer animation should definitely check this one out. Hard to imagine Disney doing something like this, even when he made Fantasia.
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llltdesq18 December 2006In the 1930s, it was Fleischer Studios which was the most competitive studio to Disney. In fact, the argument can be made that in the very early 1930s (1930-31) that they were better. This short is an excellent example of what the studio was doing at the time. Because I want to discuss this in some detail, this is a spoiler warning:
I think, at least for me, the most fascinating aspect of this short for me is the rhythm of this short. The animation and the music are synchronized beautifully throughout. For example, watch the movements of the chicken in relation to Bimbo's movements very early on and then the movements of Bimbo in relation to the cop who catches him trying to steal the chicken. It's all basically in time with the musical score. The beginning is very good.
When Bimbo enters the graveyard, it turns from very good to outstanding. This is a very visually impressive short. After about thirty seconds in the graveyard, Bimbo probably wishes the cop had caught and arrested him. There's an incredible run of sight gags, all of them eerie to one degree or another. Ghosts and skeletons predominate and some very bizarre things happen.
Then Bimbo goes into a barn, which is like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. There's a beautiful "call and response" bit where various creepies accuse Bimbo of various misdeeds and with Bimbo replying that he doesn't do that "no more". The cartoon just keeps getting stranger and stranger, right up to the end. It can hold its own, even after 76 years. At their best, there really is nothing quite like a Fleischer cartoon. This one is definitely worth the effort to track down and watch. Most highly recommended. -
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. -
gengar8437 November 2021THE 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. -
Hitchcoc4 December 2018This is a Fleischer commentary on a wasted life. Bimbo is the main character and he has delighted in all kinds of petty crime, including stealing chickens. He is disrespectful and disdainful to those around him. Then one night he is chased into a graveyard. What transpires will scare the dickens out of you. What is most surprising, in a non-Christmas Carol conclusion, he has to face his fate with no chance to reclaim his life.
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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." -
A masterpiece of animation, SWING YOU SINNERS! Teems with Depression era cynicism and dark, surrealist humor. That makes it both a great time capsule of 1930s popular culture and a wonderful bit of jazzy nightmare fuel. It's a great example of why I love cartoons from the early 1930s so much-- they not only embraced the talkie revolution, but married sound to expressive, creative visuals unlike the more static live-action productions of the same period.