Treasures of the ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Archive: Swing You Sinners

Swing You Sinners (Fleischer/1930) I mentioned Grim Natwick in an earlier post, but here is one of his true masterpieces of animation. It would be hard today to find someone with the imagination and skill to pull off such a brilliant piece of dark surrealism, but Grim dashes off the wildest ideas as if he is dreaming while he’s drawing. It’s hard to believe that the same guy who created Betty Boop also animated Snow White, Woody Woodpecker and stylized UPA cartoons. But Grim Natwick did it- it only took a century to do it all. His first credit was on a silent Krazy Kat cartoon and his last was on Richard Williams’ “Thief and the Cobbler“. Please be advised that some of these early cartoons feature behavior, stereotypes and cultural references common to the time that they were produced, but may be interpreted as insensitive or derogatory by today’s standards. Nevertheless, in an effort to provide a look at our history and the evolution of our art form, we show these