Klopstokia: A Far-Away Country.
Chief Exports: Goats and Nuts.
Chief Imports: Goats and Nuts.
Chief Inhabitants: Goats and Nuts.

Welcome to Klopstokia, a Ruritanian country where every man is named George and all the women are called Angela. And since this movie was made in 1932 and released a few weeks before the Los Angeles Olympics, everyone in the country is a super-athlete. Sweetheart, the main character of this wacky movie, is trying to assemble an Olympic team for the LA Olympics. Actually his name’s not Sweetheart but the president of Klopstokia calls him so.
Sweetheart’s in love with the president’s daughter, who is of course called Angela.

In a strange love scene they are both standing on a bridge and out of basket with the inscription Fire Angela produces an old family copy (printed on her grand-father by the way) of an Klopstokian love song.

“You know what?”
“What?”
“I love you.”
“In Klopstokia there’s another way of saying that.”
“In public?”
“Here is a song of love. It’s in the old Klopstokian language that we used to speak before we learned English. When you’ve learned to sing this, I know you really love me.”

The song itself has the unforgettable lyrics:

Woof Bloogle Gik Mow Gik Bloogle Woof Poof
Bloogle Ik Bow Ik Oogle Poof Quee

And then there’s Mata Machree, the woman no man can resist. As one of her butlers remarks “Madame is only resisted from 2 to 4 in the afternoon.”

I’m sure Mata Machree is not only irresistible but also the only woman who has her own light show in her mansion. And what an entrance she has with her own lighting director.

As a pre-Code movie it also features a risqué song Mata starts to sing as soon as she shows her teeth to the men who came to see her. “I know why you are here. I know everything. I even know what you think, you beast!”

When I Get Hot is a song rarely heard these days.

Maybe nobody dares to cover this little ditty because only the woman no man can resist can deliver it the right way.

With all these hints it should be very easy to guess the title of this insane comedy.

Mr. Asta spend over one year in the land of Inertia, but he’s finally back. This time with a cartoon of the great Fleischer brothers Max and Dave. And of course the star of this cartoon is a dog too.

Swing You Sinners! is an incredible cartoon starring Bimbo, the dog, who later became Betty Boops friend and starred with her and KoKo in numerous shorts.

The film starts rather odd and slow with Bimbo trying to steal a hen and while fighting with the hen they both change clothes.

When a cop catches Bimbo there’s the nice idea that Bimbo sees what’s waiting for him (chain gang and the electric chair), so what else should he do than run for his life.

This cartoon really gets going when Bimbo reaches an old graveyard.

And like in every good Fleischer cartoon everything can be animated, so the lock becomes a mouth and eats the key.

The gate itself morphes into a wall. By the way this cartoon was done in 1930…long before morphing has become notorious in music videos or commercials. Suddenly ghosts and demons appear from everywhere and frighten little Bimbo to death (well, almost, Bimbo still has to endure some strange situations before the final curtain falls).

While watching you may ask yourself what bad dreams the animators Ted Sears and Willard Bowsky may have had (or what kind of drugs they may have taken), the whole movie becomes more and more surreal with walls moving towards Bimbo and leaving him in some kind of tower.

He then enters a haunted house with a crazy bird, scatting to the music, and dancing ghosts.

Not to mention the one ghost that wants to give Bimbo a permanent shave.

The house then spits Bimbo out and he is followed by a legion of demons onto his road to hell.

And in hell there are even more strange creatures, skulls and a large frog. The rather abrupt end is quite frightening: Bimbo gets eaten by a large skull.

The animation may be a bit simple compared to later Fleischer efforts but the music and animation fits perfectly together plus the ideas are so odd and psychedelic that Swing You Sinners! still looks great after almost 77 years.
Yes, it’s true what they say. They don’t make them anymore. These early pre-code cartoons by the Fleischers where full of wonderful, surreal ideas and featured great jazz tunes. Such a shame Disney’s Mickey Mouse became a much bigger star than Betty and Bimbo.

You can download Swing You Sinners! at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog.

More cartoons by the Fleischer Studios can be found at the web archive.