In addition, cartoon characters that reference ragtime or minstrelsy are always already connected to specific histories of cultural appropriation and dehumanization. In their 1998 essay “Darker Shades of Animation: African-American Images in the Warner Bros Cartoons,” media scholars Terry Lindvall and Ben Fraser argue that the characters created by mid-century animators like Jones cannot be separated from the institutional racism of the time in which they were created and appeared. each successive appropriation and commercialization of a Negro style by white America through its record industry and mass media has stimulated the Negro community and its musical spokesmen to generate a “new music” that it can call its own. As we learned from Professor Kelley’s lecture, we cannot talk about the evolution of ragtime as a musical form without understanding blackface minstrelsy, pre- and post-Civil War debates over slavery, and what echologist and retired professor of American Studies Charles Keil terms the “appropriation-revitalization process” (1966) wherein African-American musicians reinvent sounds and rhythms in a response to their work being co-opted by white culture and the lure of commodification: Frog was a symbol of ragtime (or more generally vaudeville) or Jim Crow era racism. It features a number of the songs mentioned in Professor Kelley’s lecture.įrom the moment he appeared in the WB promotional materials, there’s been disagreement among media critics and viewers about whether Michigan J. Take a look at the cartoon in its entirety. Much like the recent Oscar™ nominated film The Artist, the cartoon has almost no spoken dialogue beyond the frog’s musical numbers. appeared in the 1955 cartoon “One Froggy Evening,” in which a ragtime singing/dancing frog torments the construction worker who discovers him in a shoebox left in a cornerstone at a building site and sees a quick ticket to vaudeville fame and fortune. Prior to his appearance in promos for the WB, Michigan J.
If How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a favorite holiday show, you should recognize Chuck Jones’ signature style. The frog was a character created by Chuck Jones for “Merrie Melodies” cartoons distributed by Warner Bros for the better part of 40 years (1931-1969). Frog became the mascot for the Warner Bros (WB) network when it was founded in 1995.
Perhaps Chuck Jones' most famous animated creation: The Grinch.
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