Ask any serious Cartoon aficionado as to what were the top 10 greatest cartoons ever produced, you're likely to get a myriad of answers. I guarantee however, that one answer that will be feature highly on every single list will be the 1955 Chuck Jones 7 minute masterpiece, 'One Froggy Evening'
A demolition worker discovers a tin box buried in the cornerstone of an old building from 1892, inside which he finds a Frog, that is not only still alive after nearly 63 years with no air, no food and no water but is so healthy and vigorous that it immediately dons a top hat and belts out a vaudevillian show stopping song and dance.
The man sees dollar signs and he plans to make a fortune by launching the singing frogs career with the public, but it soon becomes apparent that every time he tries to get his frog to perform for anybody else, the frog just croaks, ribbits and does nothing out of the ordinary....only to immediately burst back in to song the moment the man is alone with him again,
Nothing the man does seems to illicit, encourage or coax any entertainment worthy reaction from what was supposed to be his green goldmine.
The net result is that every scheme and plan the man puts into place to exploit his little musical amphibian fails abysmally and in the end his life is ruined and he's carted off to a mental hospital where Michigan J Frog (a name revealed by Chuck Jones many years later) annoyingly sings and dances between the bars of his padded cell (whilst no one else is looking of course)
Eventually the man is released from the hospital and he has grown to hate the Frog who had once promised to be the key to all his success but who in the end became nothing but the catalyst to all his ruin and he rather unceremoniously dumps the frog into the cornerstone of a new building where he is once again sealed up like before,
Fast forward 100yrs and the building the frog was placed in in 1955 is now also being demolished, and Michigan J Frog is rediscovered by a 21st Century worker who again witnesses the Frog in all his jazzy hands glory.
The Cartoon ends with history set to repeat itself, as the 21st century worker grabs the frog and leaves the building site with big but soon to be unfulfilled dreams of success on his mind.
Simple stuff I know, and as an other reviewer has already pointed out, it's just basically 7 minutes of the same gag, but believe me when I first saw this as a kid, I didn't mind that. It was guffaw funny every time.
You wish that just once the frog would repay the guy who rescued him from an eternity of concrete and give someone...anyone a quick rendition of 'Wild about Harry' just to vindicate the little guy, but it was not to be. Be warned..Michigan J Frog is NOT your friend regardless of how friendly and entertaining he may be.
This Cartoon was once described by such an illustrious film maker as Steven Spielberg as 'the Citizen Kane of the animated Short" and that accolade comes from someone who knows what he's talking about and from someone who is an expert hand at bringing a good story to the screen so recommendations do not come any higher than that.
The moral of this story (if there is one) is that should you ever find yourself demolishing and old building and you discover a singing and dancing frog amongst the rubble...hit it with a brick and get back to work!
A demolition worker discovers a tin box buried in the cornerstone of an old building from 1892, inside which he finds a Frog, that is not only still alive after nearly 63 years with no air, no food and no water but is so healthy and vigorous that it immediately dons a top hat and belts out a vaudevillian show stopping song and dance.
The man sees dollar signs and he plans to make a fortune by launching the singing frogs career with the public, but it soon becomes apparent that every time he tries to get his frog to perform for anybody else, the frog just croaks, ribbits and does nothing out of the ordinary....only to immediately burst back in to song the moment the man is alone with him again,
Nothing the man does seems to illicit, encourage or coax any entertainment worthy reaction from what was supposed to be his green goldmine.
The net result is that every scheme and plan the man puts into place to exploit his little musical amphibian fails abysmally and in the end his life is ruined and he's carted off to a mental hospital where Michigan J Frog (a name revealed by Chuck Jones many years later) annoyingly sings and dances between the bars of his padded cell (whilst no one else is looking of course)
Eventually the man is released from the hospital and he has grown to hate the Frog who had once promised to be the key to all his success but who in the end became nothing but the catalyst to all his ruin and he rather unceremoniously dumps the frog into the cornerstone of a new building where he is once again sealed up like before,
Fast forward 100yrs and the building the frog was placed in in 1955 is now also being demolished, and Michigan J Frog is rediscovered by a 21st Century worker who again witnesses the Frog in all his jazzy hands glory.
The Cartoon ends with history set to repeat itself, as the 21st century worker grabs the frog and leaves the building site with big but soon to be unfulfilled dreams of success on his mind.
Simple stuff I know, and as an other reviewer has already pointed out, it's just basically 7 minutes of the same gag, but believe me when I first saw this as a kid, I didn't mind that. It was guffaw funny every time.
You wish that just once the frog would repay the guy who rescued him from an eternity of concrete and give someone...anyone a quick rendition of 'Wild about Harry' just to vindicate the little guy, but it was not to be. Be warned..Michigan J Frog is NOT your friend regardless of how friendly and entertaining he may be.
This Cartoon was once described by such an illustrious film maker as Steven Spielberg as 'the Citizen Kane of the animated Short" and that accolade comes from someone who knows what he's talking about and from someone who is an expert hand at bringing a good story to the screen so recommendations do not come any higher than that.
The moral of this story (if there is one) is that should you ever find yourself demolishing and old building and you discover a singing and dancing frog amongst the rubble...hit it with a brick and get back to work!