If The Twilight Zone had ever chosen to air a cartoon, this would have been the one. The concept is clear, the moral obvious. The 1890s music, while skillfully rendered ("The Michigan Rag" is not contemporary with the other songs the frog performs but an original composition created for the cartoon) suggests something strangely paranormal: The frog is a ghost or a demon! This is emphasized by its reemergence at the end, where a futuristic construction worker finds the eerie, cakewalking being still singing period music!
Certain elements in the production are racist, such as the cakewalk, and "Hello Mah Baby" which was a "blackface" song when first released (ca.1902) This dates the cartoon badly. All this wouldn't matter if it wasn't hailed as a timeless classic.
Certain elements in the production are racist, such as the cakewalk, and "Hello Mah Baby" which was a "blackface" song when first released (ca.1902) This dates the cartoon badly. All this wouldn't matter if it wasn't hailed as a timeless classic.