The Swing Symphony series was an interesting if inconsistent one, tending to have in common great animation and even greater music but also tending to be virtually plotless and with the characters and writing varying. The best cartoons are very good, and the lesser ones are still quite watchable, none are inherently bad. A lot of Walter Lantz's work ranges between well worth watching and must see, even if some theatrical series are better than others.
In my view this is one of the weaker Swing Symphony cartoons, being a cartoon that starts off very nicely but loses momentum. That is not to say that it is a bad cartoon, 'Swing Your Partner' is actually in my view quite decent if also unexceptional, thanks to it being entertaining and extremely well animated and scored with a good understanding of the swing style.
Mentioning the many good things first, the best thing about it is the music, which is fantastic throughout the entire cartoon. Even when the story is uneven in pacing the energy and character in the music are consistent and in a great way, it is just so infectious and clever, one of those instances of wanting to get up, grab an instrument and start playing and dancing. Most of the animation is fine too, especially in the very vibrantly colored first third, beautifully synchronized movements with the instruments and a lot of clever touches in the sight gags, especially in the middle third, can be seen.
Also thought that the first third had a lot of energy of the lively sense and a lot of funny and beautifully timed sight gags. Homer and Daisy are engaging characters that have nice personalities even if they are on the one dimensional side. The vocal performances are wonderfully exuberant throughout
However, there are things that could have been done better. It did start losing energy and had a running out of ideas feeling towards the end of the middle act. That the story was slight was absolutely expected, but was not expecting it to feel like a different cartoon that felt rather predictable and phoned in.
Other Swing Symphony cartoons are more consistent in animation, the characters' designs do become less appealing later on and come over as on the primitive side, character designs that one would see in the late 20s and throughout the 30s but not when animation had come on significantly. The ending is very abrupt and tacked on-like.
All in all, a decent if unexceptional 6/10.
In my view this is one of the weaker Swing Symphony cartoons, being a cartoon that starts off very nicely but loses momentum. That is not to say that it is a bad cartoon, 'Swing Your Partner' is actually in my view quite decent if also unexceptional, thanks to it being entertaining and extremely well animated and scored with a good understanding of the swing style.
Mentioning the many good things first, the best thing about it is the music, which is fantastic throughout the entire cartoon. Even when the story is uneven in pacing the energy and character in the music are consistent and in a great way, it is just so infectious and clever, one of those instances of wanting to get up, grab an instrument and start playing and dancing. Most of the animation is fine too, especially in the very vibrantly colored first third, beautifully synchronized movements with the instruments and a lot of clever touches in the sight gags, especially in the middle third, can be seen.
Also thought that the first third had a lot of energy of the lively sense and a lot of funny and beautifully timed sight gags. Homer and Daisy are engaging characters that have nice personalities even if they are on the one dimensional side. The vocal performances are wonderfully exuberant throughout
However, there are things that could have been done better. It did start losing energy and had a running out of ideas feeling towards the end of the middle act. That the story was slight was absolutely expected, but was not expecting it to feel like a different cartoon that felt rather predictable and phoned in.
Other Swing Symphony cartoons are more consistent in animation, the characters' designs do become less appealing later on and come over as on the primitive side, character designs that one would see in the late 20s and throughout the 30s but not when animation had come on significantly. The ending is very abrupt and tacked on-like.
All in all, a decent if unexceptional 6/10.
