Sweet Adeline

Given the many popular legends about animation and how Disney was the first producer of an animated feature (he wasn't. It was Lotte Reiniger) and how he produced the first sound cartoon, it's important that anyone who cares about the history of the field to be familiar with this cartoon. It wasn't the earliest Screen Song. The Fleischer had produced one a couple of years before this, but even so, this beat STEAMBOAT WILLIE into the theaters by several years.

It is not a particularly prepossessing example of the series. We see Koko at the director's podium and then we go into the song. There is no set-up story as would be typical when the series really got rolling in 1929. It's just the bouncing ball, a barbershop quartet and what can be described as an illuminated animation, of the sort that would be used throughout the series, all the way through to the last one in the 1960s, However, to declare it "dull as dust" is like declaring other pioneering works dull. Yes, the Fleischers' Screen Songs would become much more elaborate and interesting. However, I find a lot of charm in the fact this was done so early.

This short cartoon from the Fleischer Brothers is important historically, as it's a sound cartoon--two years before the much more famous "Steamboat Willie" from Disney. I think the reason why "Sweet Adeline" is not well remembered is because it was technically important, it's a very dull film and does not at all hold up today like the Disney film. The animation looks a negative image (white on black) and consists of the song by the same name being sung along with Karaoke-like lyrics flying across the screen in order to have an audience sing-a-long. As this lame sort of idea was used later by the Fleischers in the 30s and 40s, I assume audiences at the time actually sang along--whereas this sort of thing might start a popcorn fight but that's all. Lame but important...and forgotten.