One Froggy Evening
1955 · 7m · USA
Directed by Chuck Jones
Genres: animation, comedy, musical
Tones: darkly comic, melancholic, whimsical
A demolition worker discovers a singing and dancing frog inside a building's cornerstone, but every attempt to cash in on the frog's talents fails because the creature refuses to perform for anyone else.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A parable about greed where the punchline is silence — the frog won't sing for anyone else and the guy is doomed. Bleaker than most live-action drama.
Jones's silent parable of greed, often invoked as the Citizen Kane of cartoons with reason—its structure is closed, melancholy, and morally exact. A small perfect thing.
Almost entirely dialogue-free (just the frog's song-and-dance numbers) — the timing of the frog's collapse the instant anyone else looks at him is the engine, and Jones holds the reveal patiently. Sometimes called the Citizen Kane of cartoons for reason.
Reviews
Comes as close as any cartoon ever has to perfection.
The Citizen Kane of the animated short.
Festivals
- National Film Registry 2003, Selected for Preservation