Three Brave Frogs
About Three Brave Frogs
Frog battalion commander Pyonshichi rides a puppy at the head of his soldiers and reaches a swamp by the Ginza willow, where his younger sister Osode sits in the branches. Namako the catfish watches them through a periscope, climbs out, pulls the tree up, and carries Osode off to a cage at the bottom of the swamp. The sun, crying for her, drops the towel it used to wipe its tears. The towel becomes a willow, and a branch lifts Osode out while Namako sleeps. He wakes and attacks the tree. Pyonshichi calls the frog army, and they still lose ground. A bomb dropped from a plane turns into a caterpillar and then a bangalore torpedo. Three frogs ram it into Namako and cheer three times on his body.
Cast & crew
More about Three Brave Frogs
Noburō Ōfuji made Kaeru san'yūshi (蛙三勇士) in cel animation after the success of American cartoons, including Disney. The 1933 original was a talkie and opened at the Imperial Theatre and other first-run foreign-film houses on the Shochiku-Paramount chain. Japanese Animated Film Classics dates the release context to 1933; Wikidata lists April 1. The print that circulates from the archive is a silent re-edit from 1937, in which the pair are brother and sister rather than lovers.
Themes
Technique
Ōfuji set aside chiyogami cut-outs for this short and drew it on cels.
Music
The 1933 talkie used "Ginza no yanagi" and "Nikudan san'yūshi no uta." The 1937 re-edit that the archive shows is silent.
Preservation
The archive copy is the 1937 silent re-edit, not the 1933 talkie. A cut closer to the original is on the 2004 Kinokuniya Ofuji DVD.
Notes
- The talkie used the popular song "Ginza no yanagi" and "Nikudan san'yūshi no uta," the song of the three human bullets, tied to the Shanghai Incident.
- The surviving archive print is black and white and toned.
- A version closer to the 1933 original is on the 2004 DVD Japanese Art Animation Film Collection (1): Collection of Noburo Ofuji's Works, issued by the Japan Association of Audiovisual Producers and Kinokuniya Shoten.
- Osode is the same given name Ōfuji used for the fiancée in A Ship of Oranges.
Scenes
- Namako pulls up the Ginza willow and carries Osode to a cage under the swamp.
- The sun's tear-towel becomes a willow and a branch lifts her out.
- Three frogs ram a bangalore torpedo into Namako and cheer on the body.
Also available
- Japanese Animated Film Classics (work 41030)
- Wikimedia Commons (The Three Fearless Frogs (1933).webm)
- Japanese Art Animation Film Collection (1): Collection of Noburo Ofuji's Works (Kinokuniya Shoten, 2004)
