Movies moved away from the ribald slapstick comedy of the 20s and 30s, and by the time little Bobby Blake came along in the 40s, the Our Gang comedies were produced by MGM, and they were full of a lot more sentimental stuff. Life during wartime, after all, meant there were even propaganda overtones. They were also mostly shot in a studio, as opposed to on location.
But, yeah, Froggy gave me the creeps. On the other hand, I thought the very early ones had creepy overtones, too. Maybe it was the bad audio quality, or the jump cuts, or just the very unwashed quality of the kids. I still watched them, over and over. Along with the Bowery Boys. For some reason, I never much liked The Three Stooges, though.
