That's all, folks...

I can't remember what I was searching for initially but, as is usually the case, a chance visit to Wikipedia resulted in a two-hour reading spree. This time it was focused mostly on animation, and I eventually got to a page about a banned cartoon named Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs.

Yes...you read that right.

Now it wasn't the first time I read about the short, or the rest of the Censored Eleven, but this time I gained a different perspective on the creation process, and actually watched the whole thing via Youtube.

Interesting stuff. Particularly interesting considering what I'd just read. Apparently the cartoon was created as an homage to African-American jazz bands of the decade, and was actually the suggestion of a black jazz musician who the director had met a short time before its creation.
That doesn't make the material palatable, but it sheds light on the nature of racism in the era. I'm sure the director thought he was doing black people a favor by creating the cartoon and using black voice actors. And, like James Baskett and Hattie McDaniel, I doubt the voice actors thought that their roles were particularly subversive.


I feel better having watched Coal Black and a few of the other Censored Eleven shorts. It's always better having an informed opinion, and to be honest, I didn't cringe (much) or get angry. Cyar really change the past. And there's always something to be learnt, even from questionable entertainment like this.


That said, the banned cartoon that actually got a real emotional response from me was The Spirit of '43, an old World War II propaganda film starrting Donald Duck. This shit is fuckin hilarious on several levels, but it's the overt linking of tax dollars to the creation of "Guns, guns, all kinds of guns!" that pushes it into an almost surreal territory. At one point, I honestly thought that the cartoon was anti-war satire. In fact the whole cartoon could probably win an award in that genre without changing a single frame. It actually makes WWII seem...ignoble.

I'd love to see a modern American audience's reaction to it.