Much is written about the talent and time that go into making a cartoon like this as if to validate its status as a piece of movie history.
But really... who is lazier, the fictional Negroes in the cartoon or the real-life writers, animators and director who are so lacking in originality that they are recycling 30, 40, 50... 100 year old jokes and insults just to get seven minutes of running time?
Even in 1941 when this was released this was stale stuff, already beaten to death a hundred times over in films, theater and commercial art.
I'm sure the artists involved would claim they didn't have "a racist bone in their body". They seem to also be lacking the bones for basic observational skills. There are a thousand and one way to draw or caricature a black person and yet that one black-face stereotype is what they keep pulling out of their ass as if that were the only option.
The hipster girl that gets off the steamboat is one small deviation from that formula but she's practically white. It's like they couldn't reconcile dark skin with non-stereotypical behavior.
All in all, a rather sorry outing for the Lantz Studio who had quite a few sorry outings in their run.
But really... who is lazier, the fictional Negroes in the cartoon or the real-life writers, animators and director who are so lacking in originality that they are recycling 30, 40, 50... 100 year old jokes and insults just to get seven minutes of running time?
Even in 1941 when this was released this was stale stuff, already beaten to death a hundred times over in films, theater and commercial art.
I'm sure the artists involved would claim they didn't have "a racist bone in their body". They seem to also be lacking the bones for basic observational skills. There are a thousand and one way to draw or caricature a black person and yet that one black-face stereotype is what they keep pulling out of their ass as if that were the only option.
The hipster girl that gets off the steamboat is one small deviation from that formula but she's practically white. It's like they couldn't reconcile dark skin with non-stereotypical behavior.
All in all, a rather sorry outing for the Lantz Studio who had quite a few sorry outings in their run.