Hearing that Disney is introducing a black princess character called Tiana, animation fans can’t help but recall the most notorious of all mainstream cartoons, “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs.” Click here to see an article I wrote about it way back in 2002. (It’s funny now to see that I considered 20 MB to be a huge file, but at the time I had only 100 MB available for the entire site.)
It’s interesting to see how the imagery has been updated, and toned down, from 60+ years ago.
If you have never seen “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs,” here it is. Keep in mind that when this cartoon was released in 1943, “Amos and Andy” was one of the most popular shows on radio; which explains, but doesn’t justify, the depiction of black people. Also, WWII was in high gear, and movie censorship regarding the, uh, earthier side of human nature was relaxed a bit for the duration.
Merrie Melodies “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs” (1943)
by 100X
Also of interest on that old pre-YouTube DogRat web page is this video that I spliced together from “Bugs Bunny, Superstar.” The quality is barely passable, and the material is worthy of a fresh transfer, so I’ll add it to my to-do list.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/DEC/TermiteTerrace.flv 320 236]
Yay, finally a copy of “Coal Black” in pristine condition! Molly and I both have it memorized. One time we were watching a really bad love scene in a movie and she said “I’ll give her a kiss and won’t be a dud … ” and we just both burst out laughing. To this day, I annoy her by waking her in the morning on school days by singing “Oh, the five o’clock bugle, it just blew … ” Of course, she gets payback by doing that to ME during the summer months! DAMN the late Bob Clampett (whom Doug, Denro and I had the incredible funishment of meeting at MIT many years ago). He had the best job in the world!