Friz Freleng disparagingly referred to the superhero/adventure animation his studio was forced to do as the "musclehead shows".
***
***
Disney
entertainment speaks to me as an uncle would, and the best from other studios
speak to me as a friend. The same went in live action: MGM was an
"uncle", Warners was a "pssst...hey!!" friend. Most audiences prefer
entertainment from their uncles, and pay big money for it now as much as
ever.
Terry entertainment was from your passive, neglectful guardian.
Fleischer owned the candy store.
Bakshi was the stranger in the alley on your way home.
***
Fans that want to suggest that the Fleischer cartoons were "less racist" because of the jazz and Cab Calloway aren't looking very hard. It gets worse, but what about Louis Armstrong himself dropped into the role of a frightening head cannibal?
The GLAD THAT YOU'RE DEAD thing was probably the song "innocently" inspiring the imagery, without considering the wellspring. Ingrained, "normal" thoughts. Armstrong's voice suggests a humorous threat, and even a white with the same voice would have translated into a Fleischer menace.
Also, seeing his various other screen appearances, Armstrong did not have a major problem with such roles. Calloway was handsome, sophisticated and "white enough" so that being a "darkest Africa" cannibal would have been forced (not that they wouldn't have tried it anyway). Amazing to me is the case of The Mills Bros., who had a race specification in only one Fleischer cartoon, and that was a "cheater" that they were no longer involved in using an old soundtrack.
I got rid of my LITTLE RASCALS tapes once I fully admitted I was spending half the time waiting for them to get the color gag out of the way.
***
Terry entertainment was from your passive, neglectful guardian.
Fleischer owned the candy store.
Bakshi was the stranger in the alley on your way home.
***
Fans that want to suggest that the Fleischer cartoons were "less racist" because of the jazz and Cab Calloway aren't looking very hard. It gets worse, but what about Louis Armstrong himself dropped into the role of a frightening head cannibal?
The GLAD THAT YOU'RE DEAD thing was probably the song "innocently" inspiring the imagery, without considering the wellspring. Ingrained, "normal" thoughts. Armstrong's voice suggests a humorous threat, and even a white with the same voice would have translated into a Fleischer menace.
Also, seeing his various other screen appearances, Armstrong did not have a major problem with such roles. Calloway was handsome, sophisticated and "white enough" so that being a "darkest Africa" cannibal would have been forced (not that they wouldn't have tried it anyway). Amazing to me is the case of The Mills Bros., who had a race specification in only one Fleischer cartoon, and that was a "cheater" that they were no longer involved in using an old soundtrack.
I got rid of my LITTLE RASCALS tapes once I fully admitted I was spending half the time waiting for them to get the color gag out of the way.
***
They still smeared about in muddle headed sex on occasion, but spent the rest of their evenings in silence.
***
***
I
felt myself freed after the COVID news broke out and realized that as
people of *all* skin colors die, the potus was still going to blubber
his non-sequitirs, the media would continue to air them in its deadpan
fashion, and give a part of the population a reason to believe it was
all business as usual. That's when I broke from the chains of human race.
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