Evil Mickey Mouse

March 30, 2008

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Contributed by TOONWRITER. 

mickey.jpgEverybody knows Mickey Mouse to be the icon of purity and wholesomeness. However, Mickey was (one of) the most evil characters of his time, circa 1927-1932 (As compared to Harman/Ising’s Bosko, Iwerk’s Flip the Frog, and Lantz’s (formally Disney’s) Oswald the Lucky Rabbit). Disney’s most well-known representative was abusive to animals, abusive to women, vulgar, and racist. Sighting his first cartoon, (Plane Crazy), as well as Floyd Goddferdson’s newspaper comic strip (Disney’s Mickey Mouse) Mickey, in an attempt to recreate Col. Lindbergh’s transcontinental flight, makes his own plane. For the motor to spin the propeller, he twists up a wiener dog. Attempting to take off, he taxis around, chasing animals. He chases three animals towards a tree: a goat, a chicken, and a pig. His plane causes the goat to run into the chicken, who in turn, runs into the pig, literally. All three animals run through each other, becoming a new hybrid of farm stock.

Fine, that is not too bad, you say. In Mickey’s next film, Gallopin’ Gaucho, Mickey lives in Mexico, and spends most of his time frequenting a bar where Minnie works. In this cartoon, he vulgarly spits, drinks alcohol (ale, in fact), slaps Minnie’s rear end.

In his third film (first film with sound), Steamboat Willie, we find Mickey trying his hand at working on a steamboat. In the original version (that Disney has been trying to repress from the public), once the music begins (a goat eats sheet music) Mickey starts playing animals as musical instruments. This goes beyond animal cruelty. Mickey swings a cat by its tail and throws it off the boat. He then finds a several baby pigs suckling on their mama. He picks up the mama pig and forcefully shakes off all but one of her babies. He then kicks the last baby off the mama pig and begins to squeeze her teats as if she were an accordion!

In The Little Orphanage (1931), Mickey and his pals put on a play for the children: “Uncle Tom’s Cabana.” If this is not racist enough, the characters try to repair a generator which explodes and puts them in blackface.

In Floyd Goddferdson’s newspaper comic strip (Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse), Goddferdson takes us on a several-month run of a newspaper-version of Plane Crazy. I already cited the dog/engine and farm animal incident, but Goddferdson shows us how Mickey copes in the jungle. After crash landing, we find Mickey cursing (represented by symbols), dealing with racistly-depicted natives with enormous lips, shrunken heads, and a dialogue consisting of “Oogle Moogle Noogle,” etc.

Finally, I cite the first Mickey Mouse Club. Not the show with Cubby and Annette, but the Saturday cartoons the theatres ran. Walt, himself, recorded the theme song, “Minnie’s Yoo-hoo.” In this song, the voice tells of a girl he has in the barn and uses animal sounds as sexual innuendoes. This song can be found on one of Disney’s CDs.

12 Comments | Mickey Mouse, racism, villains, violence | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
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From the archives: A Freudian Analysis of Beavis and Butt-Head

March 19, 2008

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Contributed by Gaelin B.

beavisbutthead.jpg Most people never realize just how psychological the MTV classic Beavis & Butt-Head is. To see this, first we have to examine their relationship. Butt-Head, as anyone who’s seen any episodes can tell you, is the “smart” one. (This is of course, relative to Beavis, as no one in their right mind could call either one “smart”. But relativity is just one of the unnoticed themes running through this show.) Butt-Head is invariably the one who comes up with the various schemes. Beavis, on the other hand, is incapable of thinking things out for himself. He is usually the one to implement the schemes Butt-Head comes up with, often fouling them up in the process. Seen in this light, with Butt-Head the Thinker and Beavis the Doer, the show takes on a Freudian direction. Butt-Head represents the Ego (civilization, and what is taught) and Beavis the Id (the inner, base instinct, reverting to our animal natures). This can even be seen to relate to the Nature vs. Nurture concept.

But the evidence is there. Example: The episode where they find a tire. It is Butt-Head who concludes that they can ride in it. He has Beavis push him, in the tire, up a hill, promising that he’ll push Beavis on the way down. Butt-Head lets him go on the way down, all right… at about 60 miles an hour, crushing all that’s in his path. This is an example of the Ego using the Id to its own advantage, causing damage. Another example is the Christmas episode, where, in a great It’s A Wonderful Life parody, Butt-Head is shown what life would be like without him. To his horror, he finds that Beavis is best friends with irritating neighbor Stuart. (Stuart represents an alternate Ego to Butt-Heads. Since the Id is common to all humans, it is the Ego that directs it in one direction or another). Stuart is the metaphor (in the regular episodes) of an Ego without any Id: a wuss, completely incapable of doing anything. Example: The one where Stuart disappears. His parents and Beavis and Butt-Head search the entire neighborhood for him, but it turns out he was just in Butt-Head’s closet, waiting for seven hours for the boys to find him in a fraudulent hide-and-seek game. (Homosexual image? Possibly). “Go home”, Butt-Head tells him. “You’re in trouble”, Beavis adds.

My personal favorite example for this, however, is the episode about the vending machine. Beavis and Butt-Head desire food (one of mankind’s drives), in this case Sour Cream and Salsa Pork Rinds. However, their meal is snagged on the machine, trapped inside (fear of entrapment?). Butt-Head leaves Beavis at the machine to guard it, while he tries to get more change to get the bag (and another) out, “two for the price of one”. He manages to get a dollar from an elderly lady, but the machine won’t take it. Meanwhile, Beavis has been adequately fending off any customers from the machine (following Butt-Head’s instructions rather than rationalizing his own. It doesn’t occur to him that if anyone gets another bag of Pork Rinds, theirs will come out too. Beavis’ mind doesn’t work that way). Butt-Head finally goes into the local convenience store to try and get change for the dollar. There he sees day-old nachos, about to be thrown out. There are even roaches crawling over them. Butt-Head buys all of them with the dollar, and goes home and watches TV, forgetting all about Beavis and returning to his null, inactive state. Beavis, simply cries out “Buuuuttttt-Heeeeeaaaaddd!!!” and finally resorts to eating an old M&M he finds at the bottom of the machine (his one act of independent thought in the entire episode). He then returns to his null state of inactivity, calling out for Butt-Head as the sun goes down…

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Alchemical Symbolism in Smurfs

March 14, 2008

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Contributed by Talia.

papasmurf.jpgI know that the generally accepted theory is that The Smurfs are Communists, but another possibility recently occurred to me. Could the Smurfs possibly be philosophers stones? That would explain a few things, for example, why Gargamel variously wants to eat them or to transform them into gold. When eaten, the philosophers stone is an elixir of life, but it can also be mixed with other elements to turn them into gold or silver. It is interesting that there are actually two colors of philosophers stone: white and red. The white stones were used to make silver, but only the red could make gold. Apparently, though, both could be eaten and produce similar effects. That explains the colors of the Smurfs’ clothes.

Papa Smurf is the only truly perfect one (gold being the perfect balance of all elements) and spends his time trying to perfect the other elements. The most obvious time he did this was when Smurfette was created by Gargamel to lure the others to him, and (if memory serves) once she decided to stay with the Smurfs, Papa Smurf replaced her heart, which was made of stone, with one of gold. Unless he actually cut her open and took out the old one, it was probably his ability to change one element to another that changed the substance. In changing that element, he also accidentally changed her hair to gold as well. Also of interest is the fact that Alchemy was not just the science of changing elements to perfection, but also of the Alchemist changing himself. Smurfette was already changing of her own will before Papa Smurf allowed her the gold heart. Gargamel, meanwhile, still has a long way to go, and this is why he has not been able to successfully obtain the stone(s) for his own use. He must balance all elements within himself before he can obtain them.

Back to Smurfette. She is still not perfect, shown by the fact that she still must wear white. It is because she is still unable to perfect the elements around her-in fact, at times, she actually corrupts them (like the episode where, suddenly, one day, all the other Smurfs are asking her to marry them. While I think it was partly due to outside forces, she made her suitors fight each other.) Additionally, she lacks the required balance of male and female elements-she’s far too feminine, as shown by her lifestyle.

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From the archives: African-American Crows

March 11, 2008

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Contributed by Trotman.

dumbo.jpgI’d like to point out something I’ve noticed about older cartoons: Crows are almost unanimously represented as African-American, and vice versa.

The best example I can think of is Walt Disney’s Dumbo. In the film, Dumbo and his little mouse friend wake up after a night of drunken revelry in a tree, and can’t figure out how they got there. After climbing out, (if I remember correctly) the mouse hypothesizes that Dumbo used his huge ears and flew into the branches. This concept is suddenly and loudly cat-called by a gang of crows on a fence. These crows speak in an urbanized dialect, are dressed everywhere from snazzily to shabbily, and loud. In an especially poor showing of sensitivity, I believe the leader was named “Jim.” As in Jim Crow. (For those of you that were educated by the public school system, “Jim Crow” is the nickname given to segregationist laws ratified in the Southern states after the Civil War and during the Reconstruction.)

The crows are the typical late-vaudevillian stereotype of blacks: raucous, like-minded, and quick to gang up on isolated non-blacks. The crows have a good laugh at Dumbo, reiterating over and over how stupid the very idea of a flying elephants is and making jokes at Dumbo’s expense (“An elephant, fly? I dunno ’bout that… but I seen a dragon fly!” “I seen a horse fly!” “Well, I seen a house fly.”) And naturally, because they’re “black,” they sing a song and do a little dancing. But then, I must say, Disney surprises me.

The crows suddenly seem to warm to the little elephant, and are actually instrumental in his mastery of flight. This would make them seem to be protagonists in a film heavily populated with antagonists. Very odd. Because of that, I have surmised that the “Black Crows” of Dumbo are in no way malicious portrayals, but are simply presented for their comedic value, and augment the film with plot development and a few cheap laughs. Besides, the time period in which this film was created is not renowned for it’s accuracy in racial representation.

Far less tactful is the use of “Black Crows” in the Ralph Bakshi film Fritz the Cat, based on the cartoons of Robert Crumb. Here, the crows are are regarded with a mix of contempt, fascination and mystique. They are shown as stiff competition for pretty young women, frustrating a horny Fritz, and alternately shown as quick lay for the cat, no less in a scrap yard. Not exactly complementary. Then again, Fritz later initiates an orgy in a bathtub with a number of women, none of which are crows. (There is something lacking in general in the treatment of women in Bakshi films, but that’s a whole different rant.)

I believe the crows in this movie are not shown the way they are for racist reasons, though. One has to remember that Robert Crumb wrote the original “Fritz.” Everyone is portrayed rather badly in his cartoons, and that would naturally translate into the movie.


5 Comments | Dumbo, Fritz the Cat, ethnicity, from the archives, racism, stereotypes | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
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From the archives: Chromatic Sexism and Animated Felines

March 8, 2008

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Contributed by Fawzi.

catsdontdance_1997.jpgDid you ever notice that patterns emerge in the fur colors of major protagonist characters of the domestic feline species portrayed in popular, secular, post modern children’s media? Female feline protagonist tend to have white fur, a reoccurring characteristic for the heroines in a significant number of films involving cats, examples include female characters from The Aristocats, Cats Don’t Dance, The Rescuers (she’s a mouse, but the concept still stands). On the other hand, the male feline protagonists have orange fur, examples include male characters from Garfield, Heathcliff, The Aristocats, An American Tail, Cats Don’t Dance, etc. Furthermore, leading males that have dark or cold colors as oppose to the traditional orange fur are sadistically tormented on a regular basis as in the case of the black furred Sylvester (he speaks with a lisp, indicating homosexuality, further “justifying” violence and bodily harm on him) or the blue furred Tom.

The question is: why? As in the case of females the trend of white fur can be explained in terms of color symbolism. White represents purity and virginity, which in itself raises questions as to why would somebody care if the leading female cat is a virgin? A healthy human mind shouldn’t be concerned with the sexual characteristics of an animal. This can be linked to the themes of zoophilia that are apparent in children’s media. The orange color typical in heroic male domestic feline characters has significance, personally I don’t know what it is, (I can’t provide anything more than weak allusions to the Orange Party of the 19th century, which may have something to do with the early American working class on which the nation was built.)

An anomaly in the white female trend would have to be Garfield‘s Arlene, she’s pink(which again could be explained in terms of identifying gender with color) the obvious implication of her not having white fur: she’s not a virgin.

Other implications of the white furred female felines in The Aristrocats, the leading female has white fur, indicating virginity, yet she has children with her, what is she? She’s a Virgin Mother! She’s being escorted to some safe paradise by a humble (orange) male, fleeing from an oppressive empire, the references to Roman society (aristocrats, hence the title.) Three children can represent almost anything, the number three is of significance to Christianity: the Trinity, the three Mages, the three Archangels, etc. All this has significance.

6 Comments | An American Tail, Cats Don't Dance, Garfield and Friends, Heathcliff, Sylvester and Tweety, The Aristocats, The Rescuers, Tom and Jerry, from the archives, gender, homosexuality | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
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From the archives: Temporally Increasing Morbidity in Animaniacs

March 6, 2008

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Contributed by Panu V.

animallthree.jpgMy point is about the slight increase in morbid death-based humor during the later production seasons of Animaniacs. I can give a detailed view of the phenomenon. You see, when examining those episodes more closely, it turns out most of those deaths were the ones of several famous historical persons. The show had, of course, dealt with history and its figures since the very beginning, but in a slightly different way from the start of 3rd season.

First example is “The Presidents Song”, which, as many of you probably know, sings briefly about the Presidents of the United States. I couldn’t help but notice that it was a bit different in some parts from any previous Animaniacs song numbers. The mentioning of presidents being killed during their term was recurring in lyrics/background scenes at least three times (there was also going to be a fourth one about J.F. Kennedy, but it was removed from the final version – wonder why?). Also included was this lyric about Zachary Taylor: “His breath killed friends whenever he smoked”. All this felt slightly odd to me.

But there were still more similar scenes. Another song number “The Ballad of Magellan” tells about Magellan’s journey across the sea in search of the East Indies. Of course, also included is the scene of him being killed by natives’ spears – however a couple of feet offscreen. He appears as a ghost at the end of the song. And in the 5th season, there was yet another song number (anyone notice a disturbing pattern here?), dedicated to Attila the Hun. In this one, the writers actually “rewrote” Attila’s death, because he is described (and shown on-screen) as choking on too much food during his wedding. His burial is seen immediately after.

None of these instances are really that detailed or play a major part in the script, of course, but were still quite a big change from the show’s first seasons, where almost nothing was shown to represent death, either comical or otherwise, even if it meant altering history (one 1st season episode dealt with Czar Nicholas II and Grigori Rasputin, and no references were made to either Czar’s son’s hemophilia or Rasputin’s murder – he’s simply fired). And the change didn’t stop in historical parodies, either: in a 3rd season Slappy Squirrel cartoon, her enemies hold a fake funeral to lure her into a trap. Many morbid jokes were obviously slipped in. I also don’t think I’ve seen another “family show” which has featured zombies – and by that I mean “real” zombies, as in living corpses, and not any kind of hypnotized people or something. Animaniacs did this in the 4th season episode “Night of the Living Buttons”.

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