February 27, 2009
- A long-running – seemingly endlessly iterated, in fact – conflict between enemies known as Tom and Jerry. Where else have we seen this? That’s right, the First World War, in which the Brits were known collectively as “Tommy Atkins” and they called the Germans “Jerries” (well, when they weren’t calling them “Huns”). Interesting, then, that it’s with Jerry – the historical loser – that our sympathies lie. Revisionist propaganda? Perhaps. Perhaps.
Come to think of it, weren’t the majority of these cartoons produced during and shortly after the second World War, in which Jerry (if you will) was once again the enemy? Posited: a subversive attempt to counteract the “all Germans are Nazis are Evil” propaganda then current – a sort of Don’t Let’s be Beastly to the Germans, without Noel Coward’s sarcasm.
-Contributed by Jeffie
- You know, if you think about it, The Muppets were quite a sublime commentary on the human condition. None of the Muppets were good at what they wanted to be. Piggy wasn’t beautiful. Fozzie wasn’t funny. Kermit couldn’t make his show a success. The Swedish Chef could not cook, etc. They all constantly failed, yet kept trying.
-From Scott Kurtz’s PvP, 12/10/2008
- There’s one reservation I have about [The Rescuers Down Under]. Why does the villain have to be so noticeably dark-complexioned compared to all of the other characters? Is Disney aware of the racially coded message it is sending? When I made that point to another critic, he argued that McLeach wasn’t dark-skinned – he was simply always seen in shadow. Those are shadows are cast by insensitivity to negative racial stereotyping.
-From Roger Ebert’s Review of The Rescuers Down Under
- The Count from Sesame Street shows classic symptoms of OCD.
-Contributed by Jim W.
- In WALL•E, the span of years listed for each of the Axiom’s previous captains is ambiguous about whether it denotes each captain’s lifespan or the number of years in which he or she was captain of the ship. It should be noted that there is no overlap in the years for each captain. This leans towards the possibility that each person’s time as captain lasted an average of 133.2 years. Regardless, whatever each captain’s span of years denotes, they just happen to total out to 666.
From the first captain to the last one before Jeff Garlin’s character:
143+131+140+124+128 = 666
-Contributed by Joon K.
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2 Comments | 
Mini-Analyzations, Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, The Rescuers Down Under, Tom and Jerry, WALL-E, diagnosis, ex situ, philosophy, racism, stereotypes, villains | Tagged: 666, Axiom, Don't Let's be Beastly to the Germans, Fozzie, Kermit, Miss Piggy, The Count, The Swedish Chef | 
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Posted by The Editor
February 20, 2009
Contributed by Chance W.
While watching a Donald Duck cartoon from 1935, The Band Concert and some others, I noticed he did not have quite such an explosive temper as in later cartoons. With a little research on Wikipedia I found out Donald had served as a paratrooper and commando in World War II who saw fairly intense combat. This made me wonder if perhaps Donald suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) related to his wartime service. Let’s compare the symptoms of PTSD with Donald:
- Exposure to a traumatic event: He had several traumatic experiences in training and near death experiences behind enemy lines.
- Persistent reexperience (e.g. flashbacks, nightmares): This appears to happen in many cartoons.
- Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma (e.g. inability to talk about things even related to the experience, avoidance of things and discussions that trigger flashbacks and reexperiencing symptoms fear of losing control): I’ve never heard him discuss these events in any other cartoon.
- Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (e.g. difficulty falling or staying asleep, anger and hypervigilance): Yep.
- Duration of symptoms more than 1 month: 60+ years at this point.
- Significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (e.g. problems with work and relationships.): That describes Donald to a T.
Of course, it could just be that Disney thinks explosive tempers are funny, but I think I may be onto something here.
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1 Comment | 
Donald Duck, diagnosis, violence | Tagged: hypervigilance, PTSD, World War II | 
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Posted by The Editor
February 13, 2009
Neat site Wordle lets one make bibliometric graphics with ease. Just input some text and it spits out a word cloud in which the size of each word is proportional to its textual frequency. As a diversion from our usual weighty themes and dreary symbolisms, I thought I’d plug in some of the oeuvre of the late, lamented Dr. Seuss and see what happens.
First, here’s Seuss’s masterwork The Cat in the Hat, with all 236 different words presented:
Neat! Now here’s The Cat in the Hat without common English words like “the” and “and:”
Here’s Fox in Socks:
And here’s Fox in Socks without common words:
Okay, here’s Green Eggs and Ham, all 50 different words:
And here’s Hop on Pop:
Finally, here’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, without common words:
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1 Comment | 
Dr. Seuss, Fox in Socks, Green Eggs and Ham, Hop on Pop, The Cat in the Hat | Tagged: Wordle | 
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Posted by The Editor
February 6, 2009
I’m a big fan of the classic Disney Winnie the Pooh shorts.
Well, except for the later one where the characters started to look all Don Bluthy.
And that one they did in the 1980s with Jim Cummings instead of Sterling Holloway; the animation in that is almost unwatchably poor, and Rabbit sounds a little off.
But and the Honey Tree and and the Blustery Day are brilliantly conceived, witty, well-animated, and charming.
The latest lucrative incarnation, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, if that is it’s real name, leaves quite a bad taste in the mouth.
- First of all: Tigger (a one-note sidekick character if there ever was one) is given top billing.
- Secondly: There’s some sort of Blue’s Clues/Scooby-Doo knock-offery nonsense about super sleuthing by super sleuthers. Despite being wholly inappropriate and out of character, I’m not even sure “sleuth” is a real word.
- Thirdly: Christopher Robin has all but been ousted in some sort of phantasmagorical coup d’état and replaced by a girl named Darby.
It’s this last point which is the rub. I imagine Disney created Darby in order to have an original, and therefore unambiguously copyrightable, work. However, this leads to philosophical quandaries, as Xen has noted:
The Hundred Acre Wood does not exist. This is self-evident to most of you, but let me clarify. Those of you familiar only with what Disney has done with the intellectual property may be unclear on the fact that Christopher goes from the real world into the imagined world of the Hundred Acre Wood in a way quite reminiscent of darling Alice into Wonderland. To reiterate, the Hundred Acre Wood is a projection of Christopher Robin’s imagination and is therefore contingent on him to exist. If he does not perceive it, it simply is not.
…
This tomboy should have her own imagined world in which to walk and work through a repressed sexual encounter or first awareness of her own mortality. The Hundred Acre Wood is personal and off-limits to persons not stuffed with cotton and psychoemotional detritus.
It’s a good point about fictional characters intruding on other fictional characters’ meta-fictional fictions. Seems kind of creepy and unfair. Xen also goes into detail about how each Hundred Acre Wood denizen symbolizes a different aspect of Christopher Robin’s personality, but I’m certainly not going to spoil any of that.
Fear and Trembing in the Hundred Acre Wood
> Catena Ex Situ
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4 Comments | Blue's Clues, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Scooby-Doo, Winnie the Pooh, ex situ, gender, knock-offery, philosophy | Tagged: Blustery, Christopher Robin, Darby, sleuth, Winnie the Pooh | Permalink
Posted by The Editor
