Amusement Parks & Family Entertainment Amusement Parks

some stereotyping of their own
and a major historical slip. They
refer to Chuck Jones’ Inki character
as a “cute burlesque of a little cannibal
hunter with a big bone in
the topknot of his hair.” I defy anyone
to point out an example of
Inki eating human flesh or even
hunting humans. It didn’t happen.
The authors have stereotyped Inki,
an African boy, as a cannibal.
Is Time-Warner stronger
than the first amendment
of the U.S. constitution?
Later in the article, they
write, “A critical difference
between Warner Bros.’ hepcat
portrayals of race in Clampett’s cartoons
and the Jim Crow cartoons
of Columbia’s Heckle and Jeckle
was this very celebration of the
hot urban music of the emerging
black culture.” I doubt the authors
have even seen a Heckle and Jeckle
cartoon. For one thing, they
were distributed by Fox and not
Columbia. For another, the characters
were magpies and not
crows. In addition, the characters
are not treated as black caricatures.
One speaks with a New York
accent and the other is British.
Nothing about their movements
or behavior is stereotypically black.
They are no more black caricatures
than Daffy Duck. Therefore, their
“critical difference” is non-existent.
Simplifications
Gene Walz continues his
excellent research into the life and
work of character designer
Charles Thorson. His article “Charlie
Thorson and the Temporary
Disneyfication of Warner Bros. Cartoons”
covers Thorson’s time at
Warners from approximately 1938
to 1940, where Thorson contributed
character designs for cartoons
directed by Chuck Jones,
Tex Avery, and Bugs Hardaway
and Cal Dalton. Walz does a thorough
job of documenting Thorson’s
influence on the Jones unit
but the Merrie Melodies that Thorson
worked on were only a part of
the Warner output. Whatever Disneyfication
was going on through
Thorson’s work was being counterbalanced
by the black and
white Looney Tunes of the same
period. Walz statement that, “Prior
to 1940 the [Warner] studio paid
homage to Disney’s creations or
used them in a lighthearted spirit
of fun. After 1940, the animators
felt free to satirize Disney characters
and stories, to assume a position
that was, for the most part,
intellectually superior to Disney’s
sentimentality and artfulness,” is a
simplification that ignores work in
the 1930’s by Avery, Tashlin, Clampett
and Freleng.
Whose ironic comment is it
that the cover image of
Bugs Bunny is one where he
has been squashed flat?
Bill Mikulak’s article, “Fans
versus Time Warner: Who Owns
Looney Tunes?” examines legal
battles between Time-Warner and
fans who use the World Wide
Web to post images and fiction
featuring Warner characters.
Unfortunately, the article veers off
the track by examining work that
is deemed by some to be offensive
or pornographic. These works not
only potentially violate copyright
and trademark laws, they also
potentially violate obscenity laws.
This obscures the main question
that needs to be examined. In a
society where culture is manufactured
by corporations, is it possible
for individuals to comment on
their own culture in any fixed
medium without violating commercial
law? Is Time-Warner
stronger than the first amendment
of the U.S. constitution?
It Isn’t Pretty
Those interested in the history
of Warner cartoons will find
this volume very slight. Those
interested in speculation on how
Warner cartoons have affected
pop culture or have been affected
by it will find more of interest here,
but on the whole the articles are a
disappointment. Whose ironic
comment is it that the cover image
of Bugs Bunny is one where he
has been squashed flat? One can
only regret that Mike Maltese is not
alive to write a Bugs Bunny cartoon
where Bugs burrows into a
university after making a wrong
turn at Albuquerque. Now there’s
a confrontation between Warner
cartoons and academia that
would be far more enlightening.
Reading the Rabbit: Explorations
in Warner Bros. Animation, edited
by Kevin S. Sandler. New
Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers
University Press, 1998. 288 pages.
ISBN: 0-8135-2538-1 (U.S. $19.00
paperback).
Mark Mayerson has worked in
the animation business since
1976. He is currently directing
episodes of Monster By Mistake, a
computer animated TV series he
created.
Note: Readers may contact any
Animation World Magazine contributor
by sending an e-mail to
editor@awn.com.
ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE December 1998 60