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Thread: Bugs Bunny Retrospective Outrage!

  1. #1
    Moderator CNO's Avatar
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    Bugs Bunny Retrospective Coming

    .c The Associated Press


    NEW YORK (AP) - A retrospective initially intended to feature every Bugs Bunny cartoon will fall just short of complete, as Cartoon Network executives have decided not to air a dozen of the animated shorts deemed too racially charged.

    In one episode, the wisecracking, carrot-chomping Bugs is featured parodying a black-faced Al Jolson; in another he calls an oafish, bucktoothed Eskimo a ``big baboon''; and in yet another he distracts a black rabbit hunter by rattling a pair of dice.

    These and other racially charged cartoons were supposed to be included in the retrospective slated for next month on AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Cartoon Network, until executives changed course last week, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

    Initially the network planned to air the cartoons late at night with prominent disclaimers, explaining that the cartoons were representative of their time and should be viewed as historical records.

    That idea was nixed after Warner Bros., which owns the rabbit, expressed its worry that the episodes might impact the company's extensive merchandising ventures.

    The Cartoon Network holds licensing agreement with Warner Bros. for the entire library of Bugs Bunny cartoons.

    Warner Bros. began pulling the cartoons lampooning blacks in the late 1960s, sensitized by the civil-rights movement, animation expert Jerry Beck told the Journal. Cartoons featuring stereotyped American Indians were taken out of circulation about five years ago.
    Just read this article, and I have to say that I am very disappointed. I could totally understand if the cartoons were screened to control groups and they decided to omit it, but to leave out completely valid works of animation because of marketing concerns is an insult to the intelligence of the people who will be watching these cartoons. It is also indicative of history's constant attempts to glaze over very real issues of racism which may have existed in the past and still exist even in modern animation, just in somewhat subtler forms.

    (I do have to give credit to the people at Cartoon Network who do make attempts to get these treasures out to the people, and have been known to host screenings for animations deemed "unfit" for broadcast)

    Post your opinions below!

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    <satire>Yes, I find Bugs bunny to be very offensive. I always felt offended when he would do something mean to that white hunter, cause it was so clear that he was made to represent the white race in general. I for one am not going to let those rabbits make fun of my mansion and my yatch just because i'm white. Everyone should write cartoon network and have them stop the whole retrospective.</satire>

    hmmm... yeah, other than that I like the disclaimer idea, it's better than just sitting there pretending that nothing bad ever happened in american history. And you know cartoon network doesn't get get that many viewers at night cause they always have promos for other shows and local ads inserted.

    Come to think of it, wasn't daffy duck black, and bugs relatively white in compairison... no one really talks about that much do they?

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    if people weren't so "sue-happy" and "pc scared" these days a lot of this wouldn't happen. it's annoying. you can't just quit doing what you do because of a fear of offending someone. there will always be someone offended by something. everyone yelling about their rights to not be offended. hah. what about the right to produce and create? i was worrying about what someone would think the other day about something and i was wisely told "you can't control what other people think". ahhhh.

    i agree with you cno that it's an insult to the intelligence of the viewers but if there weren't so many people in the world who act irrationally it wouldn't be such an issue. i was just reading a warner brothers cartoon book and they showed some images from a "black" snow white cartoon they did where the characters were drawn stereotypically and in a negative fashion. i was interested because, like the article above states "the cartoons were representative of their time and should be viewed as historical records," and i like to see the changes in cartoons today from that time.

    it doesn't solve anything by pretending that something doesn't exist just because it's ugly. that's what allows that type of negativity to perpetuate.


  4. #4
    Moderator - Anime Curator Naldoman's Avatar
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    scythe"Come to think of it, wasn't daffy duck black, and bugs relatively white in compairison... no one really talks about that much do they?"
    I talk about it a lot. Daffy is my favorite WB cartoon character---he's black and wacky, like me!!! I have a Daffy on my dashboard, a Daffy watch, a Daffy on my computer. I love the old, mentally-wacky Daffy of the early Looney Tunes!

    Bottieli"i was just reading a warner brothers cartoon book and they showed some images from a "black" snow white cartoon they did where the characters were drawn stereotypically and in a negative fashion."
    Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, profiled in The 50 Greatest Cartoons, Page 102, Jerry Beck, ed., 1998, J.G.Press, Inc.

    I would love to see this cartoon.

    I must say that yes, a lot of the material in the cartoons of that era were flat out offensive. I speak to you as someone who has to take the blow of those over-drawn caracatures.

    However, I don't thing they should ban airing them. To be complete, the 'toons should be included---it puts the whole collection in the context of it's time. How many times have you hummed various tunes the characters sang in those cartoons like "We're in the Money" or "California Here I Come" ??? Those were popular hits when the cartoons came out!!

    Keep the historical context in there!







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    Ok, I think people overanalyze things, yes at the time, the cartoons probally contained racial undertones, or whatever, but who cares, watch them and laugh, there main purpose was to entertain not as some historical documentation, is the movie Matrix, created to document history, no its to entertain, while some history is intergrated into the cartoons, who cares why does it matter, they don't need to be screened, or censored, that ridiculous in my opinion,
    CNO says its "an insult to the intelligence of the people" most people aren't really intelligent to realize the significants of many of the cartoons and what they are symbolizing, they just point and go hahahah, he got hit on the head. Well thats my say.

    Peace

    Brad

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    <<this post is not ment to offend anyone and if it has, then you read it wrong or took it the wrong way as that was not my intent when writting it >>

    (( wow..I made a long post... anyway, my reasoning is that cartoons unless blatent about it.. have nothing to do with race or religion and I think they should have taken the cartoons off because people will be offended when they see a cartoon that is blatently focusing on a single race in a negative or positive light, regardless of what race that may be.. ))




    if bugs is white.. and daffys black... then tweety bird would be yellow..

    ..and the silverster cat that gets the bird would be black.. and the dog that gets the cat would be white..

    ..what religion would porky pig be then??

    on second thought... putting issues of race or religion to cartoon characters dosnt really make any sense to begin with.. ( for one thing.. there mostly animals )

    unless there flat out doing it... cartoons really dont have much about race or religion in them.

    trying to read between the lines is like looking at clouds in the sky and seeing whatever you want to in them.

    kind of like asking the art critic about a painting and having him spout out tons of issues and events in mankind the painting represents.. then asking the artist that made the painting and having him say " well, I thought it looked pretty " ...

    course if were getting into what cartoons look like.. then wouldnt you say that all animes feature mostly white people? .. do you belive that everyone in japan draws white people, or do you belive that its a style of drawing character and has nothing to do with any race? ... course I could be wrong... but I dont think bugs or daffy have anything to do with race, anymore then I think that japan animation features nothing but whites...

    issues of black and white are a little one sided anyway.. theres no talk about the other races.. what about asian or mexican or indian ? ... isnt that fast mouse in mexico insultful to mexicans??? ... how come there are so many chrismas and easter cartoons and no jewish holiday cartoons?

    why was there only one black man in the jetsons and only two in the flintstons? ... and no indian or mexians or others added?

    sense only 44% of the population of the large citys in the U.S are white ( thats a pretty surpirsing poll when you think that blacks/asian/mexian come from only one area of the globe, where as white can come from any where from brittan to canada to perhaps italy or greese or rome.. of course the way the maps of the globe look.. some areas are smaller or larger then what they apear to be .. ).. wouldnt that make whites the minoraty? Then why dont black only cartoons ( for some reason theres really no asian, or mexican, or jewish cartoons to speak of right now )do better in the ratings?.. personally I think its because white is considered the default norm for cartoons .. similar to how the word " he " in a statment can me either he or she.. as he is just the norm..

    personally, I dont feel cartoons or anime are focused on one race or another ( or a religion ) unless they blantently state it.. anime is a good reference sense even though it looks white only.. it is just a style of drawing and not a slant twards one race over another.. when you see a truck load of thugs about to take over the good guy in an anime.. and one of the thugs is darker skinned or one has a hair net or something else on them.. they may look like there representing one race or another.. but really there drawn like that to represent diversaty within the character looks .. not racial stigmas.. ( my own belif at least )

    I have yet to see an anime fan run up to the maker of Vampire hunter X and say " wow, I love how all your asian staff made such a wonderful white's only story revolving around the roman catholic fables of vampires "

    ...however that being said.. there was a cartoon on cartoon network that I saw that was a little strange.. it was called " Gremlins from the Cremlin " and showed the nazi symbol .. I thought that was a little risky.. anyway, I do think they should take away any cartoons that are blantently showing any race ( in a good or bad light ) out of there showings as regardless of how most people would not care.. there would always be one or two crazys that would sue the companys for racial reasons in order to get money from them.

    I would consider most cartoon and anime characters a mix of all the race in the world ( probably where the green and blue hair comes from )..with only minor refences to religion in order to start or help a plot...

    however saying that a cartoon LOOKS like a race is fine as long as you declare that its no REPRESENTING that race..

    the end statment is that issues of race or religion can never be really put to rest as long as the fact that discussing and debating the arguments will often times brand one side as a heretic or bigot...keeping that in mind, cartoons often state things most people at the time think.. or I should say, cartoons often times represent the time there created in as well as the belifs of that time... if those belifes are offensive within another time or place.. then they shouldnt be shown sense its the reputation of the companys that are on the line if they are... and regardless of warnings before the showings.. bad press against a company is still bad press...


    << p.s. the main problems with writting a post like this is that if a word is misspelled or out of place or not worded correctly or not worded in a way that it could be taken as a negative comment not intended.. blah blah.. ect ect.. anyway, the post is not ment to offend anyone and if it has, then you read it wrong or took it the wrong way >>



















  7. #7
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    u know it's people who over analyse things that are the most sensitive to things like violence porn rasicm etc.. i mean if something happens it's always gotta be something that is the cause of it. as chris rock said "what where they listening to what where they listening to, **** what they where listening to. Why can't kids just be plain crazy, what was hitler listening to, what was in his cd case?"

    i really think we are over exagerating things! i mean be honest what could be so devestatingto look at, it's a toon for crying out loud. u want rasism? how come every super heroe in the marvel universe is white? eve more everyone in the marvel universe is white. hmm let's see every superheroe on tv is white (exeption of captain planet who is blue ) name just one black super hero there are none!


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    black super hero = spawn

  9. #9
    <img src="/graphics/junk/swirl.gif"><BR>Bodypaintin' Freak<BR>I ate my post count again
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    Jokes cant be made anymore because this is an overly sensitive country /world.

    Does anyone get offended when Geroge Jefferson constantly calls his white neighbor a Honkey? No

    Cartoons arent funny anymore. I have yet to see a cartoon that made me laugh like those of Chuck Jones and Tex Avery did.

    People must remember, when these cartoons came out they were made for Adults who went to the Theater to watch them, thats why there are jokes in there that kids just wont and dont get. When I watched cartoons when I was a kid Bugs was funny because he tied Elmers gun into a knot and kissed him on the lips and ran off, now its funny because of the script.


    Its a world of boycotts and money talks. When someone threatens to damage the amount of revenue a company has comming in with theyre special intrest groups (middle aged white guy groups included) the company does its best to please them.


    heres an article from Maxim magazine I read a while back and I was able to find...



    ************************************************** *********


    Toons o’ the Times


    The PC police pistol-whip beloved cartoons into submission.

    Maxim, Nov 2000

    By Trish Ryan



    Ever wonder why some of your favorite childhood characters up and disappeared one Saturday morning? Chalk it up to their nervous corporate parents, who bowdlerized their own creations for fear of damaging boycotts and lawsuits. But their solutions were no better than the perceived problems:

    Offense The original edition of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory makes reference to Willy Wonka’s Oompa-Loompa workers having been brought over from “darkest Africa.” The illustrations depict them as caricatures of blacks.
    Revision The Oompa-Loompas are illustrated to appear more Munchkinlike (i.e., white). They come from Loompaland, a mythical place with, presumably, no history of a slave trade.


    Offense In the 1944 short “Bugs Nips the Nips,” the wabbit calls his Japanese enemies “Japs,” “slant-eyes,” and “monkeys” and hands out grenades disguised as ice-cream cones.
    Revision Despite the red flag of a title, “Nips” somehow made its way onto the Golden Age of Looney Tunes boxed set, and thousands had to be recalled. Years later the Japanese took revenge by hypnotizing American children via Pokémon.


    Offense In Disney’s Aladdin, the lyrics of “Arabian Nights” describe the scene as a place “where they cut off your ear / If they don’t like your face / It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.”
    Revision A dopey effort even by Disney standards: “Where it’s flat and immense / And the heat is intense / It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” In addition to international terrorism, Arabs are now being blamed for their own harsh climate.


    Offense In MGM cartoons, Tom and Jerry’s housekeeper, Mammy Two-Shoes, was seen only as a pair of thick black legs and spoke with a weighty African-American accent.
    Revision A literal whitewash. Mammy’s legs became Caucasian…but her vocals weren’t redubbed. Some astute five-year-old must have noted the inconsistency: Mammy’s voice was later swapped for an equally offensive Irish brogue.


    Offense Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean pissed off kill-joy feminists who felt that the robotic rogues were sexually harassing the animatronic women with their boorishness.
    Revision Welcome to Pussies of the Caribbean. Disney cut out the grappling and negligee stealing; the wenches are now pursued for a meager booty of food, making It’s a Small World look titillating. Ar-r-r-gh


    ************************************************** **********

    I noticed edits that took place as well that Maxim didnt talk about.

    One that stands out most is the fourth of july epasode of tom and jerry. Tom has Jerry stuck in a Tea Pot and tosses a fire cracker down inside. When jerry escapes and pops a bad to make tom think the firecracker had exploded Tom looks into the pot and it blows up. The Scene fades to black and goes to the next scene.

    The original had tom raise his head with "black face" and looks at the camera with the tea pot around him which looked more like a sunflower than black face, but who am I?

    Thats just an addition to the above that Ive noticed.


    Noone ever mentions that all of the "white" characters are Stereotypical NY Asses with the Jersy Accent and Womanisers.

    But, Thats the world we live in I guess.

    Thats my view on it, which boils down to, Stop being so overly sensitive and stupid, its a freakin cartoon made in the first half of the Century.

    D


  10. #10
    <img src="/graphics/junk/swirl.gif"><BR>Bodypaintin' Freak<BR>I ate my post count again
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    Originally posted by justice strike
    u know it's people who over analyse things that are the most sensitive to things like violence porn rasicm etc.. i mean if something happens it's always gotta be something that is the cause of it. as chris rock said "what where they listening to what where they listening to, **** what they where listening to. Why can't kids just be plain crazy, what was hitler listening to, what was in his cd case?"

    i really think we are over exagerating things! i mean be honest what could be so devestatingto look at, it's a toon for crying out loud. u want rasism? how come every super heroe in the marvel universe is white? eve more everyone in the marvel universe is white. hmm let's see every superheroe on tv is white (exeption of captain planet who is blue ) name just one black super hero there are none!

    One thing that must be remembered in this question to name one super hero which is black.

    The Main super heros which are the more bigger ones, i.e Superman, Batman, Spiderman, etc etc, were created during the same times when the cartoons were going on. (time meaning thoughts not numbers)

    So ofcourse they are goig to be white. Why? That was the people who had the money to buy the stuff.

    However several black superheros have come to mind. One of Which has Been at #1 several times and remains within the top 10 ever since it started.

    Spawn.

    You also have Several Characters from x-men which are black

    Storm is my favorite.

    Wutang is a killer comic, I could read it over and over.



    Another thing which has its toll on this same issue is,

    If a Comic With A Certain Character doesnt sell, well theyll make it with a different character to see if it sells.

    Money.

    Its all about whos doing the buying.
    D

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    theres also north star.. the first gay super hero..

    after him the indian woman on gen 13 was also gay.. but I think sexy female gay heros would get a better reception..

  12. #12
    Moderator CNO's Avatar
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    Thanks for posting the article. I think it's a very serious issue, particularly with most studios only interested in the bottom line nowadays (stated after a very disheartening meeting with someone representing Warner Bros. Animation) and needs to be discussed. And I'm surprised to see that I've drawn out some of the longest posts out of some of our members here.

  13. #13
    <img src="/graphics/junk/swirl.gif"><BR>Bodypaintin' Freak<BR>I ate my post count again
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    actually I think my longest post was here

    http://board.flashkit.com/board/show...threadid=56952

    a short story I wrote.


    But this is a serous topic in the animation community.

    Well, in every community I believe. The bottom line is where it will always be and as long as special intrest groups can provide the bottom line or take away the bottom line for that matter that is who it will be catered to.

    You know why people who WANT fredom of expression do not go out and organize 100 upon thousands of people to Ralley to get what they want? Were not looking for money and sadly but too often those who want freedom of expression arent motivated by getting just that therefore the expression "cause" never really gets off the ground.

    Can you imagine if everyone who felt this way about the editing of classic cartoons told all the production companies where to stick it and threaten to not watch anymore? You bet youre bottom line The REtrospective would be true to its name again.

    Like I said...

    Money.
    D

  14. #14
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    An article on some history of animation:

    http://www.mbcnet.org/ETV/C/htmlC/cartoons/cartoons.htm


    Another interesting article:

    http://www.interlog.com/~dgsimmns/anime.cheats.html

    If you're really interested in some cartoon history:
    Here's a huge amount of warner bros history info

    http://www.spumco.com/magazine/eowbcc/


    [Edited by BradBradleySL on 05-05-2001 at 07:25 PM]

  15. #15
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    And then there is Bosko, 1920s cartoon:

    http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue09...bosko/text.htm

    How many have seen Bosko cartoons?


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    thanks for the links - no i have never seen bosco

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    spawn isn't black he's a carcass he used to be black now he works for the devil! )

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    well i think a lot of the older cartoons are mostly white characters because people draw what they know. i've been reading disney's "art of animation" book and the pictures of the cartoonists are caucasian men. it makes sense to me. and people treated and thought of other races differently back then than they do now. things happened. fact. no reason to hide them under the rug or pretend they didn't. like i said, that type of behavior (pretending something bad didn't happen) is exactly what allows racism to continue because nothing is being accomplished as far as resolving the problem because if they pretend that the "problem" never happened then there's no reason to fix it. the fact is that people do live up to the stereotypes. whether they are white, black, asian, mexican, whatever. there are stereotypes for a reason. a lot of people have no moral standards. awm. i don't have anything else to say. heh.

    loooove,

    botti

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    What people fail to realise is that racism of some level will always exist as long as there are differences in culture and appearance. This is due to the fact that we are animals like any other and hold a certain animalistic distrust for other people. This dates back to when humans first began appearing and we were seperated into different tribes and fought over land and food and anything else that would sustain life. Over time the name tribe has been replaced by city or state or whatever name would indicate a seperation by a border.
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Physical borders between states have little difference from colors that seperate races. We are the human race and we share the same genome but as fate would have it we also adapt to the environment like any other animal on the planet which is relative to physics and biology. So we point fun at each other, better in a Looney Toons way that the way some comedians get away with racial slander and disturbing points of view. We are a nation that contradicts itself, we allow certain types of racism due to freedom of speech, yet we pick on harmless cartoons to avoid the real issue.
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    The issue of racism being inevitable. Racism is around and always will be as long as we exist. How we act on the issue tells if we are responsible or not and how mature we are. In general children do not understand the plot or the details that surround the cartoons, they like the pretty pictures and the strange noises and animation. When we get older we may pick up on the details but if we are taught correctly we will ignore them and understand that these are factual events that took place in our history. Cartoons like any piece of art is a work of the time and reflects situation of the time.
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    The NAZI symbol should not be regarded as evil or unaccpetable because if we make that distinction then it will become evil. WW2 was going on at the time that some of the cartoons were created and the artists and public needed them to feel better. Japan was attacking Pearl Harbor and the Germans were invading all of Europe. We know this, and when we view the cartoons remember that these people were feeling angry and bitter towards each of those countries and as in most film, the feelings were transferred into the characters. No, I do not view the NAZI symbol as a "bad" or "evil" symbol. It is just a symbol, a symbol of what humanity can do to itself if given improper conditioning.
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    You might as well throw away all the history books for this country if you attempt to destroy the evidence of resentment towards opposing countries. How many times have you yelled at the Television during a game and the other team is doing well, or one of your teams players gets hurt or misses a play?
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Like it or not the U.S. isn't the only country that has racist jokes either. But, the truth is that these cartoons are innocent and relative to the time they were made and are records of our history in the U.S. and as such should be guarded and remastered in THX. =)

    If you read this whole thing then your very patient. =)


    Demo

  20. #20
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    Read the whole thing, Demo. It's a shame that marketing executives aren't as patient as we.

    Unfortunately it is an epidemic, even down to the selective inclusion and judicious editing of supposedly "historical" texts. I don't expect things to change by and large anytime soon, it never hurts to bring it to the public attention. Particularly when a party like Cartoon Network attemps to make these things seen and is shot down by the AOL/Time Warner multi-mega-superplexes.

    I have seen Bosko cartoons, and was lucky enough to take an excellent course at Pratt titled History of Animation where we viewed many animated works on 16mm film, including some of those that I've mentioned that will not be broadcast, and which some of the parent companies have made every attempt to take out of circulation. What I find really frightening (and why I have been championing the independent spirit of web animation) is the censor-trigger-happy "morality" administration and their attempts to silence "controversial" films and shift the blame of any tragic influence to violent video games and music.

    Put your books in storage before they get burned!

    I appreciate the links to the animation sites - I'll try to pull together some interesting ones myself and post them here soon.

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