What, no gravy?
Unsettling news from Mark Steyn that the long-awaited DVD releases of classic Warner Brothers cartoons come with an introductory lecture by Whoopi Goldberg, warning us that these cartoons contain 'offensive' racial and gender gags, and that we'd better not even think of laughing at them now, or Whoopi will open up a new can of Whoopi-ass on us. (Apparently you can't skip this track on the DVD.)
I suppose we should be grateful that the denizens of Hollywood didn't simply have a ceremonial bonfire of the original negatives of these masterpieces in the Warner Brothers' lot, and that if a saner day ever dawns, we can repackage these works into a format which is not an insult to our intelligence. I'm not trying to be some kind of post-modern relativist when I assert that the best of these cartoons are comparable in artistic and humane value, to the fables of Aesop, or the tales of Franz Kafka.
No modern existentialist ever penned a darker tale than Chow Hound, in which a gluttonous dog enslaves a cat and a mouse in a series of scams designed to bring him food, or the money with which to buy it. Every successful effort on their part is met only with a blow and the contemptuous rejoinder: "What, no gravy?". Every futile attempt at defiance is brutally punished. Eventually, paralyzed by a "severe case of over-eating", the master is at the mercy of his servants, and the cartoon ends with one of the scariest final lines in any drama, anywhere- live, canned or animated: "This time, we didn't forget the gravy".
Behind the gags and the comic personae of cats, mice, dogs, rabbits and ducks, the best of these cartoons plot, with architectural precision, a web of power relations in which creatures are destroyed by getting the things they want, and enslaved by the roles they adopt. In Awful Orphan, Charley Dog is a sleazy opportunist seeking a home for the winter, and picks on Porky Pig, envisaging a cozy, old-fashioned master-dog relationship that Porky doesn't want. Charley nearly kills Porky in pursuit of this goal, and finally drives him mad: the master-dog relationship then comes about, but not in the way Charley had anticipated. The cartoon ends with Charley, nearly paralyzed with fear, trying unsuccessfully to escape from the 'home' he has made for himself.
But I'll give the last word to Chicago writer Michael Gebert, who posted a terrific review of the Looney Tunes DVDs on Amazon:
It is infinitely more irritating to have some Hollywood star (who has embarassed herself publicly on at least one famous occasion with incorrect material in a political setting) lecture us about how bad these cartoons are-- and then be FORCED to watch this asinine bit of corporate CYA before EACH disc, EVERY time. (It's not even like, after that, we're allowed to see the most outrageous material-- you can bet that Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs will never make it to one of these sets. Just imagine what they'll put before Song of the South when it finally comes out-- probably we'll have to sit through all of Roots before being allowed to watch it.)
AOL Time Warner, you are not my MOMMY, you are merely the corporate drones who happen today to own material made by far greater artists than you could ever dream of being. Leave it and me alone and let me watch it without your mealymouthed scolding. I will refuse to buy any more of these sets until the moral guardians of today's Hollywood agree to shut up and leave these great cartoons in peace.
Unsettling news from Mark Steyn that the long-awaited DVD releases of classic Warner Brothers cartoons come with an introductory lecture by Whoopi Goldberg, warning us that these cartoons contain 'offensive' racial and gender gags, and that we'd better not even think of laughing at them now, or Whoopi will open up a new can of Whoopi-ass on us. (Apparently you can't skip this track on the DVD.)
I suppose we should be grateful that the denizens of Hollywood didn't simply have a ceremonial bonfire of the original negatives of these masterpieces in the Warner Brothers' lot, and that if a saner day ever dawns, we can repackage these works into a format which is not an insult to our intelligence. I'm not trying to be some kind of post-modern relativist when I assert that the best of these cartoons are comparable in artistic and humane value, to the fables of Aesop, or the tales of Franz Kafka.
No modern existentialist ever penned a darker tale than Chow Hound, in which a gluttonous dog enslaves a cat and a mouse in a series of scams designed to bring him food, or the money with which to buy it. Every successful effort on their part is met only with a blow and the contemptuous rejoinder: "What, no gravy?". Every futile attempt at defiance is brutally punished. Eventually, paralyzed by a "severe case of over-eating", the master is at the mercy of his servants, and the cartoon ends with one of the scariest final lines in any drama, anywhere- live, canned or animated: "This time, we didn't forget the gravy".
Behind the gags and the comic personae of cats, mice, dogs, rabbits and ducks, the best of these cartoons plot, with architectural precision, a web of power relations in which creatures are destroyed by getting the things they want, and enslaved by the roles they adopt. In Awful Orphan, Charley Dog is a sleazy opportunist seeking a home for the winter, and picks on Porky Pig, envisaging a cozy, old-fashioned master-dog relationship that Porky doesn't want. Charley nearly kills Porky in pursuit of this goal, and finally drives him mad: the master-dog relationship then comes about, but not in the way Charley had anticipated. The cartoon ends with Charley, nearly paralyzed with fear, trying unsuccessfully to escape from the 'home' he has made for himself.
But I'll give the last word to Chicago writer Michael Gebert, who posted a terrific review of the Looney Tunes DVDs on Amazon:
It is infinitely more irritating to have some Hollywood star (who has embarassed herself publicly on at least one famous occasion with incorrect material in a political setting) lecture us about how bad these cartoons are-- and then be FORCED to watch this asinine bit of corporate CYA before EACH disc, EVERY time. (It's not even like, after that, we're allowed to see the most outrageous material-- you can bet that Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs will never make it to one of these sets. Just imagine what they'll put before Song of the South when it finally comes out-- probably we'll have to sit through all of Roots before being allowed to watch it.)
AOL Time Warner, you are not my MOMMY, you are merely the corporate drones who happen today to own material made by far greater artists than you could ever dream of being. Leave it and me alone and let me watch it without your mealymouthed scolding. I will refuse to buy any more of these sets until the moral guardians of today's Hollywood agree to shut up and leave these great cartoons in peace.
posted by cuckoo at
11:47 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home