Do you have a list of these classic, summarily-banished works? In a world where Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is available on mainstream streaming services, it's hard to imagine what atrocities you're thinking of.
An example of one illustrates why the content might be considered problematic: "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs". A contemporary review said, "A satire on Snow White done in blackface, set in modern swing, this is the best in a long time. It's very funny."
The "atrocities" include rampant racism, sexism, and other needless offenses with the intent of comedy. Other media of the time, such as Theodore Geisel/Dr Suess' wartime cartoons, often show up on these lists as well.
In my opinion, it's good that these cartoons are accessible, with content warnings, yet kept out of normal playback rotation. They're relics of an age gone, thankfully, past.
For those who are unaware, the Inki character in this short was a small tribal African child in a grass skirt who spent his days attempting to hunt various animals with a spear. And by African, I mean the blackface depiction with the white lips that is reminiscent of old Al Jolson films.
Now, I didn't remember ANYTHING about this part of the video. I had last watched it when I was a small child. But I enjoyed the part I did remember, namely the Minah bird, because the bird was methodical, walked in step with Mendelssohn's "The Hebrides," and could whup the crap out of anything. So when it came time to choose an avatar during a period of time when people were not using their faces as screen shots, I used this character.
It wasn't until years later that my girlfriend, who happened to be black, asked me why the cartoon bird was my avatar. So I looked it up and... let's just say I discontinued use of the avatar before the topic was broached again.
Not trying to excuse anything, but I wonder how much this kind of depiction was an artefact of animation/video production in a black-and-white or early-colour era, much like how old cartoon animals with black fur often wear white gloves, to give hands/mouths some contrast and make movement visible.
Arguably, even "modern" cameras are apparently not designed with noncaucasian skintones in mind, something interest groups do not tire to bring up.
Zero. Nada, Nothing.
The history of blackface begins with stage and musical performances "aping" actual black musicians and banjo players [1].
There wasn't a lot of film work happening in 1848 . . .
Not saying it isn't related to cameras, so. But if it is, I'd suspect it to be much more of an issue with in-camera created JPEGs, RAW files don't do white balancing (at least all my Nikons don't). I have zero clue how dedicated video cameras work, so...
However, to your point, even recent photographs in color and black and white depict the tonal contrast one could imagine inspiring the cartoon character in question:
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-3e50441087256791f079ff...
https://get.pxhere.com/photo/black-and-white-people-white-ph...
Until you get to the name Inki... tips their hand a bit.
That doesn't make a lot of sense. Can you give an example of why you think that?
[1] https://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363517842/for-decades-kodak-s...
I wonder if that's why the first colour grading exercise in the training material for BMD DaVinci Resolve is an excerpt from a documentary about rhinos, where you need to balance a reasonably clean shot of a white woman, a gorgeous but fairly tricky shot of a black man (in profile, strong sunlight on his nose, eyes and cheek, rest in deep shadow), and a couple of mid and long shots of black gamekeepers walking around.
There's a lot to get right and a lot to get wrong, and you can end up making everyone look a pretty sickly colour.
What's sad about the racist aspect of the show is that the depiction of a child at play in this show totally mirrors the behavior of children when they get a bug catching net. It's a Merrie Melodie, so there's no speech or inner monologue that is forced upon all children's shows day. Just a kid being a kid.
Could have been a cute animation about a kid biting off more than they could chew. And a hapless lion and a bird that takes not shit. It's a shame they had to shove the nastiness in there.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6q8qen
The "Scat" version of Nagasaki was provided by Leo "Zoot" Watson: https://looneytunes.fandom.com/wiki/Leo_Watson
Those are good in a historical context to show just how racist cartoons can be, but certainly not for entertainment. Same goes for the early Tintin comics, especially those set in colonial Africa have serious racist undertones. Something even the author acknowledged. And those undertones are completely (?) absent from the later ones. Just shows how subversive racism can be when it is part of everyday culture, and that even non racist people fall prey to using those racist stereotypes in their work. The same goes for sexism and any other kind of systematic discrimination.
I'd like to quote the philosopher George Santayana, who I don't agree with that much but certainly agree with on this quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
If we, to use the expression, whitewash all that happened in the past... we'll forget how terrible a place it used to be. So, I would agree that Tom and Jerry cartoons might not belong in a home audience - but that doesn't mean Warner should be incapable of, saying, releasing a true "for collectors" limited-release version of all the unedited shorts with a warning ahead of time.
Any Tom and Jerry episode involving Mammy Two Shoes
A few WW2 era animations, Hitler-Donald duck springs to mind.
But it’s impossible to find. Even eBay has banned sale of the DVD.
Fortunately I have a copy my father ripped to DVD from some unknown source sometime in the 90s. It’s poor quality.
You can find the VHS on eBay for ~$40-$50 from the UK.
The film went public domain in Spain. And surprise, there's some boutique resellers in Spain who do DVDs and Blu-rays... and add language tracks...
https://www.amazon.com/Song-South-Blu-Ray-Reg-Spain/dp/B09BD...
But I don’t know which is being referred to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frog_Prince
So, I wasn’t sure if they where suggesting a VHS version of that 2009 movie existed, making reference to the meme around the 2009 movie being a throwback, or just something else.
But also worth noting that it _wasn't_ the first to mix live action with animation. It had been used in shorts and experiments all the way back to 1900, but for a full-length film, Warner Bros. released You Ought to Be in Pictures in 1940. And The Three Cabelleros beat it by nearly two years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRIBUlP3GC4
More on that history here: https://www.motionpictures.org/2013/07/from-gene-kelly-to-th...
It's easy enough to download a copy of it if you're interested in banned items.
Personally, I don't have an issue with a business choosing to ban or allow items as it's their platform and their business choice. If they choose to not sell any lithium batteries due to their flammable nature, then that would also be acceptable and not in my mind dystopian. There's arguably some risk in being involved with sending potentially offensive media through the mail.
Since I watched Tom and Jerry cartoons many, many times, I just looked up who this is (although I kinda had inferred it, there aren't that many characters in Tom and Jerry :)) and why she's a problem.
Curiously, I always thought she was the owner of the house, so any racist undertones were totally lost on me (note that I'm not American). (I did get that they were quite sexist, no man doing housework ever).
I don't deny the racist intent, but it's funny how one needs the cultural context to get that. I hope in a few decades it will be lost on every kid.
That's not how those things work. And from the outside looking in, there seem to be quite a few racists in the age group that crew up with Tom and Jerry...
Pretty much all these old tropes that we today consider stereotypes about who is at what station in life, and what what kinds of businesses and activities various races and nationalities engage in are completely and totally irrelevant in an age where the help may be any color, the laundromat could be run by anybody, the banker's religion is a toss up and the immigrant tradesman could be from almost any corner of the earth. Without the day to day reality of a living in a mostly racially/ethnically segregated (by law or by cultural norm, doesn't really matter) for these tropes to reinforce they are meaningless as stereotypes. Their only use is for people like you to earn a few quick social credit points taking a stand against.
You don't actually even really see her. Mammy appears for like 5-10 seconds in a handful of episodes and all she does is hit Tom or tell him to catch that mouse. At best, as a kid, you could inference that she's mean to Tom and hits him for not catching Jerry. That's literally it. If that's enough to cause people to go into a tirade of unabashed racism, them yeah, America is absolutely fucked and throttled.
But racism today is so much more constrained and things are so much better now that the fact that you think this is problem today is quite frankly offensive.
Same here. I always thought she was the "mom" of the house. It wasn't until I was an adult that I had enough context to understand the undertones.