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Schadow
Vice Admiral
Joined: 30 Sep 2004
Posts: 936
Location: Huntsville, Alabama
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 Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 4:13 am Post subject: Daffy, Bugs and Porky may be harmful to your psyche |
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Mark Steyn wrote a critique of the state of Hollywood films in the Chicago Sun Times. Among the amazing things he came up with was the addition of a warning by Whoopi Goldberg at the front of all the DVDs in a new boxed set of Looney Tunes oldies.
Here are some snips.
| Quote: | .....The average multiplex is surely not long for this world. Already, 85 percent of Hollywood's business comes from home entertainment -- DVDs and the like. Suits me. Or so I thought until, on the way home from the hell of Harry Potter, I stopped to buy the third boxed set in the ''Looney Tunes Golden Collection.'' Loved the first two: Daffy, Bugs, Porky, beautifully restored, tons of special features. But, for some reason, this new set begins with a special announcement by Whoopi Goldberg explaining what it is we're not meant to find funny: ''Unfortunately at that time racial and ethnic differences were caricatured in ways that may have embarrassed and even hurt people of color, women and ethnic groups,'' she tells us sternly. ''These jokes were wrong then and they're wrong today'' -- unlike, say, Whoopi Goldberg's most memorable joke of recent years, the one at that 2004 all-star Democratic Party gala in New York where she compared President Bush to her, um, private parts. There's a gag for the ages.
I don't know what Whoopi's making such a meal about. It's true you don't see many positive images of people of color on ''Looney Tunes,'' but then the images of people of non-color aren't terribly positive either (Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam). Instead, you see positive images of ducks of color, roadrunners of color and tweety birds of color. How weirdly reductive to be so obsessed about something so peripheral to these cartoons that you stick the same damn Whoopi Goldberg health warning on all four DVDs in the box. And don't think about hitting the "Next" button and skipping to the cartoons: You can't; you gotta sit through it.
A Hollywood that's ashamed of one of its few universally acknowledged genuine artistic achievements is hardly likely to come up with any new artistic achievements. As the instant deflation of that Whoopi cushion reminds us, the movies are now so constrained by political correctness the very act of storytelling is itself endangered. ... |
Steyn's whole piece is well worth reading.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn27.html
Schadow
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LewWaters
Admin
Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 4:50 am Post subject: |
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I remember back in the 70's, they chopped up several episodes of the Little Rascals due to stereotyping of the Black children in them. What they failed to realize is that in every episode, it was always the Black kids that got the White kids out of trouble, humorously, of course.
The films didn't teach anyone to be against Blacks, wuite the opposite really. They showed that all kids could get along and enjoy themselves.
Incidentally, a bit of trivia. The highest paid actor and the one appearing in the most episodes of the Little Rascals was the man that played the Black kid, Farina. Seems maybe old Hal Roach wasn't the racist they tried to portray him as. |
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MrJapan
PO1
Joined: 27 Sep 2004
Posts: 465
Location: Chiba, Japan
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| Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 12:02 pm Post subject: |
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Wish I could get ahold of the sets... I could rip WOOPIE right off of the DVD and burn a new one  |
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Snipe
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 574
Location: Peoria, Illinois
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| Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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Cartoon Network showed about 120 old Bob Clampett "Looney Tunes"
and Popeye cartoons on the last hour of "Adult Swim" last spring. It
seems that they are rated PG and not the Y-7 "Kiddie cut". Not very
PC. To get the Kiddie cut, they have to get rid of any reference to
smoking, alchohol, guns, knives, etc.
In one WWII cartoon, Bugs is in the Air Corps and meets "The Gremlin".
Following that theme, there was another one where Hitler is flying to
Russia and meets...Gremlins! Think that you can show Hitler to kids
in a cartoon these days? Not likely.
Anyhow, I think that they are funny. But I don't think that Whoopie is
funny. Funny how that works.
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