Nightmares? Nightmares?
How about that 1935 Walter Lantz technicolor cartoon, CANDYLAND? With the giant anthropomorphic bottle of cod-liver oil bottle and the giant anthropomorphic spoon chasing the two little children? Talk about NIGHTMARES.
Hey, should we start a “most disturbing cartoon” thread over in MPSIMS?
Uke
Sheesh. Try to ask a simple question about a skunk and a cat and pretty soon people are talking about cod-liver oil and anthropomorphic spoons. Teeming with relevance, eh?
Well, I don’t hear kellibelli complaining, mikan, ya vest-pocket Derrida. You complaining, kell?
Nope…she’s out at Blockbuster with Holly, searching for a copy of CANDYLAND.
Uke
Sh*t! We can’t find it! That’s okay; it’ll show up on the Cartoon Network sooner or later.
Is Pepe LePew an attempt by animator Chuck Jones to objectify women, to keep them subjegated, and to condone lascivous behaviour by men? Or is it more likely that the little skunk with the big libido is just a cartoon character loosely based on the then-popular actor Charles Boyer (who played a similar character named, coincidently, Pepe Le Moko in the movie Algiers)?
***hmmmm, Could Be!!! ***
Or, maybe I’ve watched way too many WB cartoons…
TT
“Believe those who seek the truth.
Doubt those who find it.” --Andre Gide
A lot of you are still missing the point. The cat isn’t offended by anything other than the fact that Pepe is a skunk. Pepe only finds her attractive because he thinks she IS a skunk.
She is repelled by Pepe because he smells. Not because he is harrassing her (which he is). She looks horrified because he smells. Not because of the sex.
The funny part is EVERYONE in the cartoon is repelled by Pepe, even the human characters. BUT he doesn’t seem to know how repelling he is.
It is a great lesson in many areas. First Pepe only likes the cat as he thinks she is a skunk. This is akin to only dating inside your own race or religion. The cat is repelled by Pepe as he is a skunk. She doesn’t even give him a chance she is frightened from the first time she sets eyes on him because he smells. This is a good lesson in not to judge people. Nice people sometimes stink.
BTW I think Pepe is the dullest of the WB lot, it is, like the Road Runner, a one shot joke.
This is only loosely related, but what the heck I figured I’d throw it in just for larks.
In Britain in the sixties, there was this psychedelic little kids ‘cartoon’ (actually stop motion animation) called The Magic Roundabout and it was very much totally bizarrely out there. Famous for it’s drug-crazed visuals.
They had such characters as Zebedee the thing on a spring, Dougal the dog, Brian the Snail, you had to see it. Dylan the hippy Rabbit was an obvious parody.
Anyway, in one episode, Ermintrude the cow finds these ‘pills’ where if she eats them she can ‘fly’. And the whole episode has her trying to convince all the other characters how wonderful it is to take these pills and fly around.
Well, I’m so glad that was peddled to three year olds in the sixties, aren’t you?
Yes, pepe’s French! 'nuff said. At the time, all europeans were thought of as mashers towards women. He’s also sympathetic, thinking all women are his, yet still loveless after many attempts in seven minutes. Besides, the cat is cute!
How’s this for annoying?
Has anyone noticed on major networks, (Nickelodeon, TNT, Cartoon Network) our favorite old cartoons have been edited out of pure paranoia.
E.G.: Daffy Duck, in an attempt to upstage Bugs once and for all, swallows gasoline, uranium 238, nitro-glycerin and a match. This is edited to only include uranium 238 and the match! With TV ratings these days, editors think kids will try it. We’re all ALIVE! I assume…
(Trying out the HTML “quote” function for the first time here, hope it works.)
What I hate even more is the tendency of some networks to chop up classic cartoons to suit the shorter attention spans of today’s rug rats. Sophisticated humor of the Chuck Jones variety gets relegated to same level as yuk-yuk gags of more recent and far inferior cartoons.
One thing I’d note, though, is the fact that a lot of classic cartoons don’t get shown anywhere because of their racial or political content–especially the ones with Al Jolson-style blackface minstrel gags, or the more jingoistic WWII patriotic/propagandistic cartoons. Not that I think that they’re children’s fare–if anything, the kiddies simply wouldn’t understand what they were seeing. But I think it’s sad that most of the public has never been exposed to cartoons that are at least as classic as any repetitious Road Runner cartoon.
And whatever happened to Hekyll and Jekyll?
DHR
Women will decide in the first minute or so whether they really “want it” or not.
The rest is either true stalking, or just bullshit games.
So many times I’ve chased (stalked?, what’s the difference?) women who were resistant, and when I stopped, it was a pathetic, “Why’d you stop?”
There’s always another beer.
prleone said:
I’m not sure it’s all paranoia, or anti-violence. When watching some 'toons with my son, I’ve noticed Bugs Bunny cartoons edited at spots where I know some violent act was about to take place. For example, somebody aims a gun and fires, but then we just see the very final part where Daffy all mussed up. < sigh >
One cartoon, from Warners, that I have been hearing good things about will probably NEVER be shown on American television. Even Whoopi Goldberg thinks it’s funny. People fear it is racist. It stereotypes black people with all of the traditional black face giant-lips characatures. However it is redeeming because it shows black people as heros in their own environment and not some maid or slave. It was beautifully animated and lively (or so I’m told. I nver saw this)
Its “Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarves” by Bob Clampett. If anyone of y’all ever seen it, is it any good?
Oh yeah!
If you want to see how the pros overanalyze cartoons, point your browsers here!
http://members.aol.com/TheGriffon/cartoon.html
On a related subject, could anyone confirm whether Tom & Jerry derive their names from the Tommies and Jerries - nicknames for US and German forces in WWII? If so, why do US cartoons always show Tom being whipped? Could Butch the bulldog who always saves Jerry from a beating be a British Bulldog? And if so, who is the pathetic little duckling with the deathwish that pops up from time to time?
Picking up on the mention of the Magic Roundabout, it was actually French animation, voiced by a British actor who made up the plot as he went along, as no-one understood the French version. The british version when placed in context would actually comment quite perceptively on issues in the news of the day. It was just picked up on by the chemically advantaged, who latched on to the bright colours. Still cool, though.
“Tom and Jerry” is the name of a cocktail (more popular in the 30’s and 40’s).
SterlingNorth wrote:
I haven’t seen “Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs”, but I’ve seen a similar Tex Avery cartoon called “Uncle Tom’s Cabaña”.
Like the way you described Coal Black, Uncle Tom’s Cabaña would almost certainly be viewed as racist by modern hypersensitive TV editors.
Quick-N-Dirty Aviation: Trading altitude for airspeed since 1992.
Geez…you guys are really hard on poor Pepe. He’s just another in a long line of poor schmoes whose over developed and delusional self image is the source of the humor. Wiley Coyote and Sylvester in endless pursuit of the elusive boids. Charlie Brown trying to get Lucy to hold the football (to say nuthin’ of the pitcher’s mound). Chester A. Riley, Ralph Cramden, The Kingfish, Al Bundy.
He’s a SKUNK fer crissakes…of course it’s funny that he thinks he’s a great lover and can’t recognize rejection. It ain’t about sex, it’s about self deception and delusion taken to the point of absurdity. That look of terror in the kitty’s face is the absolute mirror of the look on the Frog’s puss when La Belle Porkette pounces on him. (You can’t tell me that Frank Oz didn’t watch one too many Pepe cartoons before he dreamed up Ms. Piggy).
Pepe’s just like all the rest of us poor schlubs who spend our whole lives trying to be John Wayne and end up being Gabby Hayes. We have met the skunk and he is us.
JB
Lex Non Favet Delictorum Votis
If you have a RealPlayer, you can watch Coal Black here:
I tried all week, I can’t connect to the site.
To lying, cheating, stealing, and drinking.
Always lie to save a friend, cheat death,
steal your love’s heart, and drink with good friends.
—*Madison Michele
*
I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve always wished that for ONCE Wile E. would catch the Road Runner. I’ve always felt a nagging dislike for the stupid bird who could run through paintings on rocks and can only say “Meep.”
White Wolf
“Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense.”
“Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them.”