“Compare to Disney” will screen Saturday at Madcap Theaters in Tempe. The program – a production of Oregon film scholar Dennis Nyback – features up to nine non-Disney cartoons from the 1930s and 1940s that offer a stark contrast to the famous studio’s wholesome style.
In the cartoons, Little Red Riding Hood is a sexy cabaret dancer, and Snow White is a buxom black maid from Harlem. They are just two examples of cartoons now deemed too racy or politically incorrect to appear on kids’ TV.
There is also a 1943 Disney short (“Der Fuehrer’s Face”) in which Donald Duck becomes a Nazi. Originally titled “Donald Duck In Nutzi Land,” the anti-Hitler propaganda movie for the American war effort won that year’s Academy Award for short-subject cartoons but was kept out of circulation by Disney until a 2004 video release.
Before reading the article, I thought your headline was telling me that animated movies were banned by theater hosts from Tempe, Arizona. (Turns out, the actual event was not so outrageous. 🙂
And if it’s not convenient for you to drop by Tempe on Saturday, you can watch the Donald Duck cartoon in HD on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iumEGAUceDg&hd=1
Apparently, the Spike Jones hit song “Der Fuehrerâ??s Face” was written for the cartoon but released first. After it became a hit, the cartoon was renamed.
That’s actually one of my favorite Donald Duck Cartoons LOL.