The main crow was voiced by a white man. They made a concerted effort to mimic a dialect that represented the stereotype of a Jim Crow-era black. Similarly the circus roustabouts are depicted as black men and referred to as apes and referred to us being slow and dumb.
MuddieMae
MuddieMae
Just because something was arguably progressive for its time doesn’t make it progressive in 2019.
It’s more than your white nonsense deserves.
Research online? I did my research on VHS, mate. And since I have eyes, ears, and a basic understanding of race relations in the US, I’m telling you, emphatically, that that is not a positive representation of black people.
Watching Dumbo back in the day as a black kid is DEFINITELY different than watching it and not being black. What some might not even pay attention to is talking about you and your relatives. AAAANNND being upset about it or calling it racist isn’t SJW histrionics. Not to drone on about it, but there is this looming…
Although Sunflower is also easier to cut out--he’s in... what, 30 seconds of footage? Back in the day when Fantasia was constantly chopped up they easily chopped out his scene, and of course since 1990 they’ve had him digitally removed. You can’t really do that with the crows (or worse, the “Indians” in Peter Pan)
Dumbo has always been a bit of an odd property for Disney. With the eventual success of their early “great five” first animated films through reissues, people forget that only Snow White and Dumbo made any profits—Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi losing money on their first releases (at least partly due to much of the…
I mean, I saw Dumbo as a kid on a VHS tape at my gramma’s house one summer. I distinctly remember feeling like the crows were making fun of black people (and therefore, making fun of me). I think you underestimate its impact.
You jest, but HBC is a phenomenal actress, and the Burtonization of her career torpedoed some oportunities - that and her famously scathing remarks about Woody Allen -(though she is likely laughing all the way to the bank). She was robbed of an Oscar IMO for Wings of the Dove, and as Oscar baity as Kings Speech, Howar…
Dumbo came out in 1941 so unless WWII happened at a different time in your world those cartoons were out at the same time. They don’t re-release Disney’s propaganda cartoons anymore either which would have been from the same time. The film is historically racist — was the use of racist stereotypes consistent with the…
The lead crow is actually named Jim Crow. And the dances and poses in their musical number are all directly related to dances and poses with origins in minstrelsy and Harlem jazz clubs.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the lead crow was voiced by Cliff Edwards. So, yes, there’s a real Amos & Andy feel to that crow.
ETA: Also, just because something doesn’t have white voice actors voicing black characters, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not racist. “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarves” probably had…
“Any animated film without racist crows is probably better”
“When I tried to show Dumbo to two children, they became bored easily, asked awkward questions about when Dumbo was drunk”
They are not racially offensive while actually being positive characters.
I watched Edward Scissorhands pretty recently and that weird suburban world with a castle at the edge of the development is still pretty great and not all that grounded in reality.
...So you know that Dumbo is super popular with kids today, but you had to google why I might consider it pretty racist? The main crow’s name is literally Jim Crow.
I genuinely think that this one in particular exists so that kids are well-verse in Dumbo. The cartoon isn’t go to family entertainment anymore — it’s short, it’s pretty racist, bullying plays a huge role in the plot, and the plot is pretty thin. Yet (much like Song of the South), Dumbo is a huge center piece at…