Sick Product of a Sick System

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

. . . much more so than those animated propaganda shorts in the "Private SNAFU" series churned out by Convicted Expense Account Chiseler Leon Schlesinger, who probably lengthened the conflict by months if not years with his rip-offs from the U.S. Taxpayers' War Bonds Program and the Army's Munitions Budget. COAL BLACK AND DE SEBBEN DWARFS is carefully crafted to turn the Aryan Blueprint for Hitler's Genocide by the German Brothers Grimm on its head by incorporating the All-American Essence of Harlem AGAINST Adolph's White Supremacists. This brilliant counter-attack to combat the ranting and raving Fuhrer naturally rubbed Ted Turner and his then-spouse "Hanoi Jane" Fonda the wrong way, since they want America to lose ALL of its wars. Therefore, on the fatal night when these Tondas got soused on their veranda with six pitchers of mint juleps and red-lined a random grouping of the 1,000-plus Looney Tunes to become the infamous "Censored Eleven," they included this masterwork which more than offset the damage done by Looney Tunes Fifth Columnist Schlesinger by inspiring guys such as Brad Pitt's FURY tank commander to take down Hitler's so-called Third Reich.

"Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs" is basically Warner Bros' version of Snow White in the hood, very loosely based on the successful Disney movie from 6 years earlier. And even if I did not really enjoy these 7 minutes here, I believe that people who call everything racist only because there are black animated characters in here need to get a clue. It's absolutely not offensive by any means to people who emphasize equality. And if you do then stop complaining that there is actually also a black people version of Snow White here, because this is exactly what equality means. I only wish it would have been better. Clampett, Fister and Blanc of course have done many very funny cartoons, but this is not one of them. One reason to watch it is maybe to find all the historic/military/political references in here as this was done over 70 years during the days of World War II. But other than that, it is far far from Warner Bros' best. Thumbs down.

And you'll love every second. I could comment at length about the excellent and fast director provided by the directors and animators, or the sound pattern and music that never lets up and is determined to not let a second of silence infect the pictures, but really, the reason this makes such a great cartoon is probably because there's no way it will ever get a DVD release today. Imagine every stereotype the Greatest Generation ever engaged in, and now set it to the music that same generation bopped out to before getting on the boat to go over there. And here's the thing: we have to laugh at 'Coal Black...' We have to laugh at it because the energy of piece never lets up. It starts out fast with quick music and dialog and keeps a beat- the pictures move in concert with the various ebbs and flows of the music. It's poetry in animated motion. And it's funny. The stereotypes are so silly and unrealistic that what gets the suits nervous make us laugh. We've got your Welfare Queen, your Dark Chocolate hottie, your Swingin' Playa, and your seven soul brothers. And an offer to kill Japs for free! This could only be misconstrued by the most humorless critic as insulting. They would have to so buried in their opinions and others' opinions that they would be prevented from seeing the beat and rhythm inside the cartoon's 7 minutes. You can't take it seriously. You can't take away a world view from it. All you can do, is laugh.

This is a pretty good film technically,...but boy is the film likely to cause extremely high blood pressure or even heart attacks in modern audiences!!! And I DON'T recommend that the average person watch this, as the film is so racially offensive. In the 1940s, drawing characters of giant-lipped Black characters who spoke in Jive must have seemed very funny, but today it will most likely make many recoil in horror! However, I do recommend you see this film if you are interested in history or the progress we've made in race relations. As a history teacher, I see this as a wonderful film just as a teaching tool--to show us how far we've come. Plus, being a strong, strong advocate of free speech, I am loathe to encourage ANY film to be banned outright.The film is on at least a superficial level, a pretty funny and interesting piece--particularly the wonderful ending. Just be forewarned--it is an awful aspect of race relations that some want to forget ever existed. Of course, if you ignore or forget your past, you are opening up the possibility you won't learn from our mistakes.