eastofthemoon

Yeah...the older Disney films can have some odd stuff but this was probably the oddest.

Granted, some can argue the Heffalumps and Wozzles bit was weird too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLnADKgurvc&feature=related

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I never understood as a kid that pink elephants are a reference to being really drunk, so this part in the movie was always a bit much. This and the Heffalumps and Woozles sequence from Disney's version of Winnie the Pooh were always a bit freaky but somehow still interesting to watch...and now I actually like singing them. Go figure.

Oh, the things that used to be okay in movies!

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I had the same reaction to the Heffalumps and Woozles bit too, but as you said that was still more interesting to watch.

It's amazing when you watch older Disney movie how they'll have characters get drunk (like the snake in Robin Hood) when you would so not see that today in a G rated Disney film.

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It's actually a bit shocking to go back and see all of the references to drinking and smoking in the earlier movies. Just last night while watching 101 Dalmatians, I made sure to tell my nieces that both Roger and Cruella smoking was a bad thing. It's a time capsule to the past and what was considered a social norm though, and through my readings on Disney's early days, it was not at all uncommon for the animators to go drink after work as a way to relax.

Hmm... I'm sort of curious to look at their animated movies from the late 60s on to see if characters smoke, since smoking is what killed Walt Disney.

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Hmm...I don't think many characters smoke now, at least no "good" characters smoke. There might have been a couple of cigars by the villains. It's funny because you can tell in which era a movie was made just by looking at what they were allowed to put in back then.

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I liked Dumbo as a kid, but as an adult, it's kind of funny to see all the controversial issues surrounding this movie that I didn't realize were there. (In addition to a young character getting accidentally drunk, there are charges of racism in the opening sequence.)

I hated this song; it was too nonsensical and the animation was just bizarre. As a kid, I didn't understand that he was "drunk", so to me it just looked like he was having a horrible nightmare, which in turn, scared me.

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The crows have race tied to them as well. (Ever heard the expression, "Jim Crow"?) It is a bit odd this movie managed to squeak past censors, yet movies like Song of the South will never see the light of day in the U.S. because it features a 'slave' telling traditional folk stories from the U.S. slavery era.

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Seriously? I never realized that either.

I'm all for not marketing Song of the South to kids, but I really wish they would leave it on the market. In addition to the bits in Dumbo regarding labor and race, I think it's an important lesson to learn regarding the socially acceptable attitudes towards race our culture had when these movies were produced. *Steps up on soapbox* If we don't acknowledge our past how will we learn from it? *Steps down from soapbox*

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That's it exactly. I hate when we try to cover up our blunders in history. Slavery happened. Get over it! We need to address what it was, what it did, and how we got to where we are now. It especially bothers me because even now slave owners are depicted as ruthless overlords to black slaves, when in reality many slave owners treated their slaves very well, if not like family. I've even come across stories like a slave owner leaving a will to have their slaves passed on to someone else who would also take good care of them, requiring the slave families NOT to be split apart, or even to grant the slaves their freedom.

People were still human, but we are quick to forget that in demonizing those same people. Especially with things like Song of the South, Walt Disney worked closely with the actor they chose to play the black slave telling the stories to be accurate. This is black history we're dealing with, but it too gets shoved under the rug so modern day black Americans do not know their history. No wonder they're so frustrated!

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In my most recent history class, we spoke of how the Civil War is portrayed versus the real causes and motivations behind it. Speaking of dehumanizing others, the South is often portrayed as a dumb culture who is too stuck in their own ways to want to relinquish slavery while the North is portrayed as the progressive heroes. What's popularly believed is not what happened at all. Slavery was a side issue in the Civil War, behind economics and industrialization. One of the primary reasons the South was so adamant about keeping slaves was because they were afraid losing the labor would upset the economic balance behind their farming and trading systems - and it did for a while after the war which caused the area to experience a depression of their own.

I'm happy it turned out the way it did in the end, but keeping only bullet points on history without acknowledging the rest of it is dangerous. It's too easy to polarize the issue when this happens, which leads to misunderstanding.

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I think people prefer it when they can present the issues in black and white (no puns intended) instead of having to expose all of the grey areas. The slavery issue was a pretty big one though, that almost prevented the U.S. as a nation even becoming a reality. Even if it wasn't the main reason behind the Civil War, I am glad that Abraham Lincoln was willing to wage war within his own country to finally free slaves. Yeah, it is unfortunate it caused an economic depression in the South, but they really had been setting themselves up for failure in the long run.

Gee, just like how our current society set itself up for economic failure with all the reckless spending. Harsh realities crash down on us eventually!

And I am completely in agreement. We need to fully understand our history to make any sense of it. We cannot afford to continue idealizing some things while hiding others and hoping no one will notice. Acknowledge history, learn from it, then progress. We're just getting mired in completely unnecessary misunderstanding otherwise.

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Lincoln was a brave leader and I think he's one of the few that actually deserves the admiration he's gained through the results of his actions. You're right, the South had it coming because industrialization was the future and they should have adapted. Early adaptation might have prevented their post-war depression and would have made them rely less on slave labor, which in turn, might have caused them to be more agreeable to the idea of abolishing slavery in the beginning.

Reckless spending and consequences? I have an acquaintance who recently bought a Lexus and rolled it into his mortgage so he could afford it. Yeah, he's going to be paying about $15k in interest on a $30k loan, but at least he has a nice car! *sarcasm* People do stupid things. Maybe he'll learn his lesson in 20 years when he realizes he's still paying off his car loan. Talk about setting yourself up for failure...

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dqbunny.livejournal.com

I agree with both of you. We can't just pretend those parts of history never happened. When I was 15 or so, we were taught about the wonderful General Custer and how he was "horrendously" murdered at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Um ... no! Digging around, I learned that he was actually a very cruel man and the Native Americans were true victims, not the other way around. History, it seems, is written by those who want to cleanse the past.

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Just have to say I totally agree with you guys. If we don't learn from the past, how can we improve our future? Plus, people tend to forget that you can't classify a person as either good or evil like in stories. Normally, a real human has both good and bad traits.

In Canada, the first thing to come to mind is Louis Riel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Riel) Some viewed him as a hero, and some as a criminal. He's probably one of the biggest figures in history that Canadian historians will debate about.

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Age will do that to you. There's stuff you never noticed as a kid, but when you're adult you go..."What that means?..." I find the same thing will happen when I rewatch Animaniacs. There are so many adults jokes you just wouldn't get as a kid.

Yeah, and as

ichiban_victory there are also the crows to consider. You can just tell this was made in the 40s-50s because there is NO WAY they would do this stuff now. @_@

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He-lloooo nurse! X) I loved Animaniacs, but yeah, some of their jokes were a little innuendo-heavy. X)

I still remember the Wheel of Morality.

"Early to rise,
and early to bed,
makes a man wise,
but socially dead."

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dqbunny.livejournal.com

Speaking of Animaniacs, did you see the Nostalgia Critic's multi-part tribute to the series?

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Yes! I thought that was totally awesome. I can't believe he was able to get five of the people who worked on the show for his tribute. And the writers seemed more than happy to do it.

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LOL I had to put my paper aside and look it up.

"Can you conjugate?"

"I've never even kissed a girl."

"I'll conjugate with you."

"Goodnight, everybody."

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amelia-seyroon.livejournal.com

I didn't know what 'drunk' was back then, but as an adult...Dumbo totally did seem drunk enough to have that dream, didn't he? XD;

Tiny Toons. <333~~~

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