Terrific LTGC III Review at DVD Verdict [Archive]

J. B. Warner

12-12-2005, 11:39 AM

"Unfortunately," says Whoopi, brimming over with earnestness, "at that time racial and ethnic differences were caricatured in ways that may have embarrassed and even hurt people of color, women and ethnic groups. These jokes were wrong then and they're wrong today." Thank goodness more enlightened minds rule the roost today. Instead of "people of color" being presented as buffoons and idiots, we have actors who eschew stereotypical behavior, whose on-screen portrayals ooze with dignity, like Martin Lawrence, Will Smith, and Chris Tucker…um…wait…

The point is, right or wrong…what they are is funny. I remember being a kid getting ready for school in the morning, bombed out of my skull on sugary frosted cereal, snorting milk through my nose when Elmer's shotgun used to backfire and he'd look like Al Jolson or something. Then again, I was only a little shaver; I didn't know from political sensibilities and ethnic sensitivity. All I knew was funny; that, and that if you messed with Bugs Bunny, you were cruisin' for a bruisin'. But now I've got Whoopi telling me that I was supposed to have been embarrassed and hurt by that scene and others like it. Had I only known.

What would Bugs Bunny have to say about such cloying neo-sensitivity—the rabbit whose fame is based on puncturing such displays of earnest pompousness with decidedly insensitive vengeance? Would he suddenly appear on the screen, capering around the set to the tune of "Shuffle Off To Buffalo," plant a great big kiss on Whoopi's lips, and shove a stick of dynamite down her pants? Would he do a spot-on impression lampooning, say, Louis Farrakhan or—now this would be funny—Ted Danson in blackface, before squirting her in the face with a seltzer bottle and diving into a convenient rabbit hole? Although the sorely-needed dose of rabbit revenge was fun to fantasize about, it never materialized, reminding me with jarring force that the golden age of Looney Tunes has long passed us by—a product of their times, indeed. Whoopi's condescending extra very special foreword had me hoping for the best—would they dare to include such now-forbidden classics as "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs" or "All This and Rabbit Stew"? Alas, a perusal of the listing of featured shorts confirms my suspicion that our charity and tolerance towards our forefathers' foibles extends only so far: "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" and "Tin Pan Alley Cats" are nowhere to be found.

No, today's highly enlightened collective mentality dictates that such cartoons must remain pariahs, and we fans of classic cartoons—children that we are, unable to process such verboten humor—must accept the word of our betters, like Ted Turner, when they tell us that we are better off having never seen them at all. Certainly, if The Rabbit himself were running things, "Coal Black"—along with most of the rest of Warner Bros.' notorious "Censored 11"—would be readily available, in full and uncut, if for no other reason than simply for the furor they would cause among people with too much time on their hands and an overabundance of righteous indignation. There cannot be any question as to the outstanding quality of cartoons such as "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs"—even as acknowledged by the entire cast of black singers and musicians who had a hand in creating it—and it seems a shame that we have been denied even the opportunity to even experience this cartoon and others like it restored and digitally remastered; still, the Looney Tunes being what they are, even without those now-incendiary entries in the series, there's enough material here to make mental wrecks of activists of assorted types. These characters are vulgar, smoke like chimneys, drink like fish, and will pull a gun on you at the drop of a hat. Even in the golden era of animation, what other cartoons would show a tough little baby teething on the business end of a loaded gun as a gag?

Of course, therein lies the basis of their appeal. These characters (and their creators) display such a blatant disregard for authority, such a sneering contempt for the self-righteous, the pompous and the moronic, such a passion for the extreme and the bizarre, straining to burst beyond the limits of insanity and in some cases, even the limits of good taste, that they are representative of the very best qualities of the American spirit—or rather, the American spirit as it once was. Of course there was no way of knowing that the sort of self-important, humorless critter that Bugs and company delighted in torturing and lampooning would grow in number to become the dominant species—in a world where half of everything said by anyone is not only considered offensive to someone but actionable in court as well, and litigation has become the new national pastime, there is no place for the outlandish, outrageous and decidedly insensitive Bugs Bunny and friends. Which may explain why the best we can get from these characters nowadays are sickeningly sweet Tweety Bird T-shirts and these horrific Loonytics: Unleashed.

Whoopi Goldberg's annoying and jejune attempt to assure us that the folks at Warner Bros. aren't racists after all is really the only blight on this otherwise splendid offering of choice Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts and classic oddities; in fact, Whoopi's little foreword is even more of a mystery after consuming this smorgasbord of wackiness, since none of the shorts come anywhere near being offensive—except, of course, to po' white folks, but they don't have a special interest group, so who gives a damn? Perhaps they should have had Whoopi show up from time to time, pop-up video-style, to illustrate what should be considered socially unacceptable for the benefit of my small piggy brain. On the other hand, maybe this is some sort of timid "test the waters" thing—maybe the execs who decide these things are slowly managing to grow a pair, and maybe in some far future Golden Collection release, we'll be graced with those oh-so-delightfully insensitive and riotously un-PC classics. For now, we must content ourselves with this slate of outstanding animation—there is no adversity without comfort.

I couldn't have said it better myself.