Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs

United States

1943

7 Min

Color

1.37:1

English

Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
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CAST Vivian Dandridge, Ruby Dandridge, Leo Watson, Mel Blanc

ANIM Rod Scribner, Robert McKimson, Tom McKimson, Art Babbitt

Synopsis

Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (working title: So White and de Sebben Dwarfs) is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Bob Clampett, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, and released to theatres on January 16, 1943 by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation.

The film is notable for being an all-black parody of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Snow-White, known to its audience from the popular 1937 Walt Disney animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The stylistic portrayal of the characters, however, is an example of classic politically incorrect darky iconography, which was widely accepted in white American society at the time. As such, it is one of the most controversial cartoons in the classic Warner Bros. library, has been rarely seen on television, and has never been officially released on home video. However, it is often named as one of the best cartoons ever made, in part for its African-American-inspired jazz and swing music, and is considered one of Clampett’s masterpieces. —wikipedia

Director

Robert Clampett

Clampett joined the Harman-Ising Studio in 1931, and in the early ‘30s began animating for the Warner Brothers’ “Loony Tunes” cartoons. He graduated to directing in the late 1930s, and until 1946 made some of the most hilarious and outrageous of the Warner cartoons: Porky In Wackyland, highlighted by some of Clampett’s most surreal humor; A Tale Of Two Kitties, which introduced Tweety Bird; A Corny Concerto, his Fantasia send-up; the race parody Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs; Russian Rhapsody, in which gremlins from the Kremlin sock it to Hitler; Draftee Daffy, with the little black duck trying to dodge the man from the draft board; Kitty Kornered, with Porky Pig bested by his pet cats; and The Big Snooze, a slapstick psychodrama with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, which marked Clampett’s final cartoon for Warners. After a brief stint at Screen Gems, Clampett turned to television and created the popular puppet show Time For Beany. In the late ’50s he animated his characters for the television… read more