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September 1995, Week 4

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Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 27 Sep 1995 11:23:19 EDT
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Bet MacArthur writes:
>
>
> Please e-mail us about any recollections or sightings, in any Disney
> *_animated_ short or full-length feature,* of what you consider disability,
> disfigurement, or other (non-racial, non-gender) physical difference. Eg,
> the 7 Dwarfs of Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan's Capt Hook, etc.
> We hope we have overlooked no examples as we prepare a Disney chapter
> for the forthcoming anthology, "Making Differences," which surveys pop
> images of disability in an entertaining, non-academic fashion.
> Call for writers -- BTW, if you know a writer who might be interested in
> the Disney chapter, please encourage hi/r to contact us. At this point, the
> assignment is still open.
>
>
> Bet MacArthur, Director of Film Projects
> Arts Analysis Institute, PO Box 390-372
> Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 USA
> In Mass: (617) 455 6189
> In Los Angeles: (310) 313 5059
>
> ----
 
>
Dear Bet,
 
Why limit yourself to Disney, when American animation is chock-full of
characters who are "challenged" in many ways? Speech impediments are
common (Porky Pig's stutter, Sylvester's lisp, etc.). At Fleischer
Studios, Popeye was visually-impaired, Olive was anorexic, Bluto
had aggression control problems, Alice the Goon was misshapen and
Wimpy exhibited binge eating patterns common to bulemics. In the feature
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, Gulliver suffered from gigantism, while the
Lilliputians were ...lilliputian, as were Walter Lantz's Dinky
Doodle, Tweety Bird at Warners, and a host of other, one-off characters. Tex
Avery's Screwball Squirrel suffered from dementia and post-nasal drip.
The Roadrunner and Coyote were obsessive-compulsives. One might reasonably
argue that conventional notions of "disability" are central to American
animation, and not especially particular to Disney at all.
 
 
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Langer
 
Email address: [log in to unmask]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
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