Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943)

This cartoon, Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, has a unique place among the Warner "Censored 11" cartoons: This one is highly inventive and very entertaining! Oh, yeah, there's some unflattering stereotypes here like Prince Chawmin' having a couple of dice for front teeth and the Queen being an ugly Mammy character (who seems to speak with a male voice) so jealous of So White she intends to have her "blacked out" but otherwise, it's so full of the fast pace of gags typical of Bob Clampett that you can't help but laugh your behind off! And wait till you see Chawmin's face after constantly trying to bring So White back to life with his kisses! Or the Dopey-looking dwarf's energy that he gives when doing the same thing! There's also great use of jazz music that livens the short considerably. Perhaps the most interesting thing to point out here is that the storytelling Mammy in the beginning and end is Dorothy Dandridge's mom, Ruby, and So White is her older sister, Vivian. There's also a dated reference to killing Japs that I can excuse because of the wartime setting. So for all that, if you want to watch Warner Bros. cartoons at their wackiest as done by the highly creative Bob Clampett, I highly recommend Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, stereotypes and all!

I do not watch cartoons normally, but I genuinely enjoyed this. The music and rhymes are quite clever. Everything fits together to make an impressive production. The story is different enough from Snow White to avoid feeling like a rip-off. The racial stereotyping is extensive. It shocked me in a way but, in another way, I thought that it was not all that different from Dave Chapelle shows or gangsta rap films. I wondered to myself, "What if I did not know that the maker of this film was White or Black?" It is very strange how the stereotypes in this film are still used today by mainstream Black comedians and entertainers. However, the slogan of the Murder Inc. firm is definitely racist against the Japanese.

While Walt Disney and his collaborators include fine music coming from classical instruments and from inspired emotional feeling into the legendary Grimm Brothers tale, Warner Bros. turn Snow White into a black Betty Boop surrounded by jazz and blues improvised singers and a modern landscape (well, the '40s at the time).But that simply doesn't work. It's clear that WB doesn't care about making children cartoons. Or maybe they try to care, but they don't know how to do it the effective way. I can't stand from seeing a Black girlie moving her hips and her buttocks without stopping and the other people around her.The music is good, however. It's the mood of the '40s and the cartoon owns musical pieces which would make Ray Charles and Al Jolson proud of. But I don't think that this music owns its place here. It should be elsewhere. Maybe in a real musical story, like "The Jazz Singer"... The animation is also good, I have to say. The images are well drawn and the motion is perfectly executed.But the minor favorable elements are literally foreshadowed by the ridiculous, stupid and insupportable storyline and the images associated with it. I think that seeing this Black girl could have lead to more discrimination and moral harassment towards the American Black community. Maybe that was the goal. Maybe that racists made this movie. We might never know...

After reading through all of the other comments, my review won't be either eye opening or original. My aim is to pile on the accolades. Easily one of the greatest if not the greatest cartoon ever made as well as my personal favorite. The animation and the music are both fantastic. When I finally got a copy of "Coal Black" some years ago I watched it at least ten times in a row. It's that amazing. Yes, the racial caricatures are disturbing by todays "standards" and I wouldn't show it anywhere at anytime, but it does have its place. And it's place is in front of anyone who loves classic animation and can view it within the context of the times in which it was made. Director Bob Clampett loved the African American music he included. There isn't a single frame that had any intent what so ever of offending anyone. The problem here is that there's absolutely NO WAY to animate an African American cartoon character without coming across as racist. Just think about it. You couldn't draw a racist depiction of a white person if you tried. In fact, it's rather impossible. Even if you set out to do so and tell everyone that's your intention, it simply can't be done. So the fact remains that any cartoon drawing of an African American will always come across as a demeaning caricature. Ironically, it was black comedians themselves such as Steppin Fetchit (real name Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry!) who created the stereotypical black characters in the first place. They were meant to be FUNNY and not reflections of reality. Unfortunately though, stupid white Americans came to accept these comedic characters as what African Americans were really like. It's every bit as idiotic as thinking that all white Americans are actually like Elmer Fudd or Red Skelton's Clem Kaddiddlehopper! Too bad, because great cartoons such as "Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs" continue to be hidden from view and kept away from all but the most fanatic of animation fans who take the time to go out and hunt them down.