One of the most famous scenes in any animated film -- the "spaghetti kiss" between "Lady and the Tramp" (1955) almost didn't happen at all.
This was the first fully animated widescreen Cinemascope film, and Walt Disney didn't feel that the scene as described would work.
However the animator -- Frank Thomas, famous for his work on "Bambi" (1942) -- went ahead and animated it anyway. When Walt saw the actual animation it made all the difference, and the classic scene stayed in.
I will add that Leela the Siamese Snowshoe has never been pleased with the portrayal of Siamese cats in "Lady and the Tramp".
@lauren In her defense, it's *hella*-racist.
("It was a different *tiiiiiiime!*, says the overlay-apologetic Disney fan in me ;) )
@lauren This comes up in Star Trek circles often because fans who got onboard at Voyager, the 2009 movies, or Discovery go back and try to watch the original series and have visceral reactions to the misogyny baked into it.
And my response is... Good. That's a good response. The fact the show was considered "progressive" by the era's standards and makes you feel that way means it did its job. Because we knew society back then had a long ways to go and we know society now has a long ways to go.
My greatest hope for the next generations is they look on our entertainment with some confusion and revulsion. If we're doing our job right, the past should be a Goddamn foreign country for the people of tomorrow's sensibilities.
@mtomczak I am in general less sanguine about reactions today, especially now that they've become entwined with political battles over "wokeness" where (in my opinion) both the Left and Right are complicit in making matters worse.
I've had to argue with people who insist "The Jazz Singer" should never be viewed because of the blackface. Or some of the classic black films of early Hollywood. Of for that matter, breakthrough films by black filmmakers in what is now popularly called the "Blacksploitation" era.
And watch the confusion when you remind Trekkies about the the Klingon blackface in ST:TOS!
@mtomczak I will add this. Based on my knowledge of Gene back when I was working on the first Trek film -- and my own viewings of the franchise's various series of course (especially TOS) -- Gene certainly was trying (at least part of the time) to present positive morality plays of a sort. Of course some of it was based on silly assumptions about how marvelous the future would be. No need for elections (notice how often this isn't noticed by fans?), in TNG no money needed (huh?). Of course, after he was gone the franchise got much, much darker.
@lauren @mtomczak Song of the South was picketed for being racist on release. The racism was acceptable to white people right through into the 1970s, but nevertheless, the movie was seen as racist in the context of the time.
https://screencrush.com/song-of-the-south-racism/
For anyone interested, I recommend this podcast series that goes into the making of the movie and the reactions it got at the time:
@mathew @mtomczak My sense is that most observers have no familiarity at all with the history of the Uncle Remus stories, their author, and why he wrote them. I do find it telling that (as I mentioned above) a person directly related to one of the black actors in the film is actively pushing to have the film seen more widely again. We must have chatted an hour or more when she called me out of the blue.
@mtomczak And I'll add, Leni Riefenstahl's -- one of the most brilliant, talented, evil propagandists of all times -- films "Triumph of the Will" (1935) and "Olympia" (1938) are both absolute masterpieces, despite their horrific intents.
@mtomczak "It was a different time" is actually the absolutely correct serious response. Or as I say it, art can only be legitimately viewed in the context of where and when it was created.
So, for example, I am one of those persons who feels that Disney's suppression of "Song of the South" is unconscionable. It's an amazing three-strip Technicolor masterpiece, one of the first examples of mixed animation and live action, and -- in the context of why the original Uncle Remus books were written -- isn't even actually racist in the context of the time.
Here's an extra tidbit. When I wrote in Twitter very much like what I wrote above about the film, less than a year ago I think -- I got a call from a relative of one of the main black performers in the movie, who had been very proud of his relationship with Disney at the time. She was actively running a campaign to try get the film back in circulation, because she feels it's a wonderful film and a slight to her relative that his work has been suppressed. Fascinating, eh?