Mickey's Mellerdrammer
| Mickey's Mellerdrammer | |
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| Directed by | Wilfred Jackson |
| Produced by | Joseph Schenck |
| Starring | Pinto Colvig Walt Disney Marcellite Garner |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | 18 March 1933 USA |
| Running time | 8 Minutes |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
Mickey's Mellerdrammer is a United Artists film released in 1933. The title is a corruption of "melodrama", thought to harken back to the earliest minstrel shows, as a film short based on a production of Uncle Tom's Cabin by the Disney characters.
In Mickey's Mellerdrammer Mickey Mouse and friends stage their own production of Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.
During the 19th century Uncle Tom's Cabin was a best selling novel, but most Americans became familiar with the story through stage plays or musicals known as Tom Shows. Mickey's Mellerdrammer is an early 20th century animated version of the 19th century Tom Shows.
Mickey Mouse, of course, was already black, but the advertising poster[1] for the film shows Mickey dressed in blackface with exaggerated, orange lips; bushy, white sidewhiskers made out of cotton; and his now trademark white gloves.
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[edit] Plot
In Mickey's Mellerdrammer Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy (known then as Dippy Dawg), and the rest of the gang present their own low budget light hearted rendition of the 19th century Tom Shows for a crowd in a barn converted into a theater for the occasion.
Horace Horsecollar plays the white slave owner Simon Legree, whip and all. Minnie plays the young white girl Eva. Mickey plays old Uncle Tom with cotton around his ears and chin, and the young slave girl Topsy. Clarabelle Cow plays the slave woman Eliza. Goofy plays the production stage hand.
The cartoon opens with Mickey and Clarabelle Cow in their dressing rooms applying blackface makeup for their roles.
The cartoon is much more focused on the Disney characters' efforts to put on the play, than an animated version of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The cartoon contains many images of Mickey and his gang using makeshift props, as light hearted sight gags.
The cartoon closes with the characters coming out for a bow, and Horace Horsecollar's character is pelted with rotten tomatoes. When Goofy shows his face from behind the stage, he is hit with what appears to be a chocolate pie, leaving him in what appears to be blackface.
[edit] Controversy
Over the years many scholars, film critics, parents, and the socially conscious[who?] have been critical of Disney for the portrayal of non-whites, non-males in a negative image.[citation needed] Mickey's Mellerdrammer and its use of blackface was one of several Disney films to use ethnic and gender stereotypes. The gags displayed in the short were common in Hollywood films at the time the short was made. These gags do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the filmmakers. However, by today's standards, those types of gags are regarded as racist.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ "Mickey's Mellerdrammer by Movie Poster Art". Artprints.com. https://www.artprints.com/printzoom.asp?id=303129. Retrieved 2011-07-11.
- ^ "Three Little Pigs (film)", Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
