Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943)

Directed by

Bob Clampett

Genre

parody, musical film, propaganda film

Country

United States

Runtime

7 min

Rating

5.4 of 10 from 59 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This is a parody cartoon from 1943 that retells Snow White with an all-black cast. It was made for humor at the time but is now considered highly offensive and has been banned from airing for decades.

playfulsatiricalfast-pacedmusicaldatedcartoonishpurposefully offensivearchaic

What happens

Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs is a 1943 Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. The short was released on January 16, 1943. The film is an all-black parody of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Snow White, known to audiences at the time from the popular 1937 Walt Disney animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The stylistic portrayal of the characters is an example of "darky" iconography, which was widely accepted in American society at the time. As such, it is one of the most controversial cartoons in the classic Warner Brothers library, being one of the Censored Eleven. The cartoon has been rarely seen on television since it was pulled from circulation in 1968 and has never been officially released on home video. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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