Pastoral Symphony? More like Revisionist History

We finally get to move to to the Pastoral Symphony! Here we get to travel to ancient Greece, meet mythical animals, scramble to avoid Zeus' bolts, and maybe even get drunk with Bacchus.  However,  the most important part of this segment, in terms of racism, is in those segments that feature the Centaurs.

Now I think that the best place to start here is with a discussion of the Centaur character known as Sunflower.  Sunflower was a young female centaur that was depicted as a servant to the older centaurs.  She  tended to their appearances.  Below is a compilation of all of the scenes that she appears in.

 

Sunflower, is clearly meant to be a black centaur.  She is subserviant to the other centaurs who vary in colour from yellow to pink to blue.  I think that it is very obvious that by depicting Sunflower as they did in the role that they put her in, Disney was perpetuating racial stereotypes.

Sunflower-Fantasia 1940

I am not trying to defend Disney in any way for their decision here, however I think that it is important to remember that the numerous social movements that pushed forward African American rights in the United States had not yet taken place and would not take place in ways that would gain any traction for another 20 years.  The 1960s was the period where African American rights, equality, and integration were ideas that came to the forefront of social consciousness.  

Sunflower-Fantasia 1940

Sunflower is not the only young black centaur though.  There is another, referred to as Otika who appears in only one scene.  She is shown rolling out the red carpet for Bacchus. 

Otika-Fantasia 1940

Interestingly enough, if you were to purchase this film today, you would not see either one of these girls.  Both were removed from the film for its re-release in 1969.  It was felt that they were objectionable because of the racism perpetuated in them and furthermore, it was felt that keeping them in would promote racial controversy.  Wikipedia marks the African American Civil Rights Movement as lasting from 1955-1968.  However, I would argue that while this was a period of rampant growth and support for the movement, the movement itself started much earlier and lasted much longer.  I would even argue that the movement is still in existence today.  However, there is not time or space enough to prove that here, and frankly it is not essential to the discussion. 

Sunflower-Fantasia 1940

During the period of 1955-1968 there were several major events that contributed to the Civil Rights Movement.  These include:
1) 1954 - Brown v.Board of Education.  This determined that separate but unequal schools for black and white children were inherently unequal. 
2) 1955-1956 -  Rosa Parks Bus Boycott.  In this instance, though pre-planned, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. 
3) 1957 - The desegregation of Little Rock Central Highschool
4) 1961 - Freedom Rides.  Black and white people traveled by bus across state lines in non-violent protests.

Certainly these event and the growth of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s contributed to Disney's decision to remove these two characters from the film.  The fact that Disney chose to remove these characters from the film and their reasons for doing so leave little to the discussion of whether or not racism was present in these segments.  Clearly it is, clearly it was recognized, and Disney chose to deal with it by removing the characters from the film all together.

What is interesting here is Disney's decision to completely remove the characters from the film in re-releases.  In older films where there is smoking, with the exception of the re-release of Saludos Amigos (where cigarettes and cigars were removed), Disney places a disclaimer about the dangers of smoking at the beginning of the film.

I think that likely, they were embarrassed about the  racism that had been so blatantly perpetuated by their films that instead of really addressing or apologizing for the mistakes they just took it out, modified history, and pretended that their mistakes never happened.  Indeed, Disney has done this several times throughout the years, perhaps most notably with the company's apparent denial that the film Song of the South even exists.  An incredible feat considering that one of the major attractions throughout the Disney Parks is "Splash Mountain" which is based on the animated characters of Song of the South. 

While I am glad that Disney did something to deal with the apparent racism in this segment, I think that a better and more positive approach would have been to do like Warner Bros. did when they released the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection".  The "Looney Tunes Golden Collection" was a series of six four disc DVD box sets of Looney Toons and Merrie Melodies cartoons.  Their release began after the apparent success of the "Walt Disney Treasures" series.  Releases ran from October 2003-October 2008.

In the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection" the following disclaimer was placed:

"The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time.  They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society.  These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today.  While the following does not represent the Warner Bros. view of today's society, these cartoons are being represented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed."

Warner Bros. decision to depict the cartoons as they were originally created ensures that they are not portraying a false history of their company.  It shows responsibility, acknowledgement, and a commitment to the brand.  It is, one might say, an adult way to deal with past decisions of the company.  Indeed, in comparison to Disney's sweep it under the rug and pretend that it never happened approach, the Disney approach seems quite immature. 

Swimming Fish or Sexy Arabian Dancers?

What can I say, long time no posts.  Needless to say the past several months have kept me incredibly busy.  Finals, a taxing yet rewarding job, returning to university, and starting a new and exciting job in the world of libraries and archives has left me little free time.  As an avid podcast listener, I used to look down in disdain after refreshing a podcast that had not updated in weeks or even months.  Here I have become the very person that I disdain.  Nevertheless I hope that you all will forgive me, as I have forgiven those who have slacked off on producing content.

It is going to be a little difficult for me to jump right back into Fantasia when I have so many other places that my mind wants to take me, but I will do my best to stick to my arbitrary, though chronological schedule.

Had I just been going off of memory here I would have thought that we would finally get to move on to the Pastoral Symphony, but a quick Wikipedia search of the program has informed me that the scene with the dancing fish is set to the "Arabian Dance" movement of Tchaikovsky's  Nutcracker Suite.  This means that we can't move on quite yet.  This clip takes place right after the dancing mushrooms and right before the dancing thistles and flowers, so I apologize for breaking chronology here.  Take a look at the clip below. 

I will be the first to admit that I do not know my Middle Eastern history as well as perhaps I should.  My focus has always been, throughout my University career, on North American settlement, so forgive me if my historical references are a little scant.

Concept art - note that the character is called "Ballerina Goldfish"

I think that the best place to start here is to establish a location.  While today we think of Arabia as almost a mythical place, the Arabian Peninsula is in fact a real place.  It is a peninsula of Western Asia, located North East of Africa.

Arabian Peninsula

Historically there are two points that this region is remembered for.  Firstly it became the cradle of Islam in the 7th century.  During the mid 20th century, vast oil deposits brought the region back into the hot seat.  Though we cannot for certain say what time period Disney intended the Arabian Dance scene to take place, I think that we can safely say that these two historical points are not of great significance to our discussion.  Thus, we shall press on.

Although I did not even think about it until I found out what this segment was titled, it not seems incredible obvious that the fish are meant to portray the sensual hip swaying and bodily movements of Belly Dancing.  Belly Dancing itself is a western bastardization of more traditional folk dances of the region commonly known as Rags Sharqi.  These dances are identified as solo improvised dances based on torso articulation.  While the age and evolution of Belly Dancing are uncertain, it is certain that it is rooted in this region.

If we look at this segment from the ballet, we will see that it is not the "tantric" movements associated with Belly Dancing, but rather much more controlled movements.  Indeed is seems more like Tai Chi.  

This interpretation makes sense with the slow, pensive quality of the composition, however, Disney's interpretation leads to something much more sensual in nature, at least if you happen to be a fish.  If you have not watched the clip, go back to the beginning of this post and watch it.

Fantasia 1940

Fantasia 1940

Notice how the fish are kept in shadow for the first half of the segment.  This adds a sense of mystery to them and makes the viewer anticipate their emergence.

Fantasia 1940

The fish move in a seductive and tempting manner, their tails imitating the movements of a Belly Dancers hips, and body.  We can also interpret their tails which are mostly translucent in nature, as veils and scarves not unlike those used in Belly Dancing that we are familiar with, as in the below video.

This excerpt of Fantasia portrays the foreign women who are being represented by the fish as seductive, temptresses.  One even wonders if they are meant to be sexually deviant.  Certainly these women bore their bodies, and moved their bodies in ways that were not at all characteristic of how American women in the 1930s and would have presented themselves.  This adds an air of mystery and seduction to this scene that once may not pick up on the first several times you watch it.  I certainly did not.

I am sure that I could find other things to say about this segment but frankly, I do not feel that I have the authority to delve into it further.  If you have any ideas or comments I would love to hear them so leave them in the comments below.