Bobby Bickert
2023-01-21T22:19:43Z
In May 2022 Anna Mae Wong was the Star of the Month on Turner Classic Movies. On the first night that they showed her movies, they aired the documentary Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood], which showed how Asians have been depicted in a stereotypical manner by Hollywood, especially during WWII. It included clips from "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips", "Tokio Jokio" and "Tokyo Woes". So it was nice that cartoons were included. But they could have included so much more. From WB's own library there's "You're A Sap, Mr. Jap", "Scrap the Japs", "Seein' Red, White 'n' Blue" and "Japoteurs". (And there's a Season 2 episode of Scooby Doo Where Are You? in which Shaggy and Scooby disguise themselves as Chinese laundrymen.) From other studios there's "Charlie" in the 1960's TV Magoos, Ju Jitsu in the UPA Dick Tracy cartoons, and DePatie-Freleng's Japanese Beetle. I don't think using material from other studios would have been a problem because the documentary included one of the most glaring examples, Mickey Rooney's character in Breakfast at Tiffany's, which belongs to Paramount. ("In thirty seconds I going to call the porice!")
nickramer
2023-01-22T15:18:10Z
I've seen part of that doc, but I missed the animation part. I think they wanted to just showcase negative depictions on film and not on other mediums.
Bobby Bickert
2023-01-22T20:48:07Z
At least cartoons were included. A much shorter mini-documentary about blackface occasionally airs as filler between movies on Turner Classic Movies. No clips from cartoons in it, probably because it's so short. (Even though WB has plenty of material to choose from, from the MGM and WB cartoon libraries.)