So White NEVER Looked So Good!
"Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarfs" is one of the most charming cartoon ever made.
The story of the fairest of them all directed by the wildest and craziest of them all : the inimitable Bob Clampett.
Marvellous animation, great gags, a fast and furryous plot, these are the ingredients for perfection, reached by "The Man from Wackyland" in this animated short.
The voice cast includes Vivian Dandridge as So White, Leo "Zoot" L. Watson (a drummer and vocalist who was a member of the famed 1930s trio "The Spirits Of Rhythmas") as Prince Chawmin', the well known Lillian Randolph (a familiar name for any serious animation fans for being, among the many things, the voice of Tom and Jerry's own Mammy Two-Shoes as well as the Disney incarnations of the black mammy) as the storyteller and the great Danny Webb as the Queen.
Music includes a favorite of mine: "Blues in the Night" plus "The Five O'Clock Whistle" with new lyrics (sung while So White is cooking).
However, due to the all-black cast (Gosh! Even the disgusted worm is a black caricature!) and assorted stereotypes about blacks (dices and similia), this masterpiece was never officially made available on home video, and it is rarely shown on tv.
It was a long search, but at last I've found the perfect copy of this milestone in animation: at the time being, there are no better copies available.
Have a look at these screenshots and let's see what you think about them!
Look how terrific are the facial expressions of the prince!
They were difficult to appreciate in the crappy copies that we was forced to see for years!
Proudly Delivered
by
Duck Dodgers
posted by Duck Dodgers at 5:00 pm
25 Comments:
If no one wants to release this in dvd, someone should make a high resolution video of it and release on the internet.
9:12 pm
That would be illegal, my friend!
9:17 pm
Excellent screen caps, Andrea. Looking through them, I'm amazed at how much was lost to us in viewing the darker version. It's a real delight to see some of the things in the foreground and background, and to be actually able to read what's written on them. Thanks for sharing this with us. Grazie!
9:51 pm
The screenshots look exactly like the transfer the Animation Archive has - even down to the overexposed flaws in their transfer and the framing.
I'd like to see screenshots of JUNGLE JITTERS and ALL THAT AND RABBIT STEW in high quality. It seems all of the versions on video stem from the same PD prints that are either quite red or green. I tried doing some color correction in Final Cut Pro with these versions, and the results were a major improvement, but they still don't compare with the excellent transfers I have of the other 9 "Censored 11" (some of which I made corrections to myself, including fixing the ending of HITTIN' THE TRAIL which has botched sound and picture at the end from the archival element Turner made a transfer of in the 80's) and other rare uncensored cartoons from Laserdisc.
Let us see JUNGLE JITTERS and ALL THAT AND RABBIT STEW! :-)
10:21 pm
Chuckie,
like you, I do not have perfect copies of these two cartoons, but good copies of them.
Nothing near to the beautiful copies of the other "Censored Nine" that I own.
10:32 am
Duck Dodgers or Chuckie, any chance uploading the censored 11, say onto dailymotion or youtube?
2:56 pm
Actually, the voice of Queenie was performed by Ruby Dandridge, Vivian's (and her more famous sister Dorothy's) mother, who, like Lillian Randolph played a number of "Mammy" roles in the movies and on radio (and both women were occasinally featured on both the radio and tv versions of "The Amos 'n' Andy Show", Miss Randolph portraying the imfamous 'Madam Queen", and Ruby as various "battle axe"-type roles.
8:47 pm
cartoonjoe,
I've heard from Keith Scott and Jerry Beck that Danny Webb was the voice of Queenie.
9:56 pm
Duck dodgers...
Danny Webb? Okay, I guess that would explain the frog-like voice that Queenie uses for most of the lines, but the sweet feminie lines---("Hello, Murder Incorpulated-") I belive WAS Ruby Dandridge (and re-listening to the opening with the "Mammy" character, you are right that that is Lillian Randolph!)
7:25 pm
Hhmmm,narthax...I don't remember them words to be written anywhere in the cartoon....you probably mean "Candied Apples".
5:31 pm
Coal Black is HOT!!!
4:48 pm
Hmmm…are you sure that those stills are from an authentic & original version and NOT painted over? For instance in the version that I own So White wears a bluish half-slip under her skirt that is very conspicuous in the intro laundry scene and the scene where she dances with the prince, but in the stills you posted it mysteriously disappears. I think the version you posted earlier looks better and more authentic in my opinion. But there is one version in circulation on the internet that is DEFINITELY phony and painted over (So White’s skin looks nearly orange). Here’s a still from that version if anyone wants to see for themselves:
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/
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NxCKQZfCoKUYoRk-1nsfr6MFnoW1JfVsAqsWk
JzaXVBhxxgnawqBADlSGTVUux3cKtq0T41tQ/
cb01.jpg
6:29 am
Who's idea was it to make So White a hillbilly chick? I thought this was supposed to be a jazz cartoon, not a country cartoon. And when she flirted herself out of trouble? That was sooooooo Daisy Duke. Yee-haw!
9:11 pm
So White's hot. She looks half black half Asian...that's hot. I just wanna pinch those cute chipmunk cheeks of hers.
11:20 pm
Whoa. WB's black women are always so gorgeous especially Goldilocks and So White. Do you think the character designers drew based their looks on Caribbean girls?
2:37 pm
I agree. So White is quite hot!
Is this cartoon not out of copyright?
It's been 63 years (1943, right?) and unless Warner renewed this one--not likely--it should be legal to put up an MPEG.
I'd do it--I have the bandwidth--if I could get a copy and we can verify it's PD.
6:28 am
Cool! Great screencaps! I'd be willing to see anything released online at this poimt. I'd truly like to see a censored classic, so you, Mr. Dodgers, are now one of my biggest cartoon heroes!!
BJ
11:26 am
Chickie,
now I do have a terrific copy of "jungle Jitters", but I still miss a terrific one of "All This".
8:22 am
Booo.
What a terrible racist cartoon.
1:53 am
I have to agree with the above guy. This is an awful, unwatchable cartoon from one of the most overrated directors ever.
8:47 am
Awhile ago I ordered, via an online site, Disney's "Song of the South"
(an import release; officialsongofthesouth.com). For some reason, "Coal Black" was added even though it was WB not Disney. I had seen Coal Black
before once on someone's home-made
"Banned or controversial cartoons"
videotape (along with Bugs Bunny
outwitting a Stepin Fetchit-like
character).
5:06 pm
i do not believe this cartoon to be racist or from what ive read about songs of the south. or any others so far. i believe, just by reading the plots and so, that they were films of their time. Never meant to be racist, just a portrayal of life, then and in all honesty, today. anyone who thinks them to racist, really needs to think about life back in the 40's. so, they say that songs of the south was way too chipper, well maybe thats how life was lived after the fact. maybe they derived it from persons that lived in their own happy world. the so called hillbillies did.. why couldnt the black folk. i see no difference in it.. should you? step aside, take a look, and think about it. maybe you will see it too. living in the south, in small towns, where you unintentionally still have segragation.. because in all honesty, we segregate ourselves in the south, you can see life now as it was then. ask any small town southern person. travel and see for yourself. especially heavily wooded areas. anywho.. thats my rant. enjoy!
1:12 am
Thanks for putting up these screencaps. The color quality is amazing compared to my Nth generation VHS copy. I'd love a restored digital version to study; it's too bad WB probably will not do so in the foreseeable future.
2:15 pm
This cartoon is in the P.D. A poor quality version can be downloaded from archive.org and has been available for years.
TORRENT THIS ONE ALREADY!!
3:04 pm
we watched this in my history class, i dont see why people would want this as a dvd other than educational purposes. why would anyone cheer this on?
11:55 pm
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