Tuesday, July 6, 2010

... perhaps not the most enlightened...

Another George Pal cartoon, this one with a sort of self-referential frame.

It's a little hard to overlook the troubling aspects of the cannibal stuff at the end. At the same time, it's hard not to appreciate the craftsmanship on display. If you're going to enjoy it, you kind of have to create your own context.

2 comments:

susan said...

The Jim Dandy musical number was great but I agree with you about the portrayal of the natives on the faraway island. We have a tendency to think things were better just because were in earlier times but that's not necessarily true.

Ben said...

That "just because" is important, I think. Nostalgia is justified in some respects. There are aspects of the physical and social world that have just disappeared in the last 50 years, as no one paid attention. Then again, the superiority of white males used to be a given. So there's a balance of things lost and gained.