Fascinating stuff; I'd heard of George Pal's Puppetoons before, but I'd never seen any, and now I know why! You have to keep in mind, though, when watching these in the present, that movie audiences in the 1930's and 40's didn't think that "darky" humor was offensive, or even anything out of the ordinary. Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, and a lot of other great cartoon directors indulged in it.
Yes, even kindly, grandfatherly old Chuck Jones... ever seen one of his "Inki" cartoons? Not likely. I don't think that anything like this ever came out of Max and Dave Fleischer's studio, though (I welcome correction if I'm wrong about that). Possibly, being Jewish, they were more sensitive to the issue of stereotyping. These George Pal films are anything but sensitive, though, they're more like
triple-distilled stereotyping! You've got your big-lipped picaninny kid, watermelons, tumble-down shack, Mammy, the whole nine yards— the word "subtle" definitely doesn't apply here!
I can only give them four out of five stars because the video quality is so bad that they're just barely watchable, but the historical value makes up for that.
