Sign in or register
for additional privileges

Birth of An Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation

Nicholas Sammond, Author
Introduction, page 4 of 17
Previous page on path     Next page on path

 

You appear to be using an older verion of Internet Explorer. For the best experience please upgrade your IE version or switch to a another web browser.

Introduction, Page 6

Although blackface is usually thought of as a live performance tradition, it evokes in its tension between surface and interior—between makeup and the face underneath—a fantastic black persona analogous in some ways to the cartoon characters who dwell in the flatlands on the surface of the page, or cel, or at the boundary of the screen onto which they are projected. 

This liminality is the central gag in the nostalgic Disney short Get a Horse (2013), which depicts the boundary between the past and present as between 2-D and 3-D. During a hayride, Mickey and his pals encounter Peg-Leg Pete driving a car and shouting "Make way for the future!" The cartoon soon gestures towards its own 2-dimensionality when Mickey is thrown through the screen by Pete into "our" three-dimensional, color world. 

The rest of the cartoon builds on this gag, moving between the screen and stage, the 2-D of the 1920's style-cartoon and the 3-D richness of contemporary animation, as the characters gambol through the hole between the stage and the screen. Manipulating the screen by turning it upside down and twirling it they manipulate onscreen gravity, and the characters who live in the 3-D world exert much more control over the scene until they all return, except for Pete, to two dimensions.

And all of this is done to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw," also known as "Old Zip Coon," which Mickey first played with great gusto in the famous Disney short Steamboat Willie, in 1928.
Comment on this page
  • Local Discussion
    •
  • Popout
    •
 

Discussion of "Introduction, Page 6"

Add your voice to this discussion.

Checking your signed in status ...

Previous page on path Introduction, page 4 of 17 Next page on path
2010s    CGI    Walt Disney    Cartoons    Mickey Mouse    Moving Image    Minnie Mouse    Sound    Clarabelle Cow    Black and White    Horace Horsecollar    Color    Zip Coon    Three Dimensional

Related:  Labor, Page 122,  Conclusion, Page 298,  Race, Page 258,  Performance, Page 47,  Space, Page 152,  Race, Page 245,  Conclusion, Page 289,  Introduction, Page 2,  Conclusion, Page 300,  Performance, Page 74,  Space, Page 177,  Labor, Page 129,  Space, Page 178,  Space, Page 138,  Space, Page 184,  Race, Page 220,  Conclusion, Page 304,  Performance, Page 45,  Conclusion, Page 302,  Conclusion, Page 303,  Space, Page 182,  Race, Page 247,  Race, Page 230,  Space, Page 189,  Conclusion, Page 291,  Labor, Page 109,  Race, Page 204,  Performance, Page 54,  Race, Page 261,  Race, Page 251,  Performance, Page 35,  Race, Page 229,  Performance, Page 41,  Labor, Page 113,  Performance, Page 46,  Race, Page 239,  Race, Page 231,  Labor, Page 128,  Space, Page 194,  Space, Page 181,  Labor, Page 119,  Space, Page 188,  Space, Page 193,  Space, Page 172,  Performance, Page 70,  Space, Page 187,  Introduction, Page 30,  Conclusion, Page 284,  Race, Page 232,  Race, Page 224,  Labor, Page 110,  Race, Page 253,  Race, Page 206,  Space, Page 190,  Space, Page 170,  Introduction, Page 14,  Performance, Page 72,  Space, Page 197,  Space, Page 148,  Space, Page 146,  Race, Page 248,  Labor, Page 132,  Space, Page 143,  Performance, Page 50,  Conclusion, Page 296,  Performance, Page 82,  Race, Page 254,  Space, Page 165,  Space, Page 141,  Space, Page 155,  Conclusion, Page 286,  Race, Page 225,  Labor, Page 133,  Performance, Page 77,  Introduction, Page 29,  Space, Page 162,  Labor, Page 123,  Performance, Page 52,  Race, Page 213,  Performance, Page 34,  Labor, Page 101,  Performance, Page 43,  Space, Page 191,  Introduction, Page 16,  Performance, Page 84,  Race, Page 252,  Introduction, Page 4,  Introduction, Page 26,  Space, Page 175,  Conclusion, Page 290,  Labor, Page 98,  Race, Page 221,  Conclusion, Page 292,  Labor, Page 112,  Labor, Page 88,  Race, Page 235,  Introduction, Page 15,  Space, Page 150,  Introduction, Page 21,  Performance, Page 42,  Race, Page 219,  Performance, Page 60,  Performance, Page 44,  Labor, Page 102,  Conclusion, Page 278,  Labor, Page 131,  Introduction, Page 1,  Introduction, Page 23,  Space, Page 163,  Conclusion, Page 273,  Conclusion, Page 275,  Space, Page 183