ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.04 - JULY 2000

Growing Pains
(continued from page 1)

Fans clamor over the pre-code Betty Boop cartoons like the ones found on Betty Boop: The Definitive Collection Volume 2.

The Motion Picture Production Code as enforced by Will H. Hays during the late 1920s was a fairly flexible document asking the studios to practice judicious self-censorship. The public and the studios, however, differed in opinion and by 1934 groups such as the National Legion of Decency declared the Code to be far too loose. Rather than battle a national alliance of religious groups Hays established the Production Code Administration (PCA) and placed a devout Catholic named Joseph Breen at its helm. Miss Boop was soon a respectable working girl with a puppy, a boyfriend and a dear old Grampy -- all for the worse. By the time Betty left us for good in 1939, Disney was the uncontested scion of animation and his homogenized cartoons were setting the industry standard. Even had Disney's rivals chosen another path, who wanted to put a studio on the line to fight the PCA, especially when cartoons were mere fillers on theater programs?

Adult animation (meaning animation containing adult content such as sex, or simply animation that is written for adult sensibilities) did not disappear. Audiences in the 1930s rollicked to prurient "stags" such as Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure, in which the hero mates with a woman, has a go at a donkey and later meets up with a crab who proves far less pleasurable. Many Warner Bros. shorts from the war years through the mid-Fifties were themed for adult audiences, but even the studio's best directors did little more than tweak the censors or hint at more mature themes. Chuck Jones seemed more interested in clever cinematic conventions, and Bob Clampett's raucous distortions could at times be more unsettling than sexy. Tex Avery at MGM ably depicted lust in the form of a horny wolf and a bombshell chanteuse but this was more parody than passion.

So it went. In 1955 Billy Wilder gave us the comically erotic tension of The Seven Year Itch.This film (featuring the iconic image of Marilyn Monroe straddling a subway grate) also carried darker sub-themes concerning infidelity, fantasies and sexual manipulation. That same year Walt Disney gave us Lady and the Tramp,which featured two dogs kissing over a strand of spaghetti. The latter is a very fine feature, but these contrasting attitudes signified where animation stood in relation to live-action features, and how prepared our culture was to accept adult themes in a cartoon medium. It appears, then, that animation has suffered under several burdens: due to their stylized origin, their entrapment in comedy, Disneyfication, vulnerability to censorship, and low status relative to live-action cinema, it is obvious that cultural perception regarding animation had to change before adult themes could be viably incorporated. Given the difficulties involved, it was predictable that the transition would not be a smooth one. The following signposts serve to illustrate these ups and downs:

Case Study #1: Fritz the Cat (1972)
When Ralph Bakshi and Steve Krantz teamed up to bring Robert Crumb's salacious feline to the big screen notice was served that animation was invading new turf. Fritzhad considerable problems even finding a distributor due to its "X" rating. Interspecies sex abounded, but so did clever social satire of both the prevailing establishment and the counterculture. Robert Crumb disowned the film and stopped drawing the character after the film appeared, but Bakshi won at least a split decision with the critics. Bakshi's film was, ultimately, no more than a snapshot of an animator groping towards maturity; Fritzwas neither graphic, nor especially pornographic, and if released today would earn no more than an "R" rating. All the same, Fritz The Catwas a groundbreaking feature. The foot (or paw) was in the door and the public had its first look at an "adult" animated feature.

Jessica Rabbit heightened the hormone levels of many moviegoers not used to such curvaceous cartoon characters. Courtesy of Disney. © Touchstone Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, Inc.

Case Study #2: Dirty Duck (1974)
Uncensored, unrated and largely unseen, Charles Swenson's feature about the sexual misadventures of an insurance salesman and his horny duck buddy was a poorly animated, critically reviled film that failed to build on Bakshi's modest success. If anything, the film (which eventually bored even Swenson) represented the difficulties in taking adult animation to the next step. So far, adult themes and sexual situations were being portrayed through the actions of "funny animals," trivializing these themes and removing them from adult reality.

Case Study #3: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
This energetic, cockeyed melange of film noirand classic animation was a significant turning point in the history of adult animation for several reasons. To begin with, most of the animated actors were familiar to the audience and tended to stay in character, recalling well-loved memories and setting the table for the introduction of a more mature plot. The three new characters, Baby Herman, Roger Rabbit and wife Jessica, combined cartoonish features with adult sensibilities, creating a transition for the acceptance of more humanized creations (Baby Herman and Jessica Rabbit were, in fact, recognizably human). The transition was further aided by the inclusion of live actors; it was evident early in the film that the 'toons could credibly hold their own on screen with people, paving the way for acceptance of animated figures in adult situations. Sexuality, in keeping with the conventions of noir,simmered under the surface but was strongly represented in the figure of Jessica Rabbit (and in several scenes, Baby Herman). This film was a subtle turning point for adult animation.
1 | 2 | 3

Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.