Ain't I A Stinker?

My girlfriend and I have been watching a lot of Looney Tunes together lately, and any kind of heavy exposure to the classic Warner Bros. cartoons is guaranteed to get my artistic gears turning. I drew a couple of quick Bugs Bunny sketches last night while reveling in my Golden Collections.

The Looney Tunes may not be in great shape right now, but at least we have a bunch of them on DVD. And that's definitely something to be grateful for - my girlfriend's friend's daughter is nearly two, and everyone agrees that I should bring over the Golden Collections for her to watch. The more kids get exposed to the classics, the better!

My Top 10 Favorite 'Toon Girls - #9 So White

Some of you might not even be familiar with this character, but she's an extremely significant contributor to the history of animation. Bob Clampett's 1943 Merrie Melodie "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs" is alternately considered one of the cleverest and funniest Warner Bros. cartoons ever made and one of the most racially insensitive Warner Bros. cartoons ever made, but if you step back and take a look at it, it's actually kind of progressive - after all, it's one of the few films made during World War II to show African-American characters actively participating in the war effort. So White herself actually acts as the cook for the Sebben Dwarfs' army camp, while the Dwarfs themselves are able soldiers who blast the heck out of the wicked Queenie. I like So 'cause she's a dreamer, but she has a few characteristics that the original Snow White didn't have - a spunkier personality and a hep singing voice supplied by Vivian Dandridge. And out of all the characters in the film, So's character design is the one that's the least stereotypical. You can't deny that the film is politically incorrect, but you also can't deny that So White is easy on the eyes - by any standards.