1941 film shows striking animators brandishing a working guillotine at the Disney studio gates

[doctorow]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/26/radical-art.html

…

[Brainspore]

@doctorow

Chuck Jones led Warner animators came to join the picket line in solidarity, bringing with them a working guillotine

Huh, I would have guessed Chuck would be more of a “execute the dummy by dropping an anvil on his head” kinda guy.

[KathyPartdeux]

This incivility will lead to breaking of many strands of pearls.

[teknocholer]

@Brainspore

“execute the dummy by dropping an anvil on his head”

[MadLibrarian]

The guillotine didn’t cut completely through the dummy – probably an ACME brand guillotine.

[jerwin]

@doctorow

Archivist John Basmajian has preserved and digitized a film of the guillotine, along with many other Disney rarities.

Gifs and flash cannot preserve a film.

[Brainspore]

@MadLibrarian

ACME brand guillotine.

[hecep]

Cartoonists are so visual.

[gracchus]

@KathyPartdeux

This incivility will lead to breaking of many strands of pearls.

Obligatory.

Alternatives for guillotines

As useful as it has been as a sort of shorthand, I do think it’s time to look for other things we can use, if only to keep things interesting. So here’s my (admittedly weak) contributions to get the ball rolling. Misers Gotta love Daniel Dancer for being such a weird little miser. Well, maybe not love, because a guy like this would not be a nice person to be around, but he did provide a template for misers: [Daniel_Dancer] Or this image from Hieronymus Bosch, of an unnamed miser: [Heronim…

[RickMycroft]

@doctorow

Chuck Jones

Mad props!

[teknocholer]

@gracchus

Obligatory.

Offered once again in all humility.

Alternatives for guillotines

First of all, I am adamantly opposed to the death penalty for any reason, and I suspect I’m in the majority here, so any ideas I may offer are about choosing a suitable metaphor. (It occurs to me that this discussion is more fraught in the US, given that the death penalty there is not just an archaic memory.) That said, I agree that the guillotine is an instrument of the state, and therefore a step removed from the expression of the will of the people. For that reason, I return to my preferenc…

[simonize]

@teknocholer

(It occurs to me that this discussion is more fraught in the US, given that the death penalty there is not just an archaic memory.)

Archaic? Star Wars was released before France stopped using the guillotine.

[teknocholer]

@simonize

Star Wars was released before France stopped using the guillotine.

Last used 1977. Let’s call it a draw. Abolished in 1981, 38 years ago. But who said anything about France?

The point was that since the death penalty still exists in the US, Americans who oppose it might be more sensitive to the use of an execution device as a symbol for the consequences of certain bad behavior by the super-rich. The thread linked to was about finding a suitable metaphor, not about actually killing people.

[anon15383236]

@teknocholer

The point was that since the death penalty still exists in the US, Americans who oppose it might be more sensitive to the use of an execution device as a symbol for the consequences of certain bad behavior by the super-rich.

Well, some Americans might be more sensitive to it. Others find it perfectly suitable symbolically. And even literally, considering that a lot of people typically die to produce a billionaire’s wealth.

The Coup - "The Guillotine"

[Mangochin]

As if my adoration of Chuck Jones could not be any greater!

[Patrick_Coleman]

I love that in the new “Imagineering Story” doc on Disney+, this all gets glossed as Walt being sick of animation because of a “labor dispute,” and so he went and set up WED to create Disneyland.

[Melizmatic]

[Mangochin]

Its a reason why Disney animation retreated from the constant rigors of producing cartoon shorts.

[jstnmbrwn]

If you want more history about Walt being a bastard man I highly recommend the new season of You Must Remember This. It’s called Six Degrees of Song of the South

Karina Longworth has pretty impeccable timing to drop this right at the launch of Disney+, I know that Cory loves Disney, but they have always been shitty.

[gracchus]

I’ll also recommend it, but while she’s honest about his flaws and limited perspective, Walt doesn’t come off as much of a villain in it.