Fairy Tale Spotlight: Disney vs. Warner Brothers

This is a blog about the old cartoon shorts. Ever since I got a subscription to the Boomerang streaming service, I have become very thoughtful about the contrast between how Disney did short subject cartoons and how Warner Brothers did them. There are some fascinating differences of how anthropomorphic characters are presented to us between the two companies. Let's start with Disney.

I grew up with Disney cartoons far more than with Warner Brothers, which I saw more of later. I remember that there was an absolutely wonderful show that used to air on the Disney Channel called "Mousesterpiece Theater" where George Plimpton would give some very interesting insights into the various cartoon shorts he would present.

One thing George brought up was a fascinating look at the character Goofy. He tried to dissuade us from looking at him as a dog... but more as an every-man. Goofy is no different than the average Joe walking down the sidewalk at any given time. And in many of his cartoons, this seems to be a fair explanation of who he really was. He was just an average guy!

But I would like to take that observation a little bit further. I would kindly ask that none of you allow yourselves to be fooled as to the species identity of the other mainstay characters. Mickey was never really a mouse. Donald was never really a duck. No. These characters only looked like animals. In reality, they were all really just human beings in disguise.

Yes, there are exceptions to this rule. Pluto really is a dog. Chip and Dale really are chipmunks. But Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and all the other more anthropomorphized characters are really just humans. You will never find Micky Mouse eating cheese because he is not really a mouse. You will never see Donald Duck flying because he is not really a duck. You will never see Goofy (in the old cartoons) playing fetch because he is not really a dog. They are all human. They drive cars. They live in houses. They are simply human.

The Disney shorts were full of mischief and one side trying to best the antagonist somehow. Sometimes things got heated, but it never got too violent or gruesome. Just enough calamity to lead to a number of funny sight gags.

And this is where we come to the stark contrast of Warner Brothers. What did we get from them? A slue of characters all trying desperately hard to brutally murder one another with all the weapons in the book. Guns. Grenades. Dynamite. Fists. Tossing someone off of a cliff. Everyone was trying to kill each other. There are hours and hours of this. One brutal murder attempt after another. It just never stopped!

The reason this happened was because all the characters were what they looked like. Bugs Bunny was really a rabbit. Daffy Duck really was a duck. Like real rabbits and ducks, they were to be hunted. But it was not just hunting scenarios; sometimes attempted murder just happened because of matters of revenge or hate. Sometimes it was simply a matter of survival. Sometimes the murder was even successful which would lead to seeing the murdered character with a halo over their head.

Now keep in mind that I am referring to the old cartoons. Warner Brothers did try making their animal characters more human in the extremely wonderful and poignant "Loony Tunes Show." But back in the day, they were just animals and humans trying to murder each other because it just seemed to be the natural order of things. And you know what? I liked it. And I still like it. I enjoyed the unrestrained viciousness and violence. It was delivered to us in a semi-safe place because they were cartoon characters who had a knack for surviving point blank shotgun blasts to the face.

These cartoons were very good and fun to watch. And I will always love how especially devious Daffy Duck was. He would easily sell his soul to get Bugs Bunny shot if it meant his personal well-being was protected.

In my opinion, I consider the Warner Brothers cartoons to be far superior to Disney's for simply being so incredibly libertine. They went for the violence and went for it hard. I loved them when I was little and I still live them now. I wish that we still to this day had such wonderful violence in cartoons. Besides... how will Elmer Fudd ever get that Duck dinner he's been wanting for over 50 years?

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