MovieChat Forums > The Thief and the Cobbler (1995) Discussion > Ahem......

Ahem......

posted 11 years ago by LaLlama
2 replies | jump to latest

Would everyone please cease with the gushing over the animation and wishing Disney a most awful un-bearable demise just for one moment.

Thank you, I must say what needs to be said. Honestly, I'm supirsed nobody pionts out the more then subtle racist and anti-semetic material in this film.

Has nobody ever notcie how the thief looks like he was ripped from a Nazi propganda poster?

Look at 5:48 in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E62ibzd8WX4

Hmmmmmm, suspicous.

On to the other thing.

9:10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bggDbbKyuXk

Gotta love the progressive attitudes. They incorporated blacks into this movie, in a very flattering way I must add.

[–] TheWanderingFish 11 years ago

Are you referring to the fact that the thief is wearing a skullcap...? Because you do realize that the kind of cap seen there - a taqiyah - is a common form of headgear in the Middle East, particularly for Muslim men? Right? Of course, "Semitic" refers to quite a few different groups of people from the Middle East. So I suppose it could be anti-Semitic if it's a negative portrayal of a certain ethnic group or religion from the region - however, the thief is actually one of the more sympathetic characters in the film, and there's not actually anything in the film to distinguish him racially or religiously from the other characters, good or bad.

And, OMG - black porters! How racist! Even if it's historically accurate that blacks in the region would have been relegated to such roles, it's still clearly racist!!!1!!

-

I can appreciate people trying to be socially conscious and trying to point out instances of subtle or not-so-subtle bias or prejudice - however, some people are better at creating relevant criticisms than others.

I suppose on a clear day you can see the class struggle from here

[–] LaLlama 11 years ago

So thats what the cap on thier heads was called the whole time? Interesting. I didn't know that. But it wasn't the cap itself I was talking about though, I mostly refering to the symbol which looks like a star of David.

I can't agree with you on the Thief, however. How is the Thief really sympathetic? He basically dooms an entire land for his greed. He's comical maybe, but not really sympathetic.

And about the black porters, I guess that can be true. I'm intersted to sede some sources if you have some. But I kind of doubt that many blacks settle in the Middle East during ancient times, so I don't see much reason for the "history lesson" shown ther(especially giving them, stereotypical taffy lips like they usually did before, like, mayber 1967). The story isn't really settled in the ME supposedly, it's more of an alternate reality, like "inside a star" of some sort, with likness to that of ancient Arabic or Mid-East culture.

I'm not trying to piss on this film really, I'm just sort of surprised that with all the buzz going around it, no one discusses the thing I just mention. That is all. It's still possibly the greatest animated movie ever made, atleast from a technical standpoint.