The Animation Guild Blog isn’t a flashy blog. It rocks a pretty simple blogspot template. The quality of its writing, though, immediately drew me in. The main writer, Steve Hulett, has been the business representative for the guild since 1989 and, before that, was an animation screenwriter who worked on a variety of Disney projects in the late-1970s and 1980s. He wrote a great series on Cartoon Brew last year called "A Mouse in Transition," in which he chronicled his time at Disney and the changes that occurred during that time before the so-called “Disney Renaissance". On The Animation Guild Blog, Hulett has written multiple posts per day since 2006 about pretty much everything related to the field of animation—including news, press releases, and guild member posts—but he often gravitates towards commonplace, everyday injustices in the animation industry. These range from forgotten figures in the history of animation to the topic of outsourcing to wage fixing. He always writes carefully and with stinging intelligence.
Take, for example, the recent post “Racial Stereotypes Circa 1939.” Hulett begins by highlighting a statement by an Animation Guild member on a racially insensitive character in Netflix show Puss in Boots. The member describes that, in the episode, Puss wards off unwanted flirtation from a mermaid named FeeJee, who has cornrows, dark skin, and big lips. Here’s an image of FeeJee:
(Photo courtesy of: http://blackgirlnerds.com/pretty-mermaids-racist-narratives-entertainment-children/)
Feejee is obviously a crude caricature of a black woman. However, Hulett does not use the opportunity to build himself a soapbox and preach. His critique is short and pointed. He points out the idiocy of the imagery, rather than aggressively attacking the writers and artists who put the image on the screen:
“So I haven't seen the episode, though I've looked at the stills from the half-hour at the link. And maybe the writer is overly sensitive and maybe I'm wrong here, but this depiction of a black mermaid in the show seems a wee bit over the top to me.
“Based on the visuals, I'm surprised that they didn't try to work Hattie McDaniel into the episode. Or Butterfly McQueen. Then the stereotyping would have been symmetrical and complete.”
Hulett, unlike Amidi, does not rant. He’s even careful to qualify his criticism. Then, he simply points out that the racist imagery is surprisingly similar to racism from another era of cartoons. It’s a quick and intelligent jab.
The blog also includes great details and stories from Hulett’s personal life. In his article "Filmation's Last Days - Part 1," he talks about how in the late-1980s, he was laid off from Disney and had a brief stint as a school teacher in LA:
The thirteen-year-old girl pounded up the stairs, sliding to a stop beside me. I turned and glared at her.
“What?”
My voice had a serrated edge that could have ripped fur off an eight-week-old puppy. She and I had not been getting along. She now blinked at me. Swallowed.
“Never mind,” she said. With that, Drew Barrymore went back down the stairs, head down.
Hulett’s writing is creative, personal, and never boring. He assumes a voice that actually is serrated, but not in a way that pointedly catches the viewer’s attention, rather than rips the fur off of beagles. His subsequent chronicle of Filmation is long and filled with strange details and forgotten names, but it’s a testament to his writing that it never feels self-indulgent or plodding. It’s always fast-moving and entertaining.
The blog was made as an outlet for guild members and industry insiders to discuss the animation industry. It appears to have a pretty small readership and most of its blogroll is to other guild sites and guild members. It definitely functions on a technical, insider level. But it’s more than that. While it could have been a technical and joyless record of industry happenings, Steve Hulett has made it a relevant and vibrant place for important conversations. It discusses corporate greed, painful stereotypes, and - perhaps most powerfully—great stories. It’s clearly a labor of love by a talented and knowledgeable writer.
No comments:
Post a Comment