Controversial cartoon characters come up for bid in next week’s S/R Laboratories auction

Jim Hill

15 years ago

Spring brings many things. April showers. May flowers. As well as the catalog for the Spring S/R Laboratories animation art auction.

This time around, there are some absolutely amazing pieces of animation history up for bid. Take — for example — this gag drawing that Disney Legend Carl Barks did for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Which was for a sequence that was supposed to built around a dwarf that didn’t make the final cut in this movie, Deefy.

Okay. I know. The above drawing isn’t exactly politically correct. But if you’re easily offended by un-PC material, I guess I should warn you that this particular S/R Laboratories auction does feature a number of items that could be considered somewhat controversial. Take — for example — these title cards for “The Amos and Andy Show” that Disney artists created back in the early 1950s.

Or how this animation drawing of Sunflower, that handmaiden to the Centaurettes that Disney has been deliberately clipping out of “Fantasia” since the early 1960s?

Yeah, Sunflower got plucked out of that picture four decades ago. Whereas the zebra centaurettes …

… who tend to Bacchus …

… have had their presence in this animated classic significantly reduced through judicious reframing of certain sequences in “Fantasia.”

Yeah, you never know what pieces of animation history you’ll come across when you attend an S/R Laboratories auction. Among the 255 items that are up for bid this time around are storyboard drawings from “Song of the South” …

… which features another set of characters that The Walt Disney Company isn’t entirely comfortable with these days.

Mind you, it’s not just the Disney stuff in this particular S/R Laboratories auction that might ruffle a few feathers. There’s also a Frito Bandito up for bid next week …

… that’s bound to rattle a few cages.

Me? Maybe I’m old-fashioned. But I don’t look at this stuff and think “How offensive.” I look at all these pieces of animation history and think about how cool it is that they didn’t fall through the cracks over the years. That — thanks to the efforts of S/R Laboratories, the only animation art conservation center in the world — these somewhat controversial items have now been preserved. So future generations can then decide if these cartoon characters were actually offensive or — more likely — that the people who lived in our overly PC age were just being … Well, overly sensitive.

The Spring 2009 S/R Laboratories animation art auction will be held May 18th & 19th at 31200 Via Colinas in Westlake Village, CA. For further information on this particular auction and/or to view all of the items that are up for bid this time around, please click on this link.