Rating: Summary: Libs Should Get a Life Review: Liberals are so intellectually and morally bankrupt they should seriously consider some decaffeinated coffee to calm their rhetoric. What a revelation, the Little Rascals have racial overtones! Quick, call the thought police on the fans of this series because we are all so racially intolerant. What a bunch of liberal hogwash! The Little Rascals should be enjoyed for what they are, instead of criticized for what they are not. They are hilarious, they are not politically correct. Live with it. Amos and Andy and the Little Rascals are from an era that predates today's over correction of racial sensitivity. When exactly did we lose our sense of humor in this country? Please don't let the claptrap of liberal censorship dissuade you in any way from enjoying these great comedies. In fact, the racial insensitivity is small in comparison to the brilliant humor of these timeless classics.
Rating: Summary: Not Race - Class Review: The Little Racals (Our Gang) were brilliant. I watched these on TV growing up. Somtimes used as filler for a movie that came up short, sometimes a couple thrown in on a Sunday afternoon on the independant channel.It never occured to me that they could be racist. I thought it poignant that the black, asian, and caucasian children all played together. There seemed to be a touch of subversive class-ism though and I LOVED that aspect. The wealthy were always bastards! The poor children made do with bits of junk but seemed to enjoy life fully. Mind you the children of the wealthy were always eager to get out of their stuffy clean suits and play with the scruffy poor children. Please put out more on DVD.
Rating: Summary: Racist or RACIAL?? Review: The sensitivity of the American public will kill the rich history of comedy displayed in these shorts if media doesn't separate racism from racial humor. Our Gang/Little Rascals was harshly racist in some ways before the advent of sound; mostly towards blacks. After the advent of sound, or the depression, the gang's shorts became good humored parodies of the American culture's most unique characters. RACISM is when black peop;le are portrayed as constant dice rolling, cotton picking, gamblers that beat their children. Racist humor will portray people in a negative light across the board. RACIAL HUMOR is the use of race traits to provide character, and humor to a story. Such as Stymie talking in a poor black tongue of the times or talking about 'black sheep' in the family, etc. Racial humor doesn't portray percieved character flaws due to racist misconceptions, rather it works with language and racial traits to bring out the humor of the character in situations (white eyes running in the dark, etc). Rascals did the same for any unique qualiy they could bring out of any of the kids; fat, weird hair, odd teeth, etc. And if race was used, it was used to flavor the characters, not bash race. Most times Stymie or Farina (the black kids) were leaders of the gang (mostly white kids)....if that isn't empowerment, i don't know what is. People creating scadal around these fine shorts are evil. Period. Don't listen to them, wether you are black, white, chinese, whatever. Little Rascals is a charming series of Pre-WW2 shorts. the further back it goes to the advent of sound, the better the stories and characters. Hopefully the race cranks will overcome their humorless attitude and be able to accept unique characters instead of bashing their own traits in hopes of a grey world.
Rating: Summary: Racist or RACIAL?? Review: The sensitivity of the American public will kill the rich history of comedy displayed in these shorts if media doesn't separate racism from racial humor. Our Gang/Little Rascals was harshly racist in some ways before the advent of sound; mostly towards blacks. After the advent of sound, or the depression, the gang's shorts became good humored parodies of the American culture's most unique characters. RACISM is when black peop;le are portrayed as constant dice rolling, cotton picking, gamblers that beat their children. Racist humor will portray people in a negative light across the board. RACIAL HUMOR is the use of race traits to provide character, and humor to a story. Such as Stymie talking in a poor black tongue of the times or talking about 'black sheep' in the family, etc. Racial humor doesn't portray percieved character flaws due to racist misconceptions, rather it works with language and racial traits to bring out the humor of the character in situations (white eyes running in the dark, etc). Rascals did the same for any unique qualiy they could bring out of any of the kids; fat, weird hair, odd teeth, etc. And if race was used, it was used to flavor the characters, not bash race. Most times Stymie or Farina (the black kids) were leaders of the gang (mostly white kids)....if that isn't empowerment, i don't know what is. People creating scadal around these fine shorts are evil. Period. Don't listen to them, wether you are black, white, chinese, whatever. Little Rascals is a charming series of Pre-WW2 shorts. the further back it goes to the advent of sound, the better the stories and characters. Hopefully the race cranks will overcome their humorless attitude and be able to accept unique characters instead of bashing their own traits in hopes of a grey world.
Rating: Summary: Little Rascals Fan Delighted! Review: This DVD is fabulous. I am ecstatic that Hallmark Entertainment decided to re-package the Cabin Fever Little Rascal's collection. The Cabin Fever series was a 20 volume VHS set of remastered Little Rascals classics hosted by Leonard Maltin. This set was only available to the public for a few years. Due to Hallmark's (the card company) change of ownership, this set was removed from the shelves. I have longed for a re-release of the set for a few years now. The only way to build the 20 piece video collection was to buy them seperately on internet-auction sites. I was pleasantly surprised to find it available on DVD at an excellent price. These are the ones you remember as a kid only better. I was raised on the re-runs that popped and hissed. These have been painstakingly restored. Bravo!
Rating: Summary: FINALLY! But when are the other volumes coming out? Review: This is so wonderful to finally have! I own all of the previous release of VHS tapes, and as with them, this DVD has excellent sound and picture quality. I am REALLY UPSET, however, because Hallmark/Artisan told me via email that there were no plans to release the rest of the series on DVD. That is tragic. PLEASE RECONSIDER, HALLMARK/ARTISAN! People want to own these wonderful classic shorts on DVD.
Rating: Summary: Racist Artifacts And You Should Be Ashamed. . . Review: © Dr. David Pilgrim, Professor of Sociology Ferris State University Oct., 2000 Our Gang is often credited with being "one of Hollywood's few attempts...to do better by the Negro."5 All of the children, Blacks and Whites, took turns playing nitwits. Donald Bogle wrote: "Indeed, the charming sense of Our Gang was that all of the children were buffoons, forever in scraps and scrapes, forever plagued by setbacks and sidetracks as they set out to have fun, and everyone had his turn at being outwitted."6 This is true, however, the Black characters were often buffoons in racially stereotypical ways. They spoke in dialect -- dis, dat, I is, you is, and we is. Farina, arguably the most famous picaninny of the 1920s, was on more than one occasion shown savagely eating watermelon or chicken. He was also terrified of ghosts -- this fear was a persistent theme for adult coons in later comedy films. Farina and Buckwheat wore tightly twisted "picaninny pigtails" and old patched gingham clothes which made their sex ambiguous. Why was this sexual ambiguity a necessary part of the show? Buckwheat, the quiet boy with big eyes, has an unenviable distinction: his name is now synonymous with picaninny. This is due, in large part, to Eddie Murphy's depiction of Buckwheat on Saturday Night Live in the 1980's. Indeed, the term picaninny is today rarely used as a racial slur; it has been replaced by the term buckwheat.
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