The Null Device

A 1939 magazine article about the censorship of animated cartoons, and exactly the sorts of things the Hays Office (which handled film censorship in the U.S. at the time) demanded cut from cartoons. For example, a cartoon cow was made to wear a skirt covering its udders, a sombrero-wearing bandit is required to end up in jail (crime, you see, must unambiguously be seen to not pay), and a scene with a stereotypical black (as in African-American) angel placing pushpins on a globe labelled "Harlem" and mentioning "De Lawd" had to be altered, not because of the racial stereotypes (which, in 1939, were perfectly fine) but because it was considered too sacrilegious.

It's interesting to note that the article states at the beginning that animated cartoons were subjected to stricter censorship regulations than live-action films because it was assumed that anything animated was for children, who needed to be protected. Similar justifications were used for comic books (with the Comics Code, which was in force until publishers started ignoring it in the 1960s or so, and had similarly puritanical scope), and in current video game censorship in Australia.

(via Boing Boing) ¶ animation authoritarianism cartoons censorship culture history media [no comments]

China's pervasive internet surveillance regime now has a new public image: from now on, either various government sites or all websites in Shenzhen will display cartoon mascots of police officers (looking big-eyed and oddly Caucasian). Clicking on the mascots will take you to a web page where you can talk with actual members of China's internet police. They do things differently in China.

(via bOING bOING) ¶ cartoons censorship china irony kawaii mascots police totalitarianism [no comments]

Village Voice cartoonist Ward Sutton presents his Person of the Year: Joe Smith: common man, regular guy:

(via substitute) ¶ cartoons conformism society usa village voice [no comments]

Introducing a Fun Family of Good Friends, an attempt to translate cute Japanese cartoon characters into English without knowing Japanese. (via Cos).

¶ afro ken cartoons japan kawaii korean manga translation [no comments]

Four-fingered cartoon characters exported to Japan given a fifth finger -- as not to look like Yakuza members. (BBC News)

¶ cartoons culture japan localisation yakuza [no comments]