Clarabelle Cow victim of early censorship?

[MrWhitman]

The newest short by Disney, "Get a Horse" which was displayed with Frozen had Clarabelle cow showing off her udder. This got me thinking that it was odd because in no other depiction of Clarabelle did I ever see her with an udder. Going WAY back to the 1930s I found that Clarabelle actually did have an udder, but any cartoons after 1931 she didn't. Could it be that Clarabelle was the victim of censorship?

It seems ridiculous, especially when you think of what they got away with in Betty Boop cartoons, but then Tweety was censored due to being naked.

[Gutter Monkey]

She mostly got around on four legs in her first few appearances but once she started walking upright and became more anthropomorphic they put her in a dress which covered her udders (and only her udders!) which then became a regular dress which also covered her legs. Note that she was still mostly topless for a long time apart from a frilly collar.

In the 1930 cartoon The Shindig she actually starts off as a naked cow on 4 legs in a stall in a barn but she then puts on a dress and spends the rest of the cartoon on two legs.

I get the impression that the change was because she became more anthropomorphic and had to wear some clothes to signify that she wasn't just a dumb barnyard animal and not some attempt at censorship.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by MrWhitman

..., but then Tweety was censored due to being naked.

What, I have never heard that. There was certainly no shortage of Tweety cartoons and she (it can be hard to tell, but I have read Tweety is female) is not dressed in any of them. There is certainly no shortage of Warner Bros. animal characters who show their furry or feathered bodies without clothes. Where did you get that Tweety was censored. Or was the issue other than clothing?

[snopes]

Supposedly Tweety Bird was originally pink, but that version was allegedly thought to look too close to nakedness, so the animator had to make her yellow to create the appearance of her being feathered.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Was that a decision based on social or governmental pressure, or is it like the Grinch's pink eyes (in the book) that the animators realized it just did not look right in the cartoon, so they were changed? After all, they could have tried showing Tweety pink in the studio and decided that looked like she had been plucked, which would have been a disturbing situation.

[crocoduck_hunter]

In Tweety's first three appearances (A Tale of Two Kitties, Birdy and the Beast, and A Gruesome Twosome), he was drawn pink as if he were featherless (this was also before he was paired with Sylvester). According to the documentary Bugs Bunny: Superstar, he was changed from pink to yellow to remove the nudity aspect of the character.

[diddy]

That makes a bit of sense when you consider that other bird characters are notably shy when their feathers are removed (like from an explosion of some sort) as if they are naked. I remember one Foghorn Leghorn short (the title escapes me) where after defeathered he covers himself ad goes to a nearby shed proclaiming "fortunately I always keep a spare set of feathers" which he proceeds to zip on.

Making Tweety look more feathered makes sense when you are anthropomorphizing characters. In the case of animals, fur and feathers seems to be equivalent to clothing.

[crocoduck_hunter]

I believe it was A Gruesome Twosome that actually had one of the cats refer to him as "the naked genius," which prompted the censors to take note and demand covering be added. Also, according to that bastion of accuracy, Wikipedia, Tweety is male.

[BrianB]

Originally Posted by Gutter Monkey

I get the impression that the change was because she became more anthropomorphic and had to wear some clothes to signify that she wasn't just a dumb barnyard animal and not some attempt at censorship.

This is my interpretation as well because pretty much all of the Disney animated characters became more anthropomorphic over time.

Originally Posted by A Turtle Named Mack

(it can be hard to tell, but I have read Tweety is female)

I also thought that Tweety was female until a snopester on the old UBB forum proved otherwise. From Wikipedia:

Despite the perceptions that people may hold, owing to the long lashes and high pitched voice of Tweety, Tweety is male. This is established several times in the animated series The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries, and in the film-short Bad Ol' Putty Tat when Sylvester tries to trick Tweety using a fake female bird. On the other hand, a 1951 cartoon was entitled "Ain't She Tweet." Also, his species is ambiguous; although originally and often portrayed as a young canary, he is also frequently called a rare and valuable "tweety bird" as a plot device, and once called "the only living specimen".

Brian

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by Gutter Monkey

She mostly got around on four legs in her first few appearances but once she started walking upright and became more anthropomorphic they put her in a dress which covered her udders (and only her udders!). . .

So, a skirt? :-)

[marrya]

Undivided lederhosen?!

[Gutter Monkey]

Originally Posted by Lainie

So, a skirt? :-)

Newsflash: Lainie apparently wears her skirts like this:



Here's the whole cartoon, the effect is MUCH weirder in motion.

[mags]

I'd call that an apron.

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by Gutter Monkey

Newsflash: Lainie apparently wears her skirts like this:

That's probably why they told me to stop wearing skirts to work.

This is the garment I was picturing.

[Avril]

In the video, it looks like skirt that is worn over the udders and only the udders. The effect is, as Gutter Monkey says, quite weird.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

That's still not as weird as the self-censorship in "Barnyard: the Original Party Animals" in which the bulls were several times depicted lying back exposing their tummies, but they were not hung like bulls - they had udders. I guess that was to confirm they were bovine or something. Or crossdressers. What was in the production team's mind that they felt they had to put udders on bulls!? Other male animals were depicted with flat (or rounded for the pigs) bellies, as animated animals have for decades to simply avoid depicting genitalia. No wonder the main character had such an identity crisis!

[crocoduck_hunter]

Maybe the bulls were transgender?

Or more likely the production team didn't know the difference. I do remember the trailers for that movie and yeah, it was pretty glaring and strange.

[Gutter Monkey]

According to the imdb.com trivia page:

The "male" bovines having udders was explained in the October 2006 issue of Nickelodeon's official magazine, "Nick Magazine". In the letters page, one reader asked about the anatomically-incorrect cows(bovine) and whether or not it was intentional or not, and the magazine explained that the movie's director "thought it would be funny for the male cows(bulls) to have udders".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414853/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2

Apparently there was a TV series based on the movie where the bulls not only had udders but also lactated

[smittykins]

Originally Posted by diddy

That makes a bit of sense when you consider that other bird characters are notably shy when their feathers are removed (like from an explosion of some sort) as if they are naked. I remember one Foghorn Leghorn short (the title escapes me) where after defeathered he covers himself ad goes to a nearby shed proclaiming "fortunately I always keep a spare set of feathers" which he proceeds to zip on.

My favorite line(from another short)is "Ah always keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency."

ETA: Spanked by Brian B as to Tweety's gender identity.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by Gutter Monkey

Apparently there was a TV series based on the movie where the bulls not only had udders but also lactated

Er, no, thanks. I'll pass on that cup of milk.