"Banned" Looney Toons 3: "Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears"

Originally released on 2 September 1944, "Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears" is one of the eleven Looney Toons withdrawn from circulation by United Artists in 1968 for offensive racial stereotyping. The story merges "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" with "Little Red Riding Hood". The bears are now a jazz trio and Goldilocks is a black woman donning a short skirt.



It begins with the narrator at the piano describing the bears: "Now these three bears never went to school, but when it comes to jivin', they were nobody's fool!"



Although not particularly offensive until this point, seeing the bears portrayed in Al Jolson blackface and talking in stereotypical jive sets the standard for the rest of this short. Every character is portrayed in the same way, as you'll see. The bears are jazz musicians and love to play.



They play too good and too much and their instruments become hot to the touch.



And so they decide to go for a walk to let them cool down. Meanwhile next door, the big bad wolf is lying in Granny's bed waiting for Little Red Riding Hood to appear. While waiting he notices Goldilocks approaching the bears' house across the lawn.



Here Goldilocks is portrayed in a sexual manner which plays into the stereotype of blacks as being primitive, hyper-sexual creatures. She does the routine of trying to find the most comfortable bed. The wolf enters the house to stalk Goldilocks and she tries to flee from his grasp. Shortly after this, the bears return home and begin playing again. Their music sends Goldilocks into a dancing frenzy and the tables are turned on the wolf. She won't allow him to escape her Lindy-hoppin' clutches.



The Wolf eventually escapes and makes his way back to Granny's house. Little Red Riding Hood shows up and starts her "What big eyes you have" routine. Exhausted, the Wolf goes through the motions. He remarks that his teeth are all the better to eat her up with which causes Red to flee towards the door screaming. She stops once she notices that the Wolf is not in pursuit and she asks, "Ain't you gonna chase me?" He replies, "What? With these?" and pulls back the blanket to reveal his feet aglow – red hot from dancing. The Three Bears then burst through the door to yell "Der's that jitterbug!" They proceed to start playing music again on previously unseen instruments. Granny then bursts out of the closet and pulls the Wolf out of bed to dance.

If the previous cartoons I reviewed were perhaps marginally offensive, then "Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears" is the first that is patently so. From the blackface and the jive talkin' to the portrayal of blacks as wanton and unrestrained, it's easy to see why this one was pulled. The only time I laughed was when Goldilocks was in her dancing frenzy. There were a couple shots of the Wolf that were humorous because of the look on his face – a look of knowing that he had to get the hell out of there.

I'm curious to know how this cartoon and the others like it were received in their day. Were they shown to primarily white audiences? I understand that the racial stereotypes here were prevalent in their day, but was there any effort to keep these cartoons from being shown in theaters which had significant black audiences? Or did the folks at Merrie Melodies think that blacks saw themselves in this manner too?

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