Starting with snow white

part of everyday American life. They were prevalent on the radio, in newspaper 
cartoons, and in advertising, especially during the war years of the 1940s” (182). Thus, 
as much as a host of viewers were/are not seeing past Clampett’s perspective in this film, 
so too were/are these individuals failing to see past a dominant American cultural 
perspective. In fact, this directorial-, corporate-, and critically-informed gaze is so 
pronounced that the fairy tale and the remarkable cohesion of its storytelling tradition 
produced by Disney suffers.
Stripping Away Tradition, Adapting Disney for the Animator’s Sake 
So White, the central character of Clampett’s 
Coal Black 
is not naive, unaware of 
her own beauty; instead, she is highly sexualized (even more than the earlier Fleischer 
Brothers’ Betty Boop), and her body is readily exploited throughout the film. There is no 
deeper interrogation into the jealousy which a burgeoning beauty produces, why or how 
this comes to be, only a series of Snow White episodes drenched in jazz music, dance, 
and “one racist stereotype after another” (Breaux 175). The music and racism function 
together, as Breaux notes, “Animated shorts like these sought to reinforce or add weight 
to the racist claim that African Americans are inherently good dancers and singers with 
inborn rhythm. The film also presents African Americans as hypersexual, lacking self-
control, and incapable of being responsible adults” (Breaux 176). This depiction of the 
African American race, presented through a singular perspective and vision yet still 
representative of U.S. culture at large, becomes, in greater part, the value of the film.
What the film sacrifices is engagement with the 
Snow White
tale, but Clampett’s impulse 

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was to dissociate himself from the artistry and storytelling power that defined Walt 
Disney as animator and represent himself and his personal interests more keenly.
Nevertheless, if one thinks of this fairy tale as disregarding its 
Snow White 
past, it 
paid its thoughtful respects (whether intended or unintended) to the Disney version. This 
is evident from the start of the production, referencing not the literary, but the earlier oral 
or storytelling tradition with a child rocking upon a Mammy’s lap. Although Disney had 
opened a book, the effect is similar, linking the new fairy tale with others that have been 
retold. In 
Coal Black
, as well, one does not learn the story of So White’s origin; instead 
we begin with the “mean old queen” who soon gazes into her mirror (Clampett).
Disney’s structure is again mirrored here, yet with none of the significance of the tale.
Instead of expressing concern over her beauty, asking, “‘Magic Mirror on the wall, who 
is the fairest one of all?’” this queen demands (to a rhythmic beat), “‘Magic Mirror on the 
wall, send me a Prince about six feet tall’” (Disney, Clampett). The first part of the 
phrase is identical to Disney’s (and, of course, resounds with the 
Snow White 
tradition), 
yet beauty is far less significant in Clampett’s version, downplayed by sexual need or 
desire. This desire is thwarted only moments later in the short when the Queen gazes out 
of her window to declare, “The gal and de prince, what a sickenin’ sight” (Clampett).
Once again, we are reminded of Disney’s triangulation of three of the tale’s central 
players. However, when Disney’s Queen looks down on the couple (singing, in his 
version and dancing, in Clampett’s), her facial expressions as she dashes the curtains 
closed tell her viewer all. First, her hard gaze reads anger and contempt, but this is 
followed very briefly by a visage marked by shock, hurt, and disappointment. Here, an 

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audience 
sees 
jealousy ignited, but there is so much more. In these three significant 
seconds of animation exist the queen’s painful recognition that she has been surpassed in 
beauty. Age has stolen her fresh and blossoming appearance and with it the opportunity 
for the “one love” of which the Prince sings (to Snow White) (Disney). This is the real 
story of