Animated Minstrels

In 19 33, less than a decade before he acquired harris's characters, disney produced a short called micky's melodrama. The cartoon depicted micky mouse and friends in a minstrel production of uncle tom's cabin, complete with black face. Bimbo, the cartoon dog, created by max flisher, who was quickly upstaged by his girl friend, betty boop, visually evokes black faced minstrels. And the lunitune's character, boscoe, was consciously modelled after stereotypical coon characters. One scholar studying the relationship between animation and minstrelsy has described the physicality of the minstrel as fluid