The stupidest thing done on TCM last night should have been accidentally playing a Dogville Comedy (a series “as funny as AIDs and nuclear war”) rather than a Popeye cartoon. But in actuality, it was the piece they played, above, that was supposed to introduce it. Jack Shaheen has obviously never seen Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves or is legally blind.
For some reason, Fleischer opted to use “Ali Baba” for the title, even though Bluto is called “Abu Hassan” repeatedly throughout the film, possibly because the former had more name recognition. (Sort of the opposite reason for why Bob Clampett had to call his short Coal Black rather than the more appropriate So White.) So in spite of the title, it’s clearly only using the story as a basis for an adventure story, not bastardizing it as Shaheen suggests.
There are many cartoons that exemplify poor Arab images in film, but this isn’t the one. One beautiful thing about the Fleischer cartoons is how they succeeded where the other Hollywood and New York studios always failed: not adhering to formulaic portrayals of specific races or genders. Everyone and everything should look as exaggerated and different as possible. And how could it do “more to denigrate Arabs than any cartoon ever” if Popeye is going out of his way to save a community of Arabs?
Popeye Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves is one of the most atmospheric, thrilling, and funniest animated films ever made. Shaheen seems to be another dime a dozen ‘film scholar’ who obviously hasn’t done the least of his obligations by seeking out as many films as possible to draw such a conclusion. At least he’s in good company.
(Via Cartoon Brew)
Addendum: I read that Sahara Hare (which starts out brilliantly and sort of fizzles out by the four minute mark) was another cartoon that was supposed to be presented with an introduction but was dropped. Good thing too, because it would’ve been an embarrassment trying to explain the negative social values therein and convincing anyone that this isn’t just Freleng doing a normal Bugs/Sam picture with a costume and scenery change. I’m all for encouraging better enlightenment and tolerance in fan communities when it comes to racial imagery, but there’s a right way and an asinine way to do it, and it’s just weird to see TCM doing so much in the latter. But hey, right, they’re just cartoons.
There’s a nice two-part interview with animation layout giant Bob Givens at the TAG Blog. Click 
I’ve spent some much needed time looking over 
