TIL a family in Georgia claimed to have passed down a song in an unknown language from the time of their enslavement; scientists identified the song as a genuine West African funeral song in the Mende language that had survived multiple transmissions from mother to daughter over multiple centuries (x)
In 1997 Amelia’s daughter, Mary Moran, and other members of the Moran family were invited to Sierra Leone, West Africa, where they were welcomed in Freetown by Sierra Leone’s President and then flown by helicopter to the country’s interior. There, in the small village of Senehun Ngola, Mary and Bendu Jabati met and sang this song together for the first time. Years earlier, Bendu’s grandmother had told her that this song, which had been passed down in her village from mother to daughter for centuries, would one day reunite her to long-lost relatives.
In addition to finding out where in Africa her ancestors were abducted into slavery, Mary Moran discovered the meaning of the Mende song: a processional hymn for the final farewell to the spirit, it was sung in Senehun Ngola by women as they prepared the body of a loved one for burial.
(The OP’s link leads to a site with a recording of the song sung by both Mary Moran and her mother, Amelia)
a cartoon that is just as nostalgically retroactive as it is groundbreaking, You Ought to Be in Pictures deserves every bit of praise it gets as one of the most iconic cartoons put out by the studio. though live action has been a cartoon staple ever since animation’s conception, very few shorts would ever maintain the live action aspect for the entirety of its runtime. even at Warner’s, no cartoon would ever be made like this again.
it’s not even entirely the hook of live action blending seamlessly with animation that earns the cartoon its legacy. rather, it’s the attention to detail through cohesiveness in storytelling, meticulousness in character acting and animation, parallels to previous scenes, much less cartoons, the wittiness of the humor, and the humanity and sincerity of the direction.
a cornerstone in more ways than one, Pictures marks a number of firsts: the first short where Daffy displays a substantial amount of greed—much less cognizance—, the first Porky cartoon directed by Friz Freleng since his conception in 1935 (a factoid that holds added weight given Freleng created the character to begin with), the first Daffy cartoon directed by Freleng period, the first short to take an unambiguously more mature route with Porky’s personality, and so on. a short where the staff and crew of the studio are just as imperative to the film as the animated stars, Pictures is somewhat autobiographical, Freleng using Porky as a means to vent his frustrations with a short and, in his eyes, unfair tenure at Metro Goldwyn-Meyer. sick of seeing himself as second banana, Daffy convinces Porky to dissolve his contract with the studio to instead pursue a (fake) offer for a life of leading ladies and high paying salaries. run ins with angry security guards, directors, western movie scenes and LA traffic quickly drive Porky back to a career of stability at Warner’s, even if it means busting Daffy in the middle of his back talking Porky.
