Planetronika's Freestyle & Donut Lips
As voted by my YouTube fans, I'm going to be drawing a speedpaint for Planetronika, a cartoon pilot by Rafael Andaya. I loved 2000s cartoons and this is a solid throwback.
Doing research for my art, however, I learned the character Freestyle has a character design trope called "donut lips", which has racist origins in minstrel shows, where performers dressed in blackface and performed offensively stereotypical acts. This has sparked debate here on Tumblr.
Now, I enjoy Planetronika. I know blackface was not Freestyle's design origins. Nor do I believe Planetronika's creator intended to perpetuate racist stereotypes, especially regarding Freestyle's cited inspirations. As explained in an article interview with Andaya:
...He became what was essentially Gumby crossed with Flubber if he was a total egomaniac mad scientist. My dad came up with the idea for him to be a goo creature to give him an edge and the Bart Simpson spikes and morphing abilities was mine.
I wanted a 2D character that best captured the energy of an Aardman character and I remember being really into Doug Tennapel’s art like Earthworm Jim and Neverhood so I gave him the expressive brows and big mouth. Then I don’t know why, but I started hearing Ben Diskin’s British accent from Code Name: Kids Next Door coming out of his mouth and I asked my friend Beeache “hey man, could you please do your best Nigel Uno impression” and it just stuck.
However, these kinds of actions still have their impact, a feeling I will never truly understand as a non-black person. Still, it would be ignorant and especially disrespectful of me to draw or approve of this design trope with this knowledge.
And yet, I believe this situation can be resolved if Freestyle's donut lips were changed and the mistake acknowledged. Such changes have been done before, like with Garterbelt from Panty & Stocking.
Therefore, I will be omitting Freestyle's lips from my art. For reference:
Honestly, he doesn't look bad without it.
Before this post ends, I want to point people to The Lost Crusader's video on Japan's history with blackface and donut lips. I watched it for my research on this topic and believe it to be a solid overview.
