Our subject is The Amazing Chan from Hanna-Barbera's animated 'The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan' (TACatCC) series. I drew the subject from a screen shot. I don't feel TOO bad about that, as (again) 'The Amazing Chan' was a Hanna-Barbera character ...which means the actual animated incarnation moves only slightly more than the image on my card (so why bother posing them?) ^^
Anyway...
The Amazing Chan is an iteration of the literary 'Charlie Chan' character of author Earl Derr Biggers. Biggers's Charlie Chan character was an Chinese-American police detective from Honolulu.
The 'Charlie Chan' books began in 1919, and proved popular. In the mid 1920's, a series of films based on the books began production.
Though the 'Charlie Chan' films were popular in their day, they weren't racially sensitive. In fact, though the 'Charlie Chan' character was intended as Chinese-American, no Chinese-American actors were chosen to play Charlie Chan.
The reader can probably see where this is going. If further reading is desired, the reader may click here:
So, what about the Hanna-Barbera cartoon (TACatCC)? It was produced in the 1970s---surely it handled the character of Charlie Chan better, right?
...Kinda (not really) ^^
As we covered, sometime around 1972, the 'Charlie Chan' series was adapted into animation by Hanna-Barbera, in 'The Amazing Chan and the Chan *Clan'.
*in the animated series, Chan had ten children (of various ages) who 'helped' him solve his cases ...and because '1970s' and 'Hanna-Barbera', the kids were all in a (very soft) rock band. ^^
As a step up from the films, TACatCC used real Asian-Americans to provide the voices of the (mostly) Chinese cast. Moreover, these actors weren't required to speak in broken English (supposedly so as not to perpetuate the stereotype).
Of course, The Amazing Chan was also played by a Chinese-American actor: Keye Luke. This is especially significant, as, at the time, Luke was the first Chinese-American to play Charlie Chan in a *starring role!
*in the original films, Chan was a supporting character (in at least one such case, Chan was played by a Japanese actor). In every other case, Chan was played by a white actor.
I found a video of someone reading excerpts from a memoir of Cherylene Lee: an Asian-American actress who voiced a character from TACatCC.
Apparently, the progressive steps taken by Hanna-Barbera were very *short-lived, as the Asian-American voice actors were systematically replaced by white voice actors, mere weeks after production began on the series.
*sometime during production, some execs at Hanna-Barbera decided Asian-American accents were too difficult for the general television audience to understand
Now, I admit I had a couple beers while watching, but ...I don't think beer was the reason I had no idea what was happening through most of this episode. If anything, the beer helped me through it---I don't think I'd have faired as well without it! D:
Apart from the first-draft quality of the writing, the animation is awful, even by the low-bar standards of Hanna-Barbera. I know I cannot judge an entire series by one episode ...but I can try!
My first impression is one of loathing ...though (if I'm to say anything positive here) I like the song at the end (or, at least, the tiny snippet I was given of it) ...of course, the song seems to be performed by 'The Archies' (at least to my ear): a group entirely separate from 'The Chan Clan'. :p
Let's move on to the pencil (which is somehow less wooden than the animation). :3
The featured 'Charlie Chan' pencil ...has nothing to do with the character 'Charlie Chan' (and that's to its credit)! XD
The 'Charlie Chan' on the pencil was the name of a men's clothing store in Honolulu. All the clothing (supposedly) was made by one person: some guy who went by 'Charlie Chan'. ^^
