I am a sucker for old fashion cartoons that I can proudly admit that I saw Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs more than I can count my fingers and toes; unabashedly cried when the great King Mufasa died and Simba tried to wake him up, commiserate with Miss Piggy in her unrequited love for Kermit and other emotional display of affection to these animated personalities that I won't mention for it will totally make me look beyond silly .
In May of 1990, the creator of the Muppets, Jim Henson died. I saw a tribute from the Disney artist of a drawing of Kermit the Frog being consoled by Mickey Mouse on the death of Kermit's creator. That drawing created an imprint on my mind the idea of raw sadness associated with death. Ironic that non living cartoon characters could invoke such cogent feeling in me, on issue of death.
Here is the photo I am talking about:
There is a colored version of this but I was still digging up the Internet and up to this point I have no luck. The black and white rendering made it even poignant, the banjo cast aside, the frog hands on his head, you have to conjure your own image of a bereft Kermit and sorrowed Mickey because we always relate them to happy and gregarious characters. Admittedly its not easy associating them with death and sadness. But this picture was able to accomplish that.
I has the colored version of this drawing on my fridge for the longest time. I'm not positive where I got it but "think" it was a sympathy card from my vet after having to put my cat to sleep. I believe the drawing had the colors of the sun settings. :(
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