The Warner Brothers cartoon character Inki is unique in that he was a recurring African character, as opposed to African Americans like Bosko, Amos ‘n’ Andy, and the maids of “Tom and Jerry” and “Little Lulu.” Appearing in films from 1939 to 1950, Inki also reflected changes in both animation and imagery of the African continent.
The debut Little Lion Hunter, produced by Leon Schlesinger and directed by Chuck Jones, sets the template for the series. Somewhere in Africa, Inki hunts a mynah who walks to the beat of the song “Fingal’s Cave.” The bird, however, rescues Inki from a lion. Produced during the era of Disney-inspired realism, the backgrounds are lush and detailed. The characters themselves are also detailed with shading or modeling. Charlie Thorsen designed Inki, and the figure sported a black dot for a nose in his debut.
Schlesinger produced two Africa-set sequels for Warner Brothers with the three characters–Inki and the Lion (1941) and Inki and the Minah Bird (1943). Then after Warner Brothers took control of his studio in 1944, the character only appeared two more times and in completely different contexts from the first three episodes. In 1947 Inki at the Circus placed the trio under the big top. Inki was in a cage and billed as an African “wild man.” The opening shot was of circus tents in the foreground and a skyline of skyscrapers and other urban buildings behind them, thus giving the film a contemporary and domestic setting.
For the finale Caveman Inki (1950), Warner Brothers made Inki primitive in a most literal sense. The boy became a prehistoric figure, living among dinosaurs. By 1950, people had begun protesting ethnic stereotypes in films, and the studio’s moving away from explicitly African settings and towards prehistoric ones seemed to reflect awareness of the protests. Ironically, Inki’s customary bone in the hair and his near-nakedness remained consistent, whether as a contemporary but isolated native or a prehistoric figure. Meanwhile, reflecting the popularity of UPA-type stylization, the characters and backgrounds are less detailed than in Little Lion Hunter. Also, Caveman Inki is notable in that it is one of the first works in popular culture to suggest that the first people were Africans. Compare Inki’s dark skin to the fictional prehistoric figures in Famous Studios’ Pre-Hysterical Man, Warners’ own Pre-Hysterical Hare, and Hanna-Barbera’s The Flintstones.
Inki’s debut was eighty years ago this year. His films have not aged well, especially after the 1950s. However, the series in its entirety shows how Warner Brothers grappled with changing times before abandoning Inki altogether.