I'm extra sensitive to cultural stereotypes of old. I'm always dismayed at the pre-"Josie Wales" westerns where the "bad-guy" American- Indians are merely white actors in greasepaint, and broad portrayals of Eastern-Asians is especially unacceptable. I'm thinking here of things like Mickey Rooney in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Really degrading stuff....
I only bring that up to bolster my claim that I don't find GGG particularly anti-American-Indian. I don't get the sense that the gophers are the last SURVIVING members of a tribe, merely the lone occupants of Gopher Gulch. I think that GGG properly casts the Army as being on the wrong side of things in the 'Westward expansion', and being completely idiotic and misguided. The gopher Indians are always smarter and quicker, and always win. Seems more like a vindication of history, in a tiny, cartoony way. History was commonly being challenged and re-thought in the 60's, and I think that revisionist spirit infuses the show. I'll concede that the chief's speech IS a bit stereotypical.....the voice-work overall is great though.
I was born in 1968, and enjoyed GGG (and the excellent Underdog show) quite a bit, as a child. When I saw the GGG DVD, I bought it, and it's one of my 3-year-old daughter's favorites, and one of the shows that I can watch with her, and both of us enjoy. Sometimes, when we're away from home, out somewhere, I'll ask her "What does Colonel Kit Coyote say?", to which she'll respond "Bully! Bully!", in her best, tiny-voiced imitation. That's one of those golden intersections of nostalgia and parental love that makes me smile. My daughter (and one- year-old son) WILL grow up with memories of the whole Underdog crew, even if none of their peers in school know what they are talking about.
