The Adventures of Wee Rob Roy

Content advisory: Racist depiction of indigenous black people.

This is an early animated short film about the adventures of Wee Rob Roy. There are both cultural (Scottish Highlander) and racial (African) stereotypes used in the film.

In this film we see 'Wee Rob Roy' playing the bagpipes in his living-room. He wears a kilt and a Tam O'Shanter hat. His mother tells him to stop and he is sent out. Wee Rob goes hunting and takes pot shots at a bird and a rabbit. He then watches some golfers and jumps into a car parked outside the Thistle Inn. He runs over a policeman and a fisherman, travels over rough terrain, crashes and is sent flying through the air.

In a second sequence Rob Roy holds onto a bird's legs as it flies across the ocean, landing on an island where he is captured by the indigenous people. These people are depicted using racial stereotypes. They appear wearing grass skirts, hold spears and live in straw huts. They have large lips and eyes that roll. They are shown as 'uncivilised' (unclothed, with spears) and childlike (playing on a seesaw).

Wee Rob Roy is then shot out of a cannon and flies back across the ocean. He lands safely back where he started - although on a thistle!

The cannon may be an image taken from the story of the defense of Algeria from colonial invasion by the French. In 1683 the French consul at the time (Jean le Vacher) was put into the cannon and blasted from it during a failed attempt by the French navy to take the city. In 1830 the French removed the cannon. Algerians are now campaigning for its return.

Updated January 2021