Lehman finds the film to be part of a trend in the Disney animated studio of using more sympathetic portrayals of African Americans, Africans, and African-American music over time. During World War II, Disney animated shorts seemed to associate musicians wearing zoot suit and boogie-woogie , an ancestor of rock and roll, with threatening forces and the Axis powers themselves. Disney had a long history of portraying animated black characters as buffoons and/or servants. He cites as a late example the portrayal of indigenous Africans in "Social Lion" (1954). They were depicted as "sleepy-eyed" people, wearing grass skirts, and employed as servants of White hunters. A few years later, in "Paul Bunyan" (1958), Disney gave a more sympathetic portrayal of a black character. In a brief tribute to other American folk heroes besides Paul Bunyan himself, the film depicted among them a black man: John Henry. The Disney staff gave Henry a muscular physique and treated him as a hero. Though Lehman notes that the film never depicted Henry's face, which was hidden between his arms. Disney was apparently becoming more progressive with time and breaking with the traditions of stereotypical portrayal of blacks in animation.