No video? Get the DivX Web Player for Windows or Mac
Welcome back kids! It’s time for the first Tom & Jerry cartoon in my Banned Cartoons series!
Tom & Jerry have a ton of shorts where large parts of them are either cut, edited, or even re-dubbed. For instance, any blackface or Native American references are altered or cut out entirely. The most obvious change that we see today is the new voice of Mammy, the maid that worked in the house. Her voice was re-dubbed in a less offensive women’s voice that speaks without any grammatical errors.
Warner Home Video bought the rights to Tom & Jerry and decided to release the complete uncensored and unedited shorts that were directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in three volumes. The duo made 114 shorts but the collection excluded two of them: Mouse Cleaning and Casanova Cat.
It is believed that Mouse Cleaning was excluded because there was too much to be edited and hardcore fans would demand another callback (Volume 1 had a major callback issue thanks to accidental inclusion of edited shorts). Mammy has several speaking lines and the last scene has what Americans would call one of the most racist depictions in any cartoon.
As always, I think that cartoons should be kept as they are. Children that watched them 20 years ago haven’t become racist and they know that acting on racism is bad. Today, children are taught the same thing. There is no need to change history. All we can do now is produce politically correct cartoons and still enjoy the old ones that we all love.
Don’t get weirded out, this is actually pretty cool.
Finally, it’s time for another cartoon! I don’t know if this is officially banned but I’m pretty sure it is labeled as inappropriate for children’s cartoons time slots. Even in today’s standards it seems weird that Disney would collaborate with Kotex to produce a public service cartoon. However, the innocence of the whole thing is just incredibly charming and sweet, not to mention educational of course.
Commentaries and reviews of this cartoon today mention the fact that sex is not mentioned at all. I really don’t see why that is even significant, even in cultures where premarital and teenage sex is common. I mean, when a mother explains puberty and the cycle to her young daughter does she really expect that she is or will be having sex some time soon? This cartoon was targeted at young women who are around the average age when they would start their cycles, so discussing sex was not relevant. And besides, it was the 1940s. The Hays Code was in effect and not even motion pictures were allowed to suggest or refer to sex. Not even between married couples (couples’ bedrooms had two twin beds or a character was not allowed to be on the bed at the same time as that character’s partner)!
It was produced in 1946 by Disney.
No video? Get the DivX Web Player for Windows or Mac
Fun Fact: Genghis Khan’s cavalry rode female horses. Why? So the soldiers could drink their milk.
I bet you never thought you’d see something like this. This is a commercial for Winston cigarettes starring the Flintstones! Produced in 1961, the Flintstones were sponsored by Winston cigarettes and faced lots of negative reactions since the show was watched by mostly children. However, once Pebbles was born in 1963, it was the end of Winston’s involvement with the Flintstones.
I downloaded this ages ago but it was next in line on the list of cartoons I’m planning on featuring here. Enjoy!
No video? Get the DivX Web Player for Windows or Mac
I’m writing this because I have an unbelievably large workload tonight (all-nighter) and I am experiencing homework-block at the moment.
It’s time for another cartoon. Blitz Wolf, produced in 1942, is another classic children’s tale twisted by MGM’s Tex Avery (remember: Red Hot Riding Hood?). Here, it is a story of the Three Little Pigs featuring the Big Bad Wolf, the huffer and the puffer. The story takes place during World War II. The first two pigs have no problems building houses of straw and wood since they have a treaty with Adolf Wolf. The story goes and the pigs join the smart pig in his highly equipped bunker.
It was really cool seeing a piece of home the other day. Even though it was trash. Here in this town in southern Indiana, I found a flatened out packet of Chicklets gum that was bought in some Arabic country. It was pretty funny so I just had to snap this shot.
Hello peoples! It’s been a really long while but I think it’s time for another banned cartoon. I got 996 spam comments after over a month of not logging on so I really didn’t feel like moderating them. Sorry if your comments were deleted as well. I installed a new anti-spam image plugin, so I hope it’s better than the one I had before. Please let me know if there are any problems.
For the first time, I will be showing a Paramount Productions cartoon starring Betty Boop, Popeye and the rest of his cast of characters. Popeye the Sailor, an episode of the Betty Boop Cartoon series, marks Popeye’s first television appearance after being a character in a popular comic strip. It was produced by Max Fleischer in 1933.
1933 was well before the Civil Rights Movement so it was not unusual for this and numerous other cartoons to portray African Americans in such low levels. The images above show the few references.
The first one shows Olive Oyl about to punch a black animal with characteristic fat lips. Olive Oyl is waiting for Popeye to come out but then this sailor comes up to her and says in a deep voice, “Who you waitin’ fo’ mami?” She responds by giving him a punch. Other sailors, various animals, approach and get refused as well.
The second one is set in a carnival booth where balls are thrown at a person’s head stick out from a hole in the back. Popeye is shown throwing these balls at the black person face. No explaining needed.
The last image has nothing to do with African American references but I personally think it too was a factor in this cartoon not being shown anymore. Betty Boop seductively dances topless with only a Hawaiian lei covering what is necessary. It is probablly thought to be inappropriate for children today. But that’s OK because we all know that back in the day, these cartoons were mostly produced for adults.
Nevertheless, this is no doubt a classic cartoon and I personally like it.
I think it’s time to post another cartoon from my collection. This is a cartoon that isn’t too extreme or very offensive. I want to show it since it pokes fun at Germany. So it is officially a Warner Bros. wartime cartoon. It is also notable for being the first ever cartoon in which Bugs Bunny made “a wrong turn at Alberquerque.” Herr Meets Hare was directed by Friz Ferleng in 1945, one of the more famous cartoon directors of the 30s and 40s. In his lifetime, he made cartoons for MGM and Warner Bros.
Back to the cartoon, even though you see a Cartoon Network logo at the bottom, it is still a banned cartoon. It was broadcast only once during an hour-long episode of Toonheads in which the episode dealt with wartime cartoons. However, stronger and more offensive wartime cartoons like Tokio Jokio (future post) were not and will never be broadcasted.
So the whole cartoon is about Bugs Bunny screwing around with a German hunter. He fools him buy pretending to be Hitler. And when the German captures Bugs and takes him to Hitler, both Germans are made to be sissys when they run away in fear when Bugs pretends to be Russian ally to the USA, Joseph Stalin. A similar gag was used in Russian Rhapsody.
I bet you never thought you’d see something like this. This is a commercial for Winston cigarettes starring the Flintstones! Produced in 1961, the Flintstones were sponsored by Winston cigarettes and faced lots of negative reactions since the show was watched by mostly children. However, once Pebbles was born in 1963, it was the end of Winston’s involvement with the Flintstones.
