Censored 11
At the time of their release, the so-called "Censored Eleven" passed the production code. Moreover, original reviews show that they were actually well-received by many.
Because the Code stated: "Indecent or undue exposure is forbidden," animators had to draw characters like Betty Boop less provocatively. However, while Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs was also released under the Code, clearly the main character, So White, is definitely provocative.
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"Richard McIntyre, the director of communications for the N.A.A.C.P., wrote in an e-mail message that 'the cartoons are despicable. We encourage the films’ owners to maintain them as they are — that is, locked away in their vaults.”'
-Daniel E. Slotnik
Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land (1931)
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"Piggy is a riverboat captain whose boat is the stage for a band of black musicians and dancers… Meanwhile, Uncle Tom has problems of his own; he's accidentally bumped into a cemetery…"
-Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald
Sunday Go to Meetin' Time (1936)
"Freleng's Sunday Go to Meetin' Time (1936) finds Brother Nicodemus being dragged by the ear by Mammy (mammies were ubiquitous in films dealing with black culture) over to the church (churches were more easily portrayed in predominantly black settings due to the vivacity of their worship rituals). He then slips off in the opposite direction to try and steal a few chickens. After a knock on the noggin, he wakes up at his judgment in Hades, where, for stealing chickens and watermelons, he is damned by the devil." |
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Clean Pastures (1937)
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"Clean Pastures is really remarkable because it shows how much more attentive to skin tone cartoonists were then on Broadway, and how Al Jolson's blackface image had become. In short, heaven---known as Pair-O-Dice---is in trouble because Harlem Negroes (all Negroes live in Harlem) are too busy singing and dancing to listen to the gospel. They will not be lured by promises of watermelon and so on. The brainstorm solution is that the angels will have to swing the colored people into Pair-O-Dice. Appropriately skin-toned caricatures of Cab Calloway, Waller, Louis Armstrong, and a blacked-up Jolson (!) are the emissaries of heavy butt-shaking. Of course, the Negroes---all anonymous Negroes are dark--- go to the Pair-O-Dice in droves." |
Uncle Tom's Bungalow (1937)
"The story of Uncle Tom's cabin,parodied with modern touches such as Simon-Simon Legree (pronounced seemoan-seemoan) selling Uncle Tom to Topsy and Little Eva like a used car and then repossessing when they fail to keep up with the installments." |
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The Isle of Pingo Pongo (1938)
All This and Rabbit Stew (1941)
"The little colored Sambo decides to try his hand at capturing Bugs Bunny, but meets with the same success as his predecessors. Just as he has the screwy rabbit cornered, Bugs Bunny entices him into a craps game, and little Sambo winds up a sadder and wiser hunter." |
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Tin Pin Alley Cats (1943)
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"Tin Pin Alley Cats showcases a fat mama who quivers, shimmies, and shakes like a bowl full of jelly. Even a piece of chicken, about to be eaten jumps up and dances. A white-suited Cab Calloway cat blowing a blazing,lickerish trumpet promises Fats,'We're gonna send you right outta this world.' After being blasted 'outta dis world!' by smoky hot syncopated drums and torrid trumpet music (Eddie Beal and his band), Fats enters Clampett's wacky zoo of grotesque creatures such as an Al Jolson duck that sings 'Mammy,' and a chained watermelon." |
Angel Puss (1944)
"Li'l Sambo is singing 'Mammy's Little Baby Loves Short'n Bread' on his way to the disagreeable jpb of having to drown a cat (for which he was paid four bits). The wise guy cat escapes the sack and decides to torment the boy by pretending to be his conscience. The cat goads him into dropping the sack into the river. Feeling guilty after performing the act, Sambo walks home sad and frightened. The cat disguises himself as an angel, and when Sambo wanders into a graveyard the cat appears in a ghostly fashion, with halo and harp causing Sambo to through into a series of scare 'takes.'" |
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Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears (1944)
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"The big bad wolf, Red Riding Hood and the Three Bears are spun merrily through this reel, and the wolf comes off a decided last. Seems he can't take the jitterbug proceedings, and everyone but him is a jivin' fool. It's a novelty to see a young girl chasing a wolf for a change." |