Question 690: Black Gold

Id X

Many cartoons from previous decades are routinely edited on international tv (and on some video and DVD collections) today. Usually, the only censorship deemed necessary is the cutting of the occasional perceived racist joke, instance of graphic violence, or scene of a character doing something that parents and watchdog groups fear children will try to imitate (such as smoking, drinking alcohol, ingesting pills and dangerous chemicals freely, playing with fire, and abusing animals).

For example, one classic cartoon gag, most prominent in Tom and Jerry cartoons, is the transformation of characters into a blackfaced caricature after an explosion or an automobile backfire. A script for an episode of Tom and Jerry entitled Mouse Cleaning (1948), had plans to turn Tom into a black-face caricature. Upon questioning by the maid, Tom answers “No, mam. I ain’t seen no cat aroun’ here…uh unh, ain’t no cat, no place, no how-no mam,” in stereotypical African American dialect.Such small amounts of objectionable material only require relatively minor cuts in the cartoon to make it palatable to censors, in spite of objections and sometimes boycotts by fans.

Now the main part..

However, in the case of the ____X______, racist themes are so essential and so completely pervade the cartoons that the copyright holders believe that no amount of selective editing could ever make them acceptable for distribution.

Of the cartoons included in the ___X____ animation historians and film scholars are quickest to defend the two directed by Clampett. Author Michelle Klein-Hass wrote the following:

“

. . . some even look at Clampett's Jazz cartoons and cry racism when Clampett was incredibly ahead of his time and was a friend to many of the greats of the LA jazz scene. All of the faces you see in Tin Pan Alley Cats and Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs are caricatures of real musicians he hung out with at the Central Avenue jazz and blues clubs of the '40s. He insisted that some of these musicians be in on the recording of the soundtracks for these two cartoons.