JamieP

Hi
I grew up on a steady diet of syndicated Looney Tunes reruns.

I've only recently found out that many of these cartoons were cut for modern eyes.

What do people here think of this?

milo bloom

The DVD releases show most of them uncut. They have introductions from celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg talking about their historical significance. I think most of the really bad ones just haven't been released at all.

Ash Ketchum

COAL BLACK AND DE SEBBEN DWARFS (1943) was never cut, because it was, in all likelihood, never shown on TV. I'm not suggesting it should have been, but it should be available for those who are curious to see it. Same with CLEAN PASTURES (1937), although it's far less egregious. I wonder how many of the cartoons with black stereotypes throughout the short ever got shown on TV at all, e.g. the two I just mentioned plus the Lantz cartoons, UNCLE TOM'S CABANA, SCRUB ME MAMA WITH A BOOGIE BEAT and VOODOO IN HARLEM. The only place I've ever seen them is at theaters, museums and film societies showing cartoon retrospectives, although I think SCRUB ME MAMA is available on one of the Walter Lantz DVD collections. I remember seeing lots of cartoons with stereotyped cannibals on TV as a child, but I don't recall any of the ones I listed above being shown.

The cut ones tend to have one racist gag that gets cut or a blackface number (usually quite innocuous) or a depiction of suicide. (e.g. The "frog croaking" gag in one of the Tex Avery travelogue shorts, or the one that ends with the pet who's just seen something really crazy and goes, "Now I've seen everything" and then shoots himself.)

The Cow

^^ They are out there in YouTube land

zyzzle

... In horrible quality. Tenth-generation, triply compressed shit.

thetao

I don't follow developments closely, but agree with the previous poster that official, high-quality releases of classic cartoons (vs. PD releases that are usually thrown together) are generally released intact. If a cartoon is so offensive that the disclaimer isn't enough, it likely hasn't been released at all. Check out the plight of WB's Censored Eleven, which may one day still see the light of day.

But as the home video market winds down and film people at the studios are no longer necessarily calling the shots, censorship is just one issue. OAR is being violated, to appease buyers who apparently now expect everything to be in widescreen. So sad.

UAIOE

So the fight used to be to make sure everything was shown in its proper widescreen format. Now the fight it to make sure things shot in fullscreen remain that way?

Is this an episode of "The Twilight Zone"?

Loventino

The XXI century - all right!

Sweetygirl

I love Looney Tunes but Loventino says it all right!

My Other Self

Things weren't shot in "full screen" -- the Academy ratio was 1.37:1, so if something was released theatrically in that ratio, then it needs to stay that way. It was the ratio all Hollywood films shot on 35mm used form 1932 to 1952. Beginning in 1953, theaters started matting their non-anamorphic films with varying wider ratios.

The fight wasn't for "widescreen." The fight was for OAR -- the way the film was originally exhibited.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I'd be satisfied if they put out a special edition of the cartoons that make people faint. Then the people that can't handle the past don't have to worry about it.

I may seem jaded towards these people but people these days get offended over the tiniest things. We had an event and the posters had a background color of red. We got calls saying the red was making them feel angry and uncomfortable. I can see how a cartoon with a Confederate flag could make this same person literally poop themselves before fainting.

BobO'Link

I'm with you. IMHO, the overly PC environment today is far worse than anything from history. People have forgotten how to take a *joke*. I grew up with that stuff and don't recall *anyone* ever being offended *unless they were looking to be offended from the start*! Even if some of that material *is* truly offensive, rewriting history by getting all PC and editing content is *not* the way to learn. You must embrace it, look at it in context, and come away with a new perspective on and appreciation of the past. Stereotypes exist for a *reason* and there are stereotypes for just about everything and every group. I saw most of the "offensive" cartoons on TV as a kid and we thought nothing about them. I later learned many of those "offensive" cartoons were originally applauded by the very groups who later found them offensive.

To quote Bob Clampett, who produced Coal Black...
The story is pretty much the same for the rest of the "offensive" cartoons.

And don't get me started on the do-gooder parent groups who caused the banning and editing of other classic cartoons (as well as The Three Stooges and Little Rascals/Our Gang shorts) because of "violence" and other "inappropriate" behavior.

My Other Self

I only saw They Stooge to Conga once on the Family Channel, in a heavily edited form, back in the late 90s. I had never seen The Yoke's on Me on TV at all, even going back to the 80s when they had their resurgence in popularity. It wasn't until the Missing 60 went back in to the syndication package and AMC showed it a few years ago that I actually viewed it on a television station.

The first time I had ever seen it was on DVD.

Hokeyboy

Not a Loony Tune, but that Popeye where he shoots and murders Shorty at the end (with the caption "THE BITTER END") shocked the shit outta me when I first saw it. I thought I was dreaming.

HAPPY BIRTHDAZE was the episode. Skip to 7:10:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/aMJrM80r50A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

My Other Self

I remember seeing that Popeye short somewhere when I was a kid (maybe on 16mm?), but I don't remember that ending. Holy shit.

Hokeyboy

^I believe Cartoon Network used to broadcast it without the final 45 seconds. Holy shit is right!

PhantomStranger

Interesting stuff has come out in the recent past about Warner's release policies of questionable historical material. Apparently there is a single executive at WB holding up all of the racially-oriented offensive material from seeing a release. This person has deemed content of that type too offensive to be permitted on home video. As long the person remains in their position of power, I doubt you'll ever get questionable material from WB.

My Other Self

The Censored 11 have been restored and screened at different venues within the past few years. They were supposed to get a general retail release (not Warner Archive), but something must have happened for them to just sit on them since they paid good money for their preservation.

Hokeyboy

Mammy Two-Shoes is an American icon.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Eh, people were always getting shot in cartoons when I was growing up and they didn't actually show Shorty dead. Honestly, I would have been happy if he shot Olive Oil and they showed it. Never understood the appeal.

BobO'Link

Yep. All you see is the muzzle flash.

The first time I saw the edited version of the Bugs Bunny short Hillbilly Hare I about came unglued! *ALL* the scenes of the hillbillies shooting each other were gone! The continuity of the short, as well as many jokes, was ruined! This was one they should have just banned rather than edit because of all the shooting. Of course this was on network TV and I'd grown up watching *all* the Looney Tunes shorts unedited on local TV. My kids never knew anything was wrong until I pointed it out.

PhantomStranger

The executive I mentioned is the person blocking their home video release, point blank. There is no need for idle speculation. They were remastered without consideration for release, that was a decision by a different department. This extends to all of their insensitive cartoons, not just these 11 shorts.

My Other Self

Do you have a source for this executive business? Jerry Beck himself said they were getting a release, and he's more plugged in than anyone.

PhantomStranger

I can't name names.

Hokeyboy

To be fair, this is quite different from when Daffy Duck gets shot in the face by Elmer Fudd and his beak is comically on the other side of his head, or when Tom gets shot in the face by a shotgun-wielding Jerry and he instantly turns into a Steppen Fetchit clone.

This was a bit darker than that. Shorty started the cartoon almost committing suicide by gunshot to the head. Cut to the end, with the two of them stuck in that furnace, Shorty having ruined Popeye's birthday, and is annoyingly singing "Happy Birthday To My Pal" in the dark... then a sudden GUNSHOT and absolute silence... and then the "The Bitter End" caption over foreboding, minor key orchestrations. I'm not saying its "Serbian Film" levels of depravity, but holy fuck, to an impressionable kid, that was just WRONG, man!