Angel Puss

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Angel Puss is a 1944 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. The cartoon was released on June 3, 1944.[1] Angel Puss is one of the Censored Eleven, a group of Warner Bros animated shorts that are withdrawn by United Artists from circulation due to their dated racist stereotyping and portrayals back in 1968.

Angel Puss Sambo.jpg

Plot

A young African-American boy - drawn in blackface race style - carries a sack to a river and mourns because he has agreed to drown a cat. While the boy stares at the water, the cat slips out of the sack and fills it with bricks. When the boy says that he can't drown the sack and can't complete the task, the hidden cat, pretending to be the boy's conscience, says, "Go ahead, Sambo, go ahead, boy" and reminds him that he has been paid "four bits" to do the job. Sambo hesitantly drops the bag in the river rather than return the money. Regret because of his decision Sambo walked spiritless saying "My goodness what I have done?".

The cat then disguises itself as its own ghost, painting itself white and donning wings and a halo, and proceeds to "haunt" Sambo by repeatedly sneaking up on him and scare him "boo." He runs away, but the cat rattles a pair of dice, causing Sambo to fall into trance and sleepwalk back to the cat.

The hauntings continue until Sambo and the cat fall in a pond, washing off the cat's paint. When Sambo realized that he has been tricked, he kills the cat with a shotgun blast. Immediately, a line of nine ghost cats marches toward Sambo, saying, "And this time, brother, us ain't kiddin'."

The Controversy

The film contains stereotypical portrayals of African-Americans, hence it is no longer available in any type of authorized release. Sambo portrayed has black skin, big lips, half-closed eyes, except when his eyes enlarge upon fright, he is also slow talked and spiritless. Both Sambo and the cat have dialects, as when the cat says, “Us ain’t kiddin’.” Sambo’s “Get goin’, feet,” resembles Fetchit’s catchphrase, “Feet, don’t fail me now”.[2]
The dice which turns Sambo in trance hypnotized shows stereotype of African American gambling attitude.

External Link

Watch Angel Puss at Dailymotion
Angel Puss at IMDb

References

  1. Angel Puss retrieved December 20, 2020
  2. Cartoon Research retrieved December 20, 2020