Clean Pastures

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Clean Pastures is a 1937 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The cartoon was released on May 22, 1937. The cartoon gets the title from the Warner Bros.' 1936 film The Green Pastures.[1] This cartoon also known of it's controversy related to black culture and religion. Hence banned from syndication and grouped under Censored Eleven

Plot

Clean Pastures is, on the whole, a more entertaining and more complex offering. A parody of the film Green Pastures. The short opens with a group of women dress in bra and mini skirt with enormously big lips dancing in a pub, man gambling and playing dices, the bartender shake a cocktail, portrayed Harlem life. Then follows by the angel Gabriel tries to get Harlemites to come to Heaven (or “Pair-o-Dice” as it’s called here)[2] as it's preferences hit low while Hades (or hell) soars. He came all the way to Harlem and met a tap dancer and a ventriloquist but failed to make them join to Pair-o-Dice rhyme with Paradise. Four angels – caricatures of jazz musicians – watch Gabriel from heaven far and devastated by the way Gabriel does his works suggest using “rhythm” to get people to paradise. The music is a huge success, as they sing and dance folks come and join to Heaven – including the Devil himself and the Heaven full again.

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The Controversy

The backgrounds are attractive, the animation is full, and the character-designs are detailed. The vocal artists perform good approximations of Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, the Mills Brothers, and Fats Waller. The caricatures of those musicians are recognizable. The harmony of the singers sounds great. What in the film would have been objectionable to United Artists, the cartoon’s television syndicator, in 1968.[3]
Modern critics of Clean Pastures fault the film for its stereotypical depictions of black culture. Several references to blackface minstrelsy appear within the film. The caricature of entertainer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson hums the minstrel tune “Old Folks at Home” while tap-dancing. A caricature of blackface actor Al Jolson shows up in Harlem together of the African Americans. Minstrel-type speech appears as “Pair-O-Dice” for “Paradise.” Concerning behavioral stereotypes, the “sinners” are shooting craps, and a symbol advertising watermelon is within the cartoon. A caricature of actor Stepin Fetchit performs the stereotypes of the dialect, the shuffling, and therefore the sleepiness lazy spiritless attitude all directly. Moreover, the caricature of Fetchit looks more cartoony and far less detailed and realistic than the jazz musicians, especially with dark-skinned and therefore the oversized lips. Not forget to mentioned the first angel came to Harlem even pictured monkey-like and repeatedly scratching his bald head just like monkey did.


External Link

Clean Pastures video at Daily Motion

References