Tin Pan Alley Cats

From blackwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Tin-pan-alley-lobby.jpg

Tin Pan Alley Cats (1943) is a Warner Bros Merrie Melodies directed by Bob Clampett. This short released in USA 17 July 1943.[1] A follow-up to Clampett's successful Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, released earlier in 1943, Tin Pan Alley Cats focuses upon modern themes of African-American culture, jazz music, and World War II.[2]

Like Coal Black, Tin Pan Alley Cats focuses heavily on stereotypical gags, character designs, and situations involving African-Americans. As such, the film and other Warner Bros. Hence, this short along with another 10 cartoons with similar themes have been withheld from television distribution by United Artists since 1968, and are collectively known as the Censored Eleven

Plot

The cartoon opens with a cat who resembles a Fats Waller caricature going out for a night on the town. He is about to go into a club then a street preacher warns him that he will be tempted with "wine, women and song" if he goes in. However, only excites the cat ("Wine women an' song? What's de motor wid dat?") who immediately runs in. He enjoys the club at first, but he becomes so stunned in the music that he is carried "out-of-this-world" to a manic fantasy realm filled with surreal imagery (including caricatures of Adolf Hitler, Hideki Tojo and Joseph Stalin). He really frightened by this world so much that, when he wakes up, he gives up his partying ways and joins the Salvation Army-style religious music group singing outside, much to their surprise.

The Controversy

Tin Pan Alley Cats heavily focused on stereotypical gags, character designs, and situations involving African-Americans. Characters portrayed with black skin tone, exaggerate big lips, and talking in "Negroid" voice and dialect. The lips took more than a half of the characters’ heads. The artists took care to depict the lips less like a pair of large ovals and with more “human” features like clefts on the upper lips.[3]

External Link

Watch Tin Pan Alley Cats at Dailymotion
Tin Pan Alley Cats at IMDb

References

  1. Tin Pan Alley Cats IMDb retrieved December 20, 2020.
  2. Tin Pan Alley Cats retrieved December 20, 2020
  3. Cartoon Research retrieved December 20, 2020.