Uncle Tom's Bungalow

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Uncle Tom's Bungalow is an American Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Tex Avery, and released to theatres on June 5, 1937 by Warner Bros. This cartoon is kind of parody of the 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin and of the "plantation melodrama" genre of the 1930s.[1]

The short contains many stereotypical portrayals of black characters. This cartoon plays off Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel therein portrays an old man named Uncle Tom, and wooden shacks and cotton fields pervade the scenery. Director Tex Avery adds his own sense of humor and "trickster" animation, giving the classic theme a contemporary, humorous twist.

Because of the controversy surrounding their racially stereotypical content in 1968 the cartoon became a part of the Censored Eleven, a group of cartoons withheld from syndication by the television arm of United Artists.[2]

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Plot

This short narrated by a person and opened by characters introduction, blonde little Eva, Topsy, Uncle Tom, Eliza, and Simon-Simon Legree. Simon Legree, the owner of "Smiling Simon Simon Legree Used Slave Co." a company who "sell" human slave (all slaves portrayed with dark skin tone). Uncle Tom is one of the slaves and Simon put him under a price tag, very repugnant and can not be accepted by society. Simon called Uncle Tom and start beating Uncle Tom with whip. Shocked by the scene Eva and Topsy agree to mortgage Uncle Tom and take him back to her house.
Months passed Eva is fall behind her payments and Simon pursues them to take Uncle Tom back. Eliza helps Eva and Topsy run away from Simon. Just as Legree starts catching up to them, Uncle Tom drives up in a fancy car. The old slave then hands Legree the money owed to him, which he won from shooting craps.[3]

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The Controversy

Aside from slavery imagery, some jokes are based on ethnicity and skin color also placed Uncle Tom’s Bungalow on the censored list. On the introduction Topsy was standing in the dark shades which made hard to see because of her dark skin tone. This scene clearly mocking black people about their skin color.
Then Uncle Tom pictured walking very slow with hunched back and shaking legs and also talking in stereotyped dialect. Uncle Tom and Eliza also dressed poorly in tattered clothes to show the audiences how poor they are.
Topsy and Eva switched skin colors when frightened by Legree. The slave figures speak in stereotyped dialect; my book The Colored Cartoon quotes some of their lines as they were written in the script. Also, Tom shoots craps, just as Nicodemus was accused of doing in Sunday Go to Meetin' Time.

External Link

Uncle Tom's Bungalow at IMDb
Uncle Tom's Bungalow video at Dailymotion

References