| Censored Eleven |
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''. The character designs for "So White" and her seven friends are examples of the racist Darky Iconography typical of Hollywood animation during the first half of the 20th century. As a result, ''Coal Black'' and ten similar cartoons have been removed from circulation and are little known today among mainstream audiences.]] The Censored Eleven is a group of '' Looney Tunes '' and '' Merrie Melodies '' cartoons that were withheld from Syndication by United Artists in 1968 . UA owned the distribution rights to the Associated Artists Productions library at that time, and decided to pull these eleven cartoons from broadcast because they are based around racist depictions of Black s and are deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences. The ban has been upheld by UA and the successive owners of the ''Looney Tunes'' catalog to this day, and these shorts have not been officially broadcast on television since the late 1960s . CONTROVERSY Many cartoons from previous decades are routinely Edited on in international Television (and on some video and DVD collections) today. Usually, the only censorship deemed necessary is the cutting of the occasional Racist joke, instance of graphic Violence , or scene of a character doing something that parents and watchdog groups fear children will try to imitate (such as smoking, drinking alcohol, ingesting pills and dangerous chemicals freely, playing with fire, and abusing animals). For example, one classic cartoon gag, most prominent in MGM 's '' Tom And Jerry '' cartoons, is the transformation of characters into a Blackface caricature after an explosion or an automobile Back-fire . Such small amounts of objectionable material only require relatively minor cuts in the cartoon to make it palatable to censors, in spite of objections and sometimes boycotts by fans. However, in the case of the Censored Eleven, racist themes are so essential and so completely pervasive to the cartoons that the copyright holders believe that no amount of selective editing can ever make them acceptable for distribution. Of the cartoons included in the Censored Eleven, animation historians and film scholars are quickest to defend the two directed by Bob Clampett , '' Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs '' and '' Tin Pan Alley Cats ''. The former, a Jazz -based parody of Walt Disney 's '' Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs '', is frequently included on lists of the "greatest" cartoons ever made, while the latter is a hot jazz re-interpretation of Clampett's now-classic 1938 short '' Porky In Wackyland ''. In a Usenet message on the Newsgroup ''rec.arts.animation'' writer and author Michelle Klein-Hass wrote: :". . . some even look at Clampett's Jazz cartoons and cry racism when Clampett was incredibly ahead of his time and was a friend to many of the greats of the LA jazz scene. All of the faces you see in ''Tin Pan Alley Cats'' and ''Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs'' are caricatures of real musicians he hung out with at the Central Avenue jazz and blues clubs of the '40s. He insisted that some of these musicians be in on the recording of the soundtracks for these two cartoons." -- message posted on February 24 , 2002 When he obtained distribution rights to all pre- 1948 Warner Bros. cartoons in 1986 , Ted Turner vowed that he would not distribute or air any cartoons from the Censored Eleven. Since '' with one of the cartoons ('' Frigid Hare '', which depicts a stereotypical Eskimo trying to kill a baby penguin, and was still seen on Cartoon Network as late as 2002) featured on the set uncut and uncensored. Also in 2003, Cartoon Network animation documentary show "ToonHeads" had a one-hour special centered on World War II-era cartoons and two World War II-era Bugs Bunny shorts ('' Herr Meets Hare '' shown in full and '' Bugs Bunny Nips The Nips '' shown in clips in a short montage about the grotesque depictions of Japanese people at the time) were shown. While none of the shorts included on the disks are part of the Censored Eleven, many of the cartoons that were included were routinely censored on television, but were included uncut on DVD. Furthermore, each DVD from collection includes a similar disclaimer, only it was written on a gold card and merely summarized the point that while the cartoons are considered offensive today for what they depict, they're not going to be shown censored because editing out the racist depictions (and denying that the racism of the era ever happened) is worse than actually showing them. Despite the efforts of UA, Turner, and Time Warner, many of the Censored Eleven are available on Bootleg video. ''Jungle Jitters'' and ''All This and Rabbit Stew'' are now in the Public Domain , and frequently turn up on Home Video releases and video searches on the Internet. CENSORED ELEVEN LIST The cartoons in the Censored Eleven are: # '' Hittin' The Trail For Hallelujah Land '' ( 1931 , directed by Rudolph Ising ) # '' Sunday Go To Meetin' Time '' ( 1936 , directed by Friz Freleng ) # '' Clean Pastures '' ( 1937 , directed by Freleng) # ''Uncle Tom's Bungalow'' ( 1937 , directed by Tex Avery ) # ''Jungle Jitters'' ( 1938 , directed by Freleng) # ''The Isle of Pingo Pongo'' ( 1938 , directed by Avery) # '' All This And Rabbit Stew '' ( 1941 , directed by Avery) # '' Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs '' ( 1943 , directed by Robert Clampett ) # '' Tin Pan Alley Cats '' ( 1943 , directed by Clampett) # ''Angel Puss'' ( 1944 , directed by Chuck Jones ) # ''Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears'' ( 1944 , directed by Freleng) Friz Freleng directed the largest number of cartoons on the list (4 total), followed by Tex Avery with three, and Bob Clampett with only two cartoons to make the list. Rudolf Ising, like Chuck Jones, only has one cartoon on the list. ''Angel Puss'' is the only cartoon directed by Chuck Jones on the list as well as the only cartoon in the Looney Tunes series. The rest are Merrie Melodies. ''All This and Rabbit Stew'' is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon to appear on the list. Several more cartoons have been removed from circulation since this list was created (but aren't added onto the Censored Eleven list, though most of the cartoons censored do contain extensive blackface gags and/or black stereotypes), such as ) and ''Half-Pint Pygmy'' ( 1948 ), even though they're not Warner Bros. cartoons. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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