banned & censored cartoons

Banned & Censored Cartoons

The Players

• Warner Bros.• Walt Disney• Metro Goldwyn

Mayer• National

Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Censorship

Similar to censorship in film, censorship in animation was usually due to external pressures from special interest groups.

Censorship

• Cartoons have always faced censorship. However after World War II cartoons faced excessive censorship as special interest groups gained new voices.

• It can be argued that groups such as the NAACP gained a voice by criticizing imagery…a tradition that continues today.

NAACP vs. Universal

• “…the niggers would be prevented from getting much work in this industry if the NAACP sought to educate people against this kind of humor.”

• Universal Studios, 1948

Multiracial Imagery

• Blacks were not the only ethnicity faced with racist imagery.

The “Blackstapo”

• But they were arguably the most vocal.

The Power to Define

• However, the fight to alter images in animation was an attempt to re-create the image of “blackness” to a more “positive” one according to the NAACP.

MGM

• MGM’s cartoons features multiple racial stereotypes.

Bugs Bunny in Blackface

As did Warner Brothers.

The Censored 11• The Censored 11 are eleven of

United Artists’ Cartoon that were removed from syndication in 1968 because of “racist” content.

• Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land

• Sunday Go Meetin’ Time• Clean Pastures• Uncle Tom’s Bungalow• Jungle Jitters• The Isle of Pingo Pongo• All This and Rabbit Stew• Coal Black and de Sebben

Dwarfs• Tin Pan Alley Cats• Angel Puss• Goldilocks and the Jivin’ Bears

Disney

• And Disney

S.N.A.F.U.

• G. I. SNAFU was created to educate soldiers when the US government thought they would be unable to grasp textbook education.

Nazis

Politically Incorrect

• Nazis wearing Clan Robes

Bugs Bunny

• Bugs der Fuehrer & Comrade Bugs

Mammy Two Shoes

• Mammy Two Shoes was introduced in 1939 when William Hannah and Joseph Barbera teamed up to create a new cartoon series for MGM.

Mammy Two Shoes

• She appeared in 13 episodes of Tom & Jerry.

Lillian Randolph

• Mammy Two Shoes’ voice was portrayed by Lillian Randolph, one of the stars of the series Amos and Andy.

Mammy Two Shoes

• She made her last appearance in 1952, and was later replaced with a thin white woman, and Lillian Randolph’s voice was replaced with a “white” sounding voice.

It can be argued that by objecting to every objectionable image the NAACP is partly responsible for the subsequent lack of black images in cartoons.