Andrea/Duck Dodgers here. I friendly welcome every fan of animation at my blog. The goal is to support the love and rediscovery of Classic Theatrical Cartoons from the Golden Age of Animation, keeping meanwhile an eye on Golden Age "Funny Animals" Comics as well as on modern animated productions! Every SUPPRESSED ethnic caricature to be sometimes presented here is just for HISTORICAL and EDUCATIONAL purpose and NOT to offend anyone. Stay Tooned and Enjoy the place !

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Uncle Tom's Cabana - part 1

Uncle Tom's Cabana (1947) is Tex Avery's forbidden masterpiece, and in my opinion one of his funniest MGM cartoons. Also, it's one of his most "problematic" creations, due to the extreme racial caricatures. Some people today could find this cartoon very offensive, but the visitors of our blog are capable to watch and understand this or other similar cartoons in the proper context.

This cartoon haven't been shown on TV for several decades, and it was officially released only once, as the part of "The Compleat Tex Avery" laserdisc box set. French DVD box set of Avery's cartoons doesn't contain this, and few other controversial titles.

Uncle Tom's Cabana is a very free and loose "adaptation" of the popular book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (already parodied by Avery ten years earlier in his excellent WB cartoon Uncle Tom's Bungalow )
Also, it technically belongs to Avery's "Red Hot Riding Hood" series, only the wolf has been replaced by a human character: Simon Legree, an extreme caricature of the villain from original book. "Red" is in this cartoon called Little Nell, a southern belle, and her dancing scenes were beautifully animated by Preston Blair.

Here are the first 50 screenshots from this cartoon, and they serve as an appetizer for tomorrow. In part two of this post, you'll find 70 more screenshots with some of the most outrageous gags and reactions ever seen in Tex Avery's (or anybody else's) cartoons.




















































Labels:

6 Comments:

Blogger Martin Juneau said...

Great article about one of this "loose" masterpieces of the animation. I already watching it on YouTube and it's a amazing and funniest animation than to the story to animation.

3:35 pm

 
Blogger Kevin W. Martinez said...

The racial caricatures really are a shame, because this really is one of the best cartoons of the Golden Age. Tex is sorely missed.

7:18 pm

 
Blogger cartoonjoe said...

I totally LOVE this cartoon!! I first saw it at an animation film festival in Cincinnati twenty-five years ago, and it had me ROFLMAO!!

(One thing I've always wondered...who did Uncle Tom's voice, because he sounds an awful lot like Charlie Correll, who portrayed Andrerwe H. Brown and Henry Van Porter on the old "Amos 'n' Andy" radio show, but I can find no evidence of this, as IMDB doesn't have voice credits for this cartoon, and none of the A&A literature availiable makes mention of Charlie doing this cartoon {which is odd, because he DID do Andy's voice in the two Van Beuren Amos 'n' Andy cartoons from the early thirties...}...mysteries on mysteries, I guess..)

11:32 pm

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://rapidshare.com/files/113373245/Tex_Avery_-_MGM_1947-07-19_-_Uncle_Tom_s_Cabana.avi

1:01 pm

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

-Uncle Tom's CabaƱa (1947):
http://rapidshare.com/files/300918617/Tex_Avery_-_1947-07-19_-_Uncle_Tom_s_Cabana.avi
http://www.mediafire.com/?auu3oi8cjk19rqa
http://rapidshare.com/files/451170631/Tex_Avery__023_-_Uncle_Toms_Cabana.avi

10:47 pm

 
Blogger wbhist said...

One of the gags in this - "Simon" buttering his jacket sleeves before eating them - was partly lifted by Benny Hill in the "Hill's Angels in New York" sequence of his April 16, 1980 show. In this version, Jackie Wright (the little bald guy) is so transfixed on the pulchritude around him, he puts butter on his sleeve rather than on the bread.

1:32 am

 

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