Angel Puss (1944)

A little black boy is hired to kill a cat, but the feline escapes and proceeds to play tricks on the kid, pretending he's a ghost come back to haunt his "killer."

Director:

Chuck Jones

Writer:

Lou Lilly (story)

Stars:

Mel Blanc

Cast

Uncredited cast:
Mel Blanc	...	Lil' Sambo / Angel Puss (voice) (uncredited)

Storyline

A little black boy is hired to kill a cat, but the feline escapes and proceeds to play tricks on the kid, pretending he's a ghost come back to haunt his "killer."

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Plot Keywords:

cat | cartoon cat | black male distracted by rambling of dice | children | racial | 

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Genres:

Family | Animation | Short | Comedy

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 June 1944 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

7 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the "Censored 11" banned from TV syndication by United Artists in 1968 (then the owners of the Looney Tunes film library) for alleged racism. Ted Turner continued the ban when he was hired and stated that these films will not be re-issued and will not be put on Home Video. These cartoons will probably never air on television again, and only non-Warner Bros. licensed public domain video tapes will probably ever have these cartoons on them.

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Connections

Edited into Uncensored Cartoons (1982)

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Soundtracks

"Angel in Disguise"
(uncredited)
Music by Stefan Weiß and Paul Mann
Lyrics by Kim Gannon
Sung by Cat

User Reviews

Good story, but...

This cartoon is an example of good stories done the wrong way. It seems that writer Lou Lilly (he wrote this short, NOT Warren Foster) suggested the idea of a little kid having to drown a cat but the cat manages to survive and heckles him then, sounds good so far, but they decided to go with the racial stereotyping, causing this cartoon to be shoved in the vaults. I believe they could have perfectly used one of the "regular" characters in this cartoon (this could have been a good time for Porky to show up), as the jokes themselves are not racist at all (except obviously for the gambling scene). The music is good, but nothing you haven't heard in any other Carl Stalling cartoon, the animation is good and filled with those facial expressions that only Chuck Jones made. All in all, a good short with a good story that may sadly never be shown on TV, the only public domain video that has it is called "Uncensored Cartoons", but since it seems to be discontinued, you'll have to work your way hard into the video stores if you want to watch this cartoon.