Looney Tunes short, directed by Chuck Jones, notable today for being one of the Censored Eleven. For those who don't know, the Censored Eleven are cartoons that were withheld from syndication because they were considered to be too offensive due to their use of racial stereotypes and imagery. This is, in my opinion, the most offensive of the Eleven. The story is about a young black kid named Sambo (yes, really) who tries to drown a cat in the river (yes, really). The cat escapes but the boy thinks he's killed it. So, for the rest of the cartoon, the cat pretends to be a ghost and haunts Sambo for laughs. Eventually Sambo realizes what's going on and kills the cat with a shotgun (yes, really). Throughout the short there's all kinds of racist stuff like Sambo being drawn in blackface caricature and speaking in an exaggerated Southern black accent. Also there's the expected stereotype of black men being afraid of ghosts that was a constant fixture in movies of the time featuring black comedians. This is Chuck Jones' only entry on the Censored Eleven. There's really very little of what would later be his signature style on display here. It's a one-joke cartoon and that one joke isn't that funny to begin with. If it weren't for the controversy there really wouldn't be much to say about this. It would be lumped in with dozens of other similarly forgettable shorts from the period. See it for the history, I guess, or maybe if you're a Jones completist. Otherwise I don't see why you'd want to take a look at it.
Review of Angel Puss
