20. Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land (1931)

All Bosko cartoons I review could also benefit from this disclaimer, but disclaimer: seeing as this is the first entry in the Censored 11, this review contains racist imagery, content, and stereotypes. I don’t in any way endorse these, nor do I take pleasure displaying them on my blog. However, it would be wrong of me to gloss over this and act like it didn’t happen, and that everything’s fine. These are issues that need to be discussed and can’t be shoved under the rug. This is purely for informational and educational purposes. If there’s anything I can do to make this easier to get through, PLEASE let me know, and PLEASE correct me if I say anything offensive or hurtful. Your enjoyment and your comfort are my priority, and I don’t want to squander that because of a careless mistake. Thank you for understanding and I hope this can serve as an educational source of information.

Release date: November 28th, 1931

Series: Merrie melodies

Director: Rudolf Ising

Starring: Johnny Murray (Piggy), Rudolf Ising (Alligator, Villain), Ken Darby (Uncle Tom), The King's Men (Chorus)

As I mentioned above, this is the first entry in the infamous Censored 11 list. For some background information, the Censored 11 is a group of cartoons held from syndication starting in 1968, because the use of ethnic stereotypes (specifically black stereotypes) was too offensive to show to audiences. (In my opinion that list should be WAYYY longer, but I digress.) In this cartoon, Piggy tries to rescue a kidnapped Fluffy on a steamboat, whereas an epithetical, doglike Uncle Tom is terrorized by skeletons in a graveyard. A steamboat and some skeletons, certainly sounds familiar, doesn’t it? 

The cartoon opens with three blackface caricatures playing the eponymous song “Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land” on a banjo, mouth harp, and spoons. The song is catchy with some beautiful layered harmonies, though the caricatures make it hard to appreciate.

We get a shot of the steamboat they’re aboard on the moonlit water. I’m sure you can tell, but this time we’re ripping off Disney with Steamboat Willie (it gets less subtle in a minute). However, I love the above gag of the steamboat heading down the waterfall. The backgrounds are quite moody and beautiful, too. I love moonlit backgrounds though, especially in black and white cartoons.

Now we see why this is in the Censored 11 (if the blackface wasn’t enough). Fluffy happens to be riding on a horse drawn (donkey drawn, really) cart with a doglike Uncle Tom epithet, both of them giving a few lyric-less bars of “Camptown Races” in the style of Foghorn Leghorn. A whistle sounds, and Fluffy urges “Oh, there’s the boat! Hurry, Uncle Tom!” Uncle Tom whips the donkey and they race off.

Ahh, subtlety! Mickey Piggy is the captain of the steamboat, dancing while ringing various bells and horns to the beat of the underscored music.

Fluffy and Uncle Tom arrive just in time for the steamboat to dock. Fluffy boards the boat, leaving Piggy tasked with carrying her heavy luggage that briefly dips him into the water as the bridge sags beneath its weight.

Fluffy bids Uncle Tom farewell, and the passengers dance and clap along to the jazz band blaring out a tune. Piggy and Fluffy are also dancing, but Piggy, being the intelligent porcine he is, is perched right on the edge of the boat.

He predictably falls off, landing on the paddled wheels which smack him repeatedly before sending him flying. He then lands on an alligator, mistaking it for a rock.

Dodging the alligator’s snapping jaws, he swims to a nearby log, plucks a twig off the side and plants it in his butt to use as a propeller. He hugs the log and speeds away, losing the alligator and climbing back to safety. Amusing gag, but highly predictable.

Focus is back on Uncle Tom, who’s back on the carriage with the donkey. Perpetuating the stereotype of black people being “lazy”, he’s asleep. The donkey’s tail occasionally hits him, causing him to wake up and go back to sleep. Tired of getting swatted at, Tom ties a rock to the tail of the donkey. The donkey is undeterred and hits him on the head with the rock, which sends him flying, landing conveniently in a nearby graveyard. Honestly, this entire sequence is more cringeworthy and uncomfortable than it is funny.

As Uncle Tom frightfully roams the graveyard, a mausoleum opens up to reveal a swarm of bats, followed by a gang of singing skeletons.

Uncle Tom and the skeletons engage in a call and response musical number, singing “Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land”. The singing is good, but once more hard to appreciate with Uncle Tom right there, not to mention this is a blatant ripoff of Disney’s The Skeleton Dance. And man, to think that Chuck Jones’ early cartoons were Disneyesque! Gags include a tiny skeleton dog rising from a grave and barking, receiving a swift kick by a skeleton back into the grave.

Justifiably terrified, Uncle Tom escapes the graveyard by diving through a hole in the crumbling brick wall. He spots a boat on the ground, and à la Fred Flintstone picks it up and runs, diving into the lake. However, because there’s no bottom, it’s useless, and he swims away. I DO enjoy that gag (as much as I can), stereotypical in the usage of the gag but amusing nonetheless.

More stereotypes as we find out that Uncle Tom can’t swim. Cut back to Piggy and Fluffy, who hear his cries for help. Piggy heroically declares “I’ll save Uncle Tom!” and dives off the side of the boat...

...straight out of his Mickey Mouse patented pants. He swims back in the air to get them, diving back in the water. Again, another funny gag, but it has more potential than humor to it. In my opinion, My Favorite Duck uses the same gag much more effectively.

Enter the Tex Avery villain (not actually Tex Avery, he wouldn’t come aboard until 1935, but this type of villain would be used in many of his shorts, like The Blow Out and Milk and Money). The villain kidnaps Fluffy, and Piggy, already tasked with saving Uncle Tom (who he’s dragging to shore) has to swoop in to the rescue.

Piggy scales a passing mail hook and snatches Fluffy to safety, leaving the vaudevillian dangling by his coat on the hook.

But that’s not all! Piggy teaches the villain a lesson by lowering the hook above a conveniently placed buzz saw, torturing the villain and cutting his ass open. Jesus! Piggy and Fuffy embrace and laugh merrily as the torture ensues. Iris out.

Well... where to begin? Obviously, this one was uncomfortable to get through. It’s unfortunate but also true—this is the tamest of the Censored 11. I found myself cringing and constantly thinking about the stereotypes, and because of that I had a hard time appreciating any positive elements, such as bits of good animation and a swingy music score. The stereotypes were there, but sadly pale in comparison as to some of the things we’ll be seeing... but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Uncomfortableness aside with the content, this short itself was pretty boring and not very funny. The backgrounds were nice and moody, and I enjoyed the music, but that’s about it. (Watch at your own discretion of course, it wouldn’t be right of me not to link this and act like it doesn’t exist.)

18. You Don't Know What You're Doin'! (1931)

Release date: October 21st, 1931

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Rudolf Ising

Starring: Johnny Murray (Piggy), The King's Men (Drunkards), Orlando Martin (Car)

Exit Foxy, enter Piggy! Piggy would have an even shorter career than Foxy, spanning only 2 cartoons (his next short being our first entry in the censored 11, further obscuring any chances of notoriety). His name is derived from a childhood classmate of Friz Freleng, a pair of brothers who were named “Porky” and “Piggy” (Freleng would go on to create our favorite stuttering pig in I Haven’t Got a Hat in 1935). In this cartoon, Piggy and a group of men get drunk at a theatre, making for a wild string of surreal imagery as they go on a wild goose chase after a car.

Our story begins with a criminally catchy display of the titular song “You Don't Know What You're Doin'!”. The lion maestro conducts the orchestra, and gets so caught up in the swing that his pants (“pants”) fall down. Embarrassed, he hikes them back up as the song blazes on.

There’s a rather impressive crowd shot of the crowd bottlenecking into the theatre (reminds me of Picador Porky and Porky and Daffy to name a few). What a shot! These crowd shots would drastically improve in the next few years, but for 1931, this is impressive. Next we meet our hero, Piggy, who’s puttering along on his motorcycle. He has a sidecar handy, which clues us in that he’s headed to pick someone up.

Sure enough, he pulls into the driveway of a house, his bike sputtering and stalling to a halt.

A silhouette shot reveals Piggy’s motives: he’s here to pick up his girlfriend, who’s happily scatting away while literally powdering her nose. Piggy pokes the stomach of a cherub statue blowing on a horn, prompting an actual car horn to blare. Piggy, being the charmer he is, skips straight to the point: “Make it snappy, Fluffy!” Fluffy is undeterred by his bluntness and coos “Okay, baby!” 

There’s another crowd shot pouring into the theatre before focusing on the lovebirds, puttering along on their way. Piggy’s faulty bike conveniently stalls out as they approach the theatre, with a guard laughing at the failure. Piggy and Fluffy hop out of the bike, crawling under the guard’s legs with their snouts in the air. The bike takes a life of its own and also stalks away, blowing a fume of exhaust in the face of the guard. We get yet another blackface gag where the guard cries “Mammy!” in reference to Al Jolson. As always (and I have a feeling I’ll be saying this quite often in many a review), I could easily do without the blackface. Again, I understand that it was in reference to Al Jolson who was a bit of a powerhouse at the time (and would continue to be), but still.

Piggy and Fluffy make their way into the theatre, where the lion maestro is conducting away. Piggy goes up to a hippo playing in the band, laughs, and pulls his concert bib(? Flap? White thing?), launching the hippo (rightfully) into an indistinct tirade. Fine with their cruelty, Piggy and Fluffy take their seats.

The concert rages on, complete with a line of cat dancers in the background. The lion conducts the bird playing a horn, whose body stretches thinner and taller as he gets more involved. Eventually, the lion gets fed up at the bird’s upstaging and hits him on the head. I just want to add, I LOVE the asbestos curtain. Things that get funnier as they age! 

Fluffy enjoys the concert, clapping and beaming. Piggy, not so much. He hops out of his seat and blows a raspberry in protest.

Initiating another lyrical music sequence, Piggy protests “You don't know what you're doin'!” A horse playing in the orchestra speaks with his trombone, blowing “Oh yeah? Is that so?” Piggy marches up on stage, picking up a spare saxophone and responding “Yes, that’s so!” The two laugh into their respective instruments, and Piggy launches into a saxophone rendition of “Silver Threads Among the Gold”.

However, he’s interrupted by the sound of offscreen humming to the same song. The sound is from a group of drunk dogs, who laugh and insist “You don’t know what you’re doin’!” 

Piggy and the drunks jump into a call and response singing battle, insisting that the other party doesn’t know what they’re doin’. The music is delightful! The drunks sing in some beautiful harmonies, and the underscore is lush and catchy, the syncopation of the music furthering the effect. It’s certainly an earworm and definitely worthy of a listen.

Once the song is finished, the drunks are greeted by applause. The main dog in the middle gets a swell head, bowing and eating the attention up. He eats it so much that he topples over the box seat, bounces off a timpani drum and lands on the stage, much to Piggy (and the audience)’s amusement, who laughs at him.

Nevertheless, the drunk is undeterred. He pulls out a bottle and takes a few swigs, stumbling around and burping in Piggy’s face. The dangers of second hand drinking! Piggy himself gets inebriated from the impact. Alcohol has always been used as a comedy device. Quite honestly, I think it’s funnier in this era. We’re still in prohibition, and we have all these cartoons about getting drunk! I guess if you can’t have a drink, the next best thing is watching some cartoon characters drink it for you.

Piggy and the dog stumble out of the theatre, and we’re launched into this beautifully surreal scene. Piggy steals the dog’s drink and pours it into the engine of his own car, causing the car to get drunk. The car hiccups and “sings” along to the music, vocals provided by Orlando Martin. He sounds great as the car! Not unlike the adults in the Peanuts television specials.

Edit: It was actually Martin playing into the trombone rather than speaking—that’s what I assumed, but didn’t specify here. Oops! 

This scene is pretty hard to describe, other than beautifully surreal! The best thing to do is check it out for yourself. The car gets startled and runs (drives?) away from Piggy. Piggy chases after it, stumbling and trying to maintain his balance. The drunken dog also pursues in the chase just for the hell of it.

I can’t stress this enough, the visuals are stunning! This entire scene parallels another drunken frenzy in lady, play your mandolin!, though the surreal and imaginative nature of it all reminds me of Porky in Wackyland. Clock towers come to life, shaking their hips, sewer drains roar like monsters, lampposts gallop like horses... it’s beautiful! 

Thankfully for Piggy and the dog, the drunken hallucinations soften as they land in the bed of a truck. The truck, clearly startled, gallops away and dumps them off the edge of a cliff where they land squarely in a trash can. Drunken spirits rage on, as the two exclaim “whoopee!”. Iris out.

Without a doubt, this is my favorite cartoon so far. It’s beautiful! The pacing is just right. It’s definitely on par with the cartoons we’d be seeing in the late 30s and early 40s during the black and white era. The music is fantastic, with beautiful harmonies, a terrific underscore, swinging jazz... It’s such a spirit raiser! The only downfall is the blackface gag. I absolutely recommend this cartoon if you‘re in the need for something feel-good. If you don’t watch it, well, you don’t know what you’re doin’!