Hittin' The Trail For Hallelujah Land (1931)
Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land is Warner Bros Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Rudolf Ising. The short was released on November 28, 1931. [1]
This cartoon centers on Piggy's effort to rescue his girlfriend and a doglike Uncle Tom from from perilous predicaments and villains. However United Artists who owned the distribution rights to the Associated Artists Productions at that time decided to pulled out this cartoon along with other 10 cartoons from broadcast because the use of ethnic stereotypes in the cartoons, specifically African stereotypes, was deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences. Later on this list known as Censored Eleven.
Plot
Three workers on a riverboat sing the title tune, accompanying themselves on a banjo, a jew's harp and bones. Meanwhile, Uncle Tom drives Fluffy the pig on a donkey cart to the dock, where she can board the riverboat to meet her boyfriend Piggy the captain. Piggy's adventures include riding the tail of an alligator, rescuing Fluffy from a moustache-twirling villain and saving Uncle Tom from drowning. Uncle Tom had had his own adventure when he inadvertently wound up in a graveyard. The skeletons had risen from their graves promising to take him to Hallelujah Land.
The Controversy
Throughout the book Uncle Tom lives in slavery in the South. Thus, any reference to Uncle Tom in cartoons is a reference to a slave. So it is with Hittin, but Uncle Tom demonstrates his service by driving Fluffy in the wagon. The minstrel song Camptown Ladies not only musically shapes the setting but contributes to Uncle Toms ethnic depiction when he alone sings the song. Sound also constructs his ethnicity when he says, Holy mackerel–a catchphrase from fictional African American character Andy Brown of the contemporary radio sitcom Amos n Andy.[2]
External Link
Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land Youtube Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land IMDb
