''Tin Pan Alley Cats'' is a 1943

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

'' Merrie Melodies'' directed by Bob Clampett. A follow-up to Clampett's successful ''

Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs ''Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs'' is a 1943 '' Merrie Melodies'' animated cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. The short was released on January 16, 1943. The film is an all-black parody of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale ''Snow White'', known to ...

'', released earlier in 1943, ''Tin Pan Alley Cats'' focuses upon contemporary themes of African-American culture,

jazz music Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a maj ...

, and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and features a caricature of jazz musician Fats Waller as an anthropomorphic cat. The short's centerpiece is a fantasy sequence derived from Clampett's black and white '' Looney Tunes'' short ''

Porky in Wackyland ''Porky in Wackyland'' is a 1938 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' animated short film, directed by Bob Clampett. The short was released on September 24, 1938, and stars Porky Pig venturing out to find the last do-do bird, which he finds in Wackyland ...

'' (1938). Like ''Coal Black'', ''Tin Pan Alley Cats'' focuses heavily on stereotypical gags, character designs, and situations involving African-Americans. As such, the film and other Warner Bros. cartoons with similar themes have been withheld from television distribution since 1968, and are collectively known as the

Censored Eleven The Censored Eleven is a group of '' Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' cartoons originally produced and released by Warner Bros. that were withheld from syndication in the United States by United Artists (UA) since 1968. UA owned the dis ...

Plot

The cartoon opens with a cat who resembles a Fats Waller caricature going out for a night on the town. He is about to go into a club when a street preacher warns him that he will be tempted with "

wine, women and song "Wine, women, and song" is a hendiatris that endorses hedonistic lifestyles or behaviors. A more modern form of the idea is often expressed as "sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll", a phrase popularized by British singer Ian Dury in his song of ...

" if he goes in. This, however, only excites the cat ("Wine women an' song? What's de motor wid ''dat''?") who immediately runs in. At first, he enjoys the club, but he becomes so immersed in the music that he is carried "out-of-this-world" to a manic fantasy realm filled with surreal imagery (including caricatures of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

Hideki Tojo Hideki Tojo (, ', December 30, 1884 – December 23, 1948) was a Japanese politician, general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), and convicted war criminal who served as prime minister of Japan and president of the Imperial Rule Assistan ...

and

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

). This world frightens him so much that, when he wakes up, he gives up his partying ways and joins the Salvation Army-style religious music group singing outside, much to their surprise.

Production

In part because of budget limitations and wartime shortages, several sequences borrow animation and audio recordings from earlier Schlesinger cartoons. From Friz Freleng's "products come to life" '' Merrie Melodies'' short, ''

September In The Rain "September in the Rain" is a popular song about nostalgia by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, published in 1937. The song was introduced by James Melton in the film '' Melody for Two''. It has become a standard, having been recorded by many artists ...

'' (1937), the recorded performance of "

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

" is re-used completely intact, and the "Fats Waller" cat, "Louis Armstrong" trumpeter, jitterbugging woman and the trio of singing bartenders are re-purposed for this cartoon. Gags from the "out-of-this-world" sequence feature color-redrawn versions of characters and visuals (along with re-recorded audio segments) from Clampett's ''

''. Segments specifically created for the nightmare sequence (such as the "Rubber (musical) Band" made up of rubber bands) would resurface in Friz Freleng's 1949 color remake of ''Porky In Wackyland'', ''

Dough for the Do-Do ''Dough for the Do-Do'' is a 1949 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on September 2, 1949, and stars Porky Pig. The short is a remake of Bob Clampett's 1938 cartoon ''Porky in Wackyland'', as ...

''.

Reception

Motion Picture Herald The ''Motion Picture Herald'' was an American film industry trade paper published from 1931 to December 1972.Anthony Slide, ed. (1985)''International Film, Radio, and Television Journals'' Greenwood Press. p. 242. It was replaced by the ''QP Heral ...

'' (July 17, 1943): "The trumpet notes of a night club musician are a little too much for Leon Schlesinger's cat and like so many of the present-day jitterbugs, he's sent "out of this world." When he gets there, however, he's happy to return to earth's solid soil for the weird land of phantasy is not all it's cracked up to be. Music and laughs are combined in a pleasant Technicolor cartoon." Author and music critic

Will Friedwald Will Friedwald (born September 16, 1961) is an American author and music critic. He has written for newspapers that include the ''Wall Street Journal'', ''New York Times'', ''Village Voice'', '' Newsday'', '' New York Observer'', and ''New Yor ...

writes, "''Tin Pan Alley Cats'' is an animated equivalent to the live-action features '' Stormy Weather'' (1943) and '' Cabin in the Sky'' (1943), which represented both the climax and the conclusion of the all-black Hollywood musical spectacular... The only thing that's the matter is that ''Tin Pan Alley Cats'' represents a near last stand for both black characters and extended musical numbers in the Hollywood cartoon."

Home media

Following the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

of the 1960s,

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stud ...

withheld ''Tin Pan Alley Cats'', along with the rest of the "

", from American television in 1968.

Turner Entertainment Turner Entertainment Company is an American multimedia company founded by Ted Turner in 1986. Purchased by Time Warner in 1996 as part of its acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), the company was largely responsible for overseeing th ...

(today owned by

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WarnerMedia Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

) acquired the rights to these cartoons in 1986, and has continued to withhold it from release. Of the cartoons included in the Censored Eleven, animation historians and film scholars are quickest to defend the two directed by Bob Clampett: ''

'' and ''Tin Pan Alley Cats''. The former, a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

-based parody of

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

's ''

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...

'', is frequently included on lists of the greatest cartoons ever made, while the latter is a hot jazz re-interpretation of Clampett's short ''Porky in Wackyland'' (1938). Author Michelle Klein-Hass wrote the following: Bootleg copies have surfaced on videotape and DVD.

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Vide ...

has issued restored clips of the film as a part of a supplementary documentary on Bob Clampett on disc three of the '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2'' DVD collector's set. In October 2010, it was announced that a complete version will be officially released, along with the rest of the "Censored 11", on DVD through the ''Warner Archives'' collection. However, a decade later, none of the "Censored 11" have been officially released.

References

External links

* *
''Tin Pan Alley Cats'' on the Internet Archive

''September in the Rain (Blue Ribbon)'' on the Internet Archive
{{Censored Eleven 1943 films 1943 animated films 1943 short films 1940s animated short films Censored Eleven Films directed by Bob Clampett Merrie Melodies short films Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films Animated films about cats Vitaphone short films American World War II propaganda shorts Cultural depictions of Adolf Hitler Cultural depictions of Hideki Tojo Cultural depictions of Joseph Stalin Cultural depictions of Fats Waller Films produced by Leon Schlesinger Films scored by Carl Stalling 1940s Warner Bros. animated short films 1940s English-language films