075 Tin Pan Alley Cats

Title: Tin Pan Alley Cats
Studio: WB
Date: 07/17/43 (OMAM 6/26)
Credits:
Supervision
Bob Clampett
Animation
Rod Scribner
Story by
Warren Foster
Musical Direction
Carl W. Stalling
Series: Merrie Melodies (
Running time (of viewed version): 7:24
Commercial DVD Availability: -

Synopsis: Cat has a bad trip at a club, and showing his true idiocy, joins a church.


























Comments: A Censored 11. Incredibly dark silhouette shot of boats in front of a dark sea. Feels like a cut after the dark shot. The girl isn't nearly so appealing as as in Coal Black. Kit Kat Klub got used often in relation to cartoons with their animals (see the Jack Benny cartoon the Mouse that Jack Built, for a memorable example). More silhouettes. The pushiness of evangelicals. The designs feel like a throwback in this cartoon (in part, they literally are; there is supposedly animation for the '37 cartoon September in the Rain, and bits are taken from Porky In Wackyland, tho this is not so much of a throwback; looks terrible in color tho). The lower visual quality of the print may alter my perceptions on this. There seems to be a number of celebrity caricatures, but they're not immediately obvious to me; this is a function of black celebrity caricatures being less common than white celebrity caricatures in the cartoons I've been exposed to (probably as an absolute, but with the withdrawal of race related cartoons, it is exacerbated), and the anthropomorphic characters. Cab Calloway being the obvious exception who made his way through as many cartoons as pretty much anyone. But the main cat is a Fats Waller caricature. (White suit is supposedly a Cab caricature, but it doesn't seem like him as a character). Various stereotype jokes; watermelon, mammy guy (which is a Jolson thing than a black thing). War time: Hitler and Tojo; and Stalin; tire chopping shows craziness. Suddenly joining a Salvation Army style band seems unlikely.