Detouring America is a 1939 Merrie Melodies short directed by Tex Avery.
Plot[]
A tour of the United States includes recurring checks on the progress of the human fly climbing the Empire State Building. Also featured are jokes and gags on the Everglades, the Wyoming prairies, Alaska, a California prospector, Sioux Indians and a Jerry Colona-esque (literal) Texas cow-puncher. In a final check back on the human fly, who has almost made it to the top of the Empire State Building, when the narrator tells him to say a word to the audience, he yells "HELP!"
Caricatures[]
Availability[]
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 5, Side 2, Early Avery (1995 Turner dubbed version)
Each Dawn I Die (1995 Turner dubbed version)
Warner Gangsters Collection Volume 2 (1995 Turner dubbed version)
Censorship[]
- Two scenes are cut on the Associated Artists Productions transfer that Cartoon Network and Boomerang aired due to ethnic stereotyping:[4]
- A poor, black hitchhiker at the North Pole, singing "Carry Me Back to Ol' Virginny", and an Eskimo obliges by literally carrying the poor, black man all the way to the Virginia state line.
- Although the Native American segment is not removed entirely, despite rumors to the contrary, only one scene from the segment is cut: An Indian mother dealing with the dopey, oversized, adult son she is carrying on her papoose.
It should be noted that Turner Classic Movies, which normally would censor outdated ethnic and racial stereotypes, actually aired this short uncut back in 1999. The uncut version used there is the American 1995 Turner print.[5][6]
Notes[]
- This cartoon was nominated for an Academy Award in 1939, making it the second Warner Bros. cartoon to get a nomination, and the first color cartoon from the studio to be nominated. However, the short lost to the Disney cartoon "The Ugly Duckling".
- The short's original ending card was never released on any home video format, but the original ending titles are intact on the censored a.a.p. print on American television.
- This cartoon is the second to feature the WARNER BROS. font without the yellow banner. The first is "Wise Quacks". This would be another prototype WARNER BROS. design. This is also one of three cartoons to have WARNER BROS. not on a banner with the 1938-39 Color Rings.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Catalog of Copyright Entries
- ↑ (3 October 2022) Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 (in en). BearManor Media.
- ↑ https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2021/09/detouring-america-backgrounds.html
- ↑ http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-d.aspx
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNFmJN-Dr_Y
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/Det-Ame-Uncut