ANGEL PUSS (1944)
Article 5161 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-19-2016
Directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring the voice of Mel Blanc
Country: USA
What it is: Animated cartoon

A black boy undertakes to drown a cat in the lake, but the cat escapes and disguises himself as a ghost to scare the boy.

There’s a group of Warner Brothers cartoons known as the “Censored 11”. These were cartoons that were removed from syndication due to the fact that the racial stereotypes were deemed far too offensive for modern audiences. This group includes at least one cartoon that over the years has gained the reputation of an animated classic (COAL BLACK AND DE SEBBEN DWARFS), and it also includes this one, which, as far as I know, is on no one’s list of great animated cartoons. In fact, it may be one of the weakest Warner Brothers cartoons of the era, and it’s not even because of the racial stereotype (which involves a black boy named Sambo who is easily scared and hypnotized by rattling dice); it’s mainly because there’s something lazy and routine about the way it puts forth it gags. It was directed by Chuck Jones, who is usually better with these things, but he wasn’t working with his usual writers, either. There are other cartoons with similar premises that do a much better job; this one is only really worth seeking out if you’re a Warner Brothers completist.