History WesternAnimation / CensoredEleven

!! For tropes in the individual Censored Eleven shorts, go to their pages. Tropes associated with the Censored Eleven in general include:

* ''WesternAnimation/HittinTheTrailForHallelujahLand'' -- 1931, directed by [[Creator/HarmanAndIsing Rudolf Ising]]. This is the only short on the list directed by Ising, and is considered by many to be the least offensive of the Eleven.

In the history of media, there exist works that [[FairForItsDay may not seem overtly controversial at the time of their creation]], [[ValuesDissonance but later come to be regarded as such as time passes and perceptions of morals, beliefs, and societial issues change]]. Animation is no different, and the best example of this within the medium is the "Censored Eleven", a group of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin eleven]] ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' animated shorts--ten of which were released under the ''Merrie Melodies'' label--were created between the years of [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1931 and 1944]]. The shorts were all banned from further distribution by United Artists (then owner of the 1934-48 Warner Bros. color cartoon library) in 1968 chiefly for the usage of stereotypical [[BlackfaceStyleCaricature blackface character designs]] for African-Americans, alongside the depiction of Africans as savages. The full list is as follows:

* ''WesternAnimation/HittinTheTrailForHallelujahLand'' -- 1931, directed by [[Creator/HarmanAndIsing Rudolf Ising]]. This is the only short directed by Ising, and is considered by many to be the least offensive of the Eleven.

* ''WesternAnimation/HittinTheTrailForHallelujahLand'' -- 1931, directed by [[Creator/HarmanAndIsing Rudolf Ising]].

* ''WesternAnimation/CoalBlackAndDeSebbenDwarfs'' -- 1943, directed by Creator/BobClampett. Despite being banned for its outdated and racist content, it has made two lists (50 Greatest Cartoons and 100 Greatest Looney Tunes) and is considered by a lot of animation fans and historians to be one of Bob Clampett's greatest works.

Several other racially-themed shorts (including ''Confederate Honey'', ''Fresh Hare'', ''Which Is Witch'', all of the shorts featuring Inki, and MGM's ''Uncle Tom's Cabana'' and ''Half-Pint Pygmy'') and numerous [[WartimeCartoon World War II-era cartoons that feature unflattering depictions of the Japanese]] are often associated by proxy with the Censored Eleven because of their racist content and their subsequent disappearance from television. (''Fresh Hare'' was shown on TV, albeit [[EditedForSyndication with the ending cut]]. ''Which Is Witch'' was shown on TV up until the 1990s; Nickelodeon was the last channel to air it, again with a scene involving black savage stereotypes cut. It also aired on CBS Saturday morning TV with a scene of Bugs trapped in the pressure cooker cut.) These racially-themed cartoons are not officially associated with the Censored Eleven, however, and exist in a class by themselves. (''Which Is Witch'' is part of a group of 12 Bugs Bunny cartoons, including the Censored Eleven's ''All This and Rabbit Stew'', that were pulled by Creator/CartoonNetwork due to Bugs facing off against a villain who happens to be an [[UnacceptableTargets unacceptable racial target]]). Oddly enough, ''WesternAnimation/ScrubMeMamaWithABoogieBeat'' (1941) is not one of the Eleven, as it precedes them, having already been pulled from circulation in 1949 following protests from civil rights groups.

* ''Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears'' -- 1944, directed by Friz Freleng.

Several other racially-themed shorts (including ''Confederate Honey'', ''Fresh Hare'', ''Which Is Witch'', and MGM's ''Uncle Tom's Cabana'' and ''Half-Pint Pygmy'') and numerous [[WartimeCartoon World War II-era cartoons that feature unflattering depictions of the Japanese]] are often associated by proxy with the Censored Eleven because of their racist content and their subsequent disappearance from television. (''Fresh Hare'' was shown on TV, albeit [[EditedForSyndication with the ending cut]]. ''Which Is Witch'' was shown on TV up until the 1990s; Nickelodeon was the last channel to air it, again with a scene involving black savage stereotypes cut. It also aired on CBS Saturday morning TV with a scene of Bugs trapped in the pressure cooker cut.) These racially-themed cartoons are not officially associated with the Censored Eleven, however, and exist in a class by themselves. (''Which Is Witch'' is part of a group of 12 Bugs Bunny cartoons, including the Censored Eleven's ''All This and Rabbit Stew'', that were pulled by Creator/CartoonNetwork due to Bugs facing off against a villain who happens to be an [[UnacceptableTargets unacceptable racial target]]). Oddly enough, ''WesternAnimation/ScrubMeMamaWithABoogieBeat'' (1941) is not one of the Eleven, as it precedes them, having already been pulled from circulation in 1949 following protests from civil rights groups.

* PublicDomainAnimation: Several of the shorts on the list are in the public domain, which means anyone can legally download and distribute copies of them.

At the TurnOfTheMillennium, several animation historians began to publicize the existence of the Eleven, which led to an article about the shorts in the ''New York Times'' which discussed how they could all be found on Website/YouTube (or bootleg home video releases). This heightened public awareness led to a special theatrical airing of remastered editions of eight of the eleven shorts (''Jungle Jitters'', ''Rabbit Stew'', and ''Angel Puss'' being the three left out) at the TCM Classic Film Festival in 2010. In October 2010, Warner Bros. announced the first legitimate home video release of the entire Censored Eleven; while initially pegged to be part of the Warner Archives "DVD-on-demand" program, Warner Bros. later confirmed that the release would be a traditional retail release. It would also have been a "high class" release that would have included several other rare cartoons from the time period of the Eleven and a number of bonus features. This release, however, was eventually shelved before its 2011 release date. [[https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/wb-censored-eleven-dvd.5311761/#post-84623802 According to animation expert Jerry Beck (circa 2016), the release was cancelled due to low demand for DVDs and Blu-rays, especially for classic animation.]]

* UncleTomfoolery: Many jokes in the shorts poke fun at Black people, depicting them with [[GagLips enormous frog-like lips]], lazy or dimwitted behaviour, and jive talk. Scenes of them eating watermelons, stealing chickens, being scared of ghosts, obsessed with throwing dice, and other such stereotypes are also rampant. Expect some imagery set in the days of slavery to turn up or jokes where their skin color turns out to be just black paint. Though a lot of it thrives on stereotypes that were typical of the time, this imagery was also seen in many live-action films of that time period, including works with actual Afro-American actors and musicians (including Music/LouisArmstrong, Stepin Fetchit, Hattie [=McDaniel=], Creator/JosephineBaker). In some cases, these jokes were meant as innocent parodies that modern audiences, [[PopCulturalOsmosisFailure unaware of the stuff it referenced]], will find offensive.

The "Censored Eleven" are called so because in 1968, Associated Artists Productions rightsowner United Artists deemed all eleven of the shorts--which contained numerous [[UncleTomfoolery depictions of black people that are considered offensive]]--to be ''too'' offensive for contemporary audiences (especially in light of the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement) and pulled them all from distribution. Unlike other shorts released at the time that were later edited to remove any racially-themed jokes (such as those found in various ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' and ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' shorts), the racial themes in the Censored Eleven are so pervasive and thoroughly central to the plot of each short that editing them out would all but render the shorts into nothingness. Since 1968, the owners of the rights to these shorts--including the current rightsholders, Time Warner--have refused to show any one of them on television or (with a single exception) in theaters.

In the history of media, there exist works that [[FairForItsDay may not seem overtly controversial at the time of their creation]], [[ValuesDissonance but later come to be regarded as such as time passes and perceptions of morals, beliefs, and societial issues change]]. Animation is no different, and the best example of this within the medium is the "Censored Eleven", a group of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin eleven]] ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' animated shorts--ten of which were released under the ''Merrie Melodies'' label--were created between the years of [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1931 and 1944]]. The shorts were all banned from further distribution by United Artists (then owner of the 1934-48 Warner Bros. color cartoon library) in 1968 chiefly for the usage of stereotypical blackface character designs for African-Americans, alongside the depiction of Africans as savages. The full list is as follows:

In the history of media, there exist works that [[FairForItsDay may not seem overtly controversial at the time of their creation]], [[ValuesDissonance but later come to be regarded as such as time passes and perceptions of morals, beliefs, and societial issues change]]. Animation is no different, and the best example of this within the medium is the "Censored Eleven", a group of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin eleven]] ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' animated shorts--ten of which were released under the ''Merrie Melodies'' label--were created between the years of [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1931 and 1944]]. The full list is as follows: