Camptown Races

There are signs of considerable bowdlerization in this post-war Screen Song. It's not just that the racist aspects of showing a minstrel show -- actually a musical variety show in blackface -- are muted by having all the characters animals. Some one has gone in and changed the words of Stephen Foster's song. Now, it's not "Camptown ladies" who sing the song, it's "Camptown folks all" sing it. Everyone should bet on the bay -- presumably to increase the odds on the singer's bet.

I'm not sure what, if anything, these changes are meant to accomplish. I suspect it was a trade-off among studio or even Hays Office executives to get the blackface aspects past the censors. In any case, it's a good Screen Song and unless you're offended by the sight of a kangaroo playing the banjo while blacked up, you'll get some pleasure out of the gags.

Camptown Races is one of those cartoons where some will find a lot to like about it and then others who'll hate it with a passion, one also where it is very easy to see both sides. Because Camptown Races does have much to admire, but to me it is not a classic either.

The best thing about Camptown Races is the music, which throughout is brilliant, so much so that it actually brings the rating up more than one notch. The title song is already a catchy notch, and with Winston Sharples' vibrant and characterful treatment of it and very energetic vocals it manages to be even catchier. The animals have amusing personalities and are far from bland and there are some amusing, if never really hilarious, moments in the first half. Camptown Races is a plot less cartoon(a lot of Famous Studios' cartoons are, or at least on the thin side) but the first half is very energised in pace. The animation is agreed pretty good mostly with lovely use of colour and smoothly drawn backgrounds that flow well into one frame to the next.

On the other hand, I didn't care hugely for some of the character designs, which seemed rather crude and exaggerated. Camptown Races was uneven for personal tastes, with a strong first half and then the second half loses momentum, other than in the song, and has little imaginative and lacked humour. Camptown Races has been criticised for racism(or at least stereotypical, agree with it being unsubtly stereotypical, personal view, but not sure about whether it's racist) and it is also easy to see why people would be offended. I wasn't and am aware of the history and origins of the song making the character designs hardly inappropriate, but the designs just weren't to my tastes.

In conclusion, not one to avoid but not a classic. Not a very easy cartoon to rate. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Camptown Races (1948)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent animated short from Paramount has a group of animals packing inside a tent so that they can watch a minstrel show where animals in blackface do various musical numbers. Obviously, the blackface aspect is going to rub a lot of people the wrong way today but I've never really seen the point of protesting or banning things and instead you can take something like this and turn it into a history lesson of how things once were. After you get past the blackface stuff, the short itself really isn't too bad, although there's no question that it's a long way from a classic. The music in the picture is actually the best thing with the movie kicking off with a great version of Dixie and we end things with the title track. The animation for the most part is pretty good and there's no doubt that most kids are going to enjoy the animals on display.

In the 1920s, 30s and 40s, Paramount produced a bunch of cartoons which were quite popular. However, when these same films are watched today, they are a total bore. They consist of a sing-a-long...often with a bouncing ball...and in the day folks actually sang along in theaters but today they'd just stop watching them. Additionally, in "Camptown Races" the racist imagery would most likely make many people have an apoplexy!

The story begins with the animals all going to a minstrel show! There, several animals dress up and act like the worst black stereotypes...including a kangaroo that acted a lot like Steppin Fetchit. Even for 1948, this sort of thing was out of fashion...and you wonder why Paramount even released it in the first place. Overall, rather unsavory and dull.