Uncle Tom's Cabaña

The story in this concerns someone who owns everything but a small bit and the fellow, the "small guy" who owns that bit. There are three adults, all extreme caricatures. Like some cartoons, but few from this era, the thing is self-referential in illustrating the struggle. So it is mildly interesting on that score.

It is "banned" because of its pretty offensive racist stereotypes.

So if you watch this today, you could be in several different minds at once. You could see it the way it was intended, an amusement with jokes about cartooning. You could see the abstraction involved. The bad guy is a smarmy white stereotype with distinct prejudices. (I will not mention them.). The "girl" is a performing object. The "little guy" is a fat, boastful black.

You could see it as yet another drop in the ocean of oppression of an entire people. But then the unintended brilliance of the story comes into play: abstraction, exaggerated storytelling, money, class.

Whether something is worth watching has to do with the state you watch it in.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best ever made by anybody. 'Uncle Tom's Cabana' is very stereotypical, especially in its portrayal of Uncle Tom, and the stereotypes in design, speech and behaviour are not for the faint hearted or easily offended (even for a decade where racism and stereotypes were rife). Can see why, they are not particularly flattering and very unsubtle for Avery. It's not one of Avery's funniest or most inventive cartoons.

Having said that, it is the better one of his Uncle Tom cartoons and oddly enough there are more offensive cartoons, especially 'Angel Puss', 'Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat' and the human Tom and Jerry cartoon 'Plane Dumb'.

Character designs apart, the animation is rich in detail, has handsome background art and lush colours. Scott Bradley's music score is as ever superb, lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms, it's also beautifully synchronised with the action and gestures/expressions and even enhances the impact.

There are fun moments, a less flimsy story than one would expect, lively timing and excellent voice acting from particularly Paul Frees.

Overall, not for all tastes but while not always my cup of tea it was interesting and fun enough. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Tex Avery paid an earlier visit to this territory, a mostly benign cartoon called "Uncle Tom's Bungalow" that is rarely seen due to some of the caricatures. This is a more full-blown Tex Avery cartoon-vintage Avery sight gags from start to finish. It also is seldom seen for fear of offending people. Somewhere along the line, possibly with the advent of television, it was decided that cartoons were for children. They are not, at least not solely, but in the United States, they are treated as such. This is a good cartoon. Not the best I've seen, but a good cartoon that should be seen. A bit rough in spots for kids, but no reason to bury it as though it were radioactive waste! Well worth hunting down. Recommended.

Tex Avery has made some wonderful animated short movies, but this one does not belong to that category. It is something that looks like an adaptation from 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' with an Uncle Tom who tells the children about Simon Legree. Legree owned the whole city except for Uncle Tom's cabin. To save his cabin Uncle Tom changed it to Uncle Tom's Cabaña, a bar and dancing, to raise money. The evil Legree didn't like that and tried to kill Uncle Tom. Of course the children do not believe his fantastic story.

This short kind of has a racist look on black people, although it means well, I guess. It is one thing I don't like about it, but even if you are not bothered by that, it is not very funny anyway. I had no real laughs here and that is a strange thing with a Tex Avery short. Personally I think there are better shorts to watch.

Tex Avery in his MGM days was at his best. His cartoons never took themselves too seriously. All they were meant to do is make us laugh, nothing more.

Naturally, this cartoon is loosely based on "Uncle Tom's Cabin" with Uncle Tom telling the "real story" of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Uncle is about to lose his "little cabin" (smack dab in the middle of a big city no less!) to the evil Simon LeGree. So he calls his friend "Little Nell", a beautiful southern belle, to help him. They come up with the idea of making the cabin into a night club to raise money to pay the mortgage. Of course Simon tries to steal the money, until he sees the beautiful Nell!

The reason you will never see this cartoon today on t.v. because it is not 'politically correct' because the way that Uncle Tom is portrayed, which was typical of the day. There are also sexual overtones that some people today might find offensive. The suggestive sexual overtones were a Tex Avery hallmark, remember Red Hot Riding Hood? Tex felt that Disney had the kid audience locked up, so he went after the teen agers, and young adults. Ironically, the little kids saw his cartoons and laughed just as hard as everybody else, not having a clue on what some of the gags were about.

If you like Tex Avery cartoons, and have yet to see this one, keep looking, it's worth it!