Plane Dumb

I'm gonna be a contrarian with this animation not because I'm endrosing the short's message or its clear gross ideas, but simply because there's more to it than meets the eye and in fact there is a strong and important to learn from here. "Plane Dumb" is basically its title but trade plane for plain. It's a product of its era so there we have a racist film, unfunny and very prejudicial for its own sake. The animation quality lies basically in its creative drawings, effects and the way the story moves for the lead characters in between the countess difficuties they face throughout the picture. Watch it with a certain objectivity and you'll feel less offended as the film progresses.

Here, Tom and Jerry (the buddies, not the cat and mouse) will deliver products to Africa by plane. But in their closed mind they think they'll only get accepted and not face danger there if they disguise themselves as blacks - that's when the joke gets painful and never funny since they do the blackface thing. However, the plane crashes on the ocean and later on they are attacked by sharks, whales, other animals until they reach the coast where the danger comes from lions, bats and natives.

The dialogues are silly and really hard to hear due to the poor sound quality; the racism goes beyond the stereotypes and blackface, it also presents Africa as a whole nation instead of continent; the only things that exist there are wild animals and savages. It was a form to amuse audiences back in the 1930's but doesn't hold any effect on us except as seeing a problematic vile project. But there was something in "Plane Dumb" that most audiences fail to take notice: the ultimate message that is "far ahead" for its time is that racists don't have a place in the world, racism and prejudice are not tolerable things. Pay attention how Tom and Jerry ultimately fail at everything they do. Sure, they survive shark attacks, manage to use the whale as a tool to save themselves but everytime during the trip things end up badly for them - and that's why today's audiences can have brieft moments of laughter with such dumb characters. By taking things at face value they only put themselves in harm's way.

If you're on the other side of the fence maybe you can learn a lot from this short animated film. It's not much of an excuse to defend its existence but since it's still here it's up to us to try to learn something, to realize how much we evolved with times and how we can make better things when we are united and creating more powerful art forms. 7/10

While credited as a Tom and Jerry cartoon, this is not the cat-and-mouse team but an earlier Mutt-and-Jeff rip-off featuring them going to Africa and disguising themselves in the stereotypical burnt cork makeup to try to blend in. While the dialect humor is mostly lame, there is a brief musical sequence involving "black skeletons" that was entertaining. I have to ask however, how could Tom and Jerry still have their makeup stay on even after being dumped in the water a couple of times? One of many entries produced by the Van Beuren Corporation for distribution by RKO Radio Pictures before RKO made a deal with Disney. Only worth seeing if you're an animation buff or is interested in how certain ethnicities were stereotyped as entertainment way back when.

In the 1930s, Van Beuren Studios was NOT among the premier cartoon makers. In fact, most of the cartoons I've seen by Van Beuren stank...and this one is among the stinkiest! It stars Tom & Jerry (no relation to the later MGM characters) and they never were enjoyable during their two year run. Here, however, they not only aren't funny and the animation poor, but they are completely racist! The duo are flying over Africa and decide to land...so they paint themselves up to look black and begin talking like the characters from "Amos 'n Andy"! Surely many modern viewers would have an apoplexy if they see this today and it's sad to think that this sort of thing was considered acceptable back in the day. What makes this even less acceptable is that it's simply not funny...not in the least. I never once came close to laughing...nor will any sane person.

While I hate the notion of censorship, I am glad this sort of crap isn't shown on TV today. If you are curious about our history and how times have definitely changed for the better, you can find this an other banned cartoons on YouTube.

Dumb is right: Tom and Jerry reach their goal of a non-stop air flight to Africa but then worry about mixing in with the natives. They put on "blackface," crash the plane, try to survive on an airplane wing floating in the ocean, and then survive the wild animals once they get on land

Having read a few reviews before seeing this, I knew what to expect. It was simply these two guys doing their Amos and Andy/Stepin' Fetchit impressions. Offensive to blacks? Of course, but that's the 1930s for you. Some of their lines were funny, some were stupid. The main fault I had with this cartoon was the audio, as it was often not easy to understand what these two guys were saying.

In all, a curiosity piece, but don't let the racism stop you from checking it out. At least it gives you an idea of how times have changed....for the better.

Tom and Jerry are transporting goods via airplane to Africa. But being white men, they're worried they won't be safe, so they put on blackface to fit in. Once they're wearing it, they adopt black dialect and fully inhabit their new characters. They crash into the ocean and use the wing of the plane as a raft. Before reaching land, they suffer the advances of an over-affectionate octopus and more serious danger from sharks, a swordfish and a whale. Once on land, they're frightened by fantastic creatures, and duck into a cave. Inside it's even worse when they encounter living skeletons in blackface. And upon exiting the cave, things are even worse than that when they are discovered by cannibals.

"Plane Dumb" is an especially sloppy effort from Van Beuren Studios. One example: a lion, unknown to Tom and Jerry, enters the cave before they do. But the animators must have forgotten about it, because the lion never appears again. Another example is the ending that's not an ending: it's just an arbitrary stop.

According to a YouTube poster, the cartoon "was originally intended to feature the voices AND caricatures of a popular 'Negro' comedy team known as Miller & Lyles. But Aubrey Lyles died of tuberculosis before the recording session was completed, and co-directors John Foster & George Rufle were forced to rework the animation into a 'Tom & Jerry' story."

They shouldn't have bothered. The crude animation and poorly-executed gags make the film a loser from beginning to end.