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The Worst Film Ever

Such a frustrating disappointment

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

. . . during this 1943 Looney Tune, TIN PAN ALLEY CATS. Though it comments some on current events (depicting Stalin kicking Hitler's butt in the World War Two battle for Stalingrad, Russia), the final portion of CATS consists of a Private Message from Warner to Emmett's mom Mamie (these names are validated on Wikipedia and elsewhere) warning her NEVER to bring her then-toddler son anywhere near Ted Turner's Racist "Jim Crow" South. Warner populates this final portion of CATS with dozens of symbolic warning devices, including the lips of a grieving Till Family Member (Emmett's Dad?) plodding along post-lynching, lamenting "Mamie, Mamie, Mamie." Warner's cartooning scribes frequently found their colored pencils being directed by a Ouija Board-like impulse from Beyond, usually portending some sort of American death or disaster. No doubt this warning was meant to keep young Emmett away from that serial attendee of MGM's racist offerings, GONE WITH THE WIND FAN J.W. Milam. However, Mamie somehow missed Warner's warning and took Emmett to Money, MS, where J.W. slew him Aug. 28, 1955. That bastion of American Racism, Atlanta "Braves" owner and televised "Tomahawk Chopper" Ted Turner soon added CATS to his infamous cover-up scheme called "The Censored Eleven."

Bob Clampett was a highly imaginative director, with a wonderfully wacky visual style unlike any other animator/director in cartoon history and the humour in his cartoon was often thick and fast, razor sharp and inventive in visuals.'Tin Pan Alley Cats' is not one of his strongest efforts, and many won't take kindly to some of the material and stereotypes. One can see why it's one of the "Censored 11" cartoons, but to be honest there are worse and more offensive cartoons in this small group, particularly 'Angel Puss' which was both offensive and a bad cartoon.It is not hard to see why the material in 'Tin Pan Alley Cats' is not for the faint hearted or easily offended. As someone who isn't easily offended, even I had to admit that the characters were poorly drawn, ugly in design and with features ridiculously exaggerated (especially those lips) and that the stereotypes of black people looking, sounding and acting stupid and lazy (which is further from the truth more often than not) are crude, exaggerated to extreme and unsubtle to the point of offensiveness. The cartoon is very light on plot.Despite all this, there is entertainment value in 'Tin Pan Alley Cats' and much of it is exceptionally made, making it somewhere around top middle of the "Censored 11" cartoons in ranking. Cartoons like 'Angel Puss' don't have the honour of having either of those things. Ugly character designs aside, the animation is extremely imaginative and rich in detail. Even greater is the incredible soundtrack which adds to the cartoon enormously and gives it such energy.Some amusing moments are present, though the humour could have been more consistent, Clampett's distinctive style shines through loud and clear and there is a wonderfully weird surreal atmosphere that works so well within the cartoon and elevates the material to a higher level actually. The supremely talented Mel Blanc has done much better, having to provide stereotypical voices for the characters, but he does bring exuberance at least. The Four Dreamers, Four Spirits of Rhythm and Zoot Watson add a good deal.Overall, one of the better "Censored 11" cartoons, despite being racially offensive in places. 7/10 Bethany Cox

...that some of the cleverest cartoons were also some of the most racially offensive? Among the examples are Bob Clampett's "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs" and "Tin Pan Alley Cats". This one portrays a Fats Walker-resembling feline who gets blasted outta this world into a setting lifted out of Clampett's earlier "Porky in Wackyland".Yes, it seems like every time that they came up with a particularly novel idea, it came out like this. Well, maybe not every time. I would advise not watching this for straight-forward entertainment, but rather as a look at Hollywood's portrayal of African-Americans over the years. Available on YouTube.

This is a great short that is right up there with Clampett's earlier "Porky in Wackyland." In fact, the shorts are very similar in ways other than being Clampett creations. The odd characters that Porky encounters in "Porky in Wackyland" are very similar to the characters that the Fats Waller-esque cat runs across in the fantasy sequence in "Tin Pan Alley Cats."Overall, "Tin Pan Alley Cats" is arguably one of the best shorts from the golden age of animation. They certainly don't make them like this anymore!