Release Date:

August 8, 1936

Main Character(s):

None

Summary:

An African-American man named Nicodemus is caught by his wife rolling dice and is dragged by the ear to church. Nicodemus sneaks out when no one’s looking and tries to steal some chickens. He gets hit on the head, and has a nightmare where he is punished by the devil for his misdeeds. When he wakes up, he goes back to church, having learned the error of his ways.

That’s Not All, Folks:

This cartoon is the second of the notorious Censored Eleven. The Censored Eleven is a group of Warner Bros. cartoons that have been banned from television since 1968 (at the height of the Civil Rights Movement), due to racial stereotypes of African Americans. The other ten cartoons include “Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land” (1931), “Clean Pastures” (1937), “Uncle Tom’s Bungalow” (1937), “Jungle Jitters” (1938), “The Isle of Pingo Pongo” (1938), “All This and Rabbit Stew” (1941; the only Bugs Bunny cartoon in the group), “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs” (1943), “Tin Pan Alley Cats” (1943), “Angel Puss” (1944), and “Goldilocks and the Jivin’ Bears” (1944).

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. However, the original titles do exist, and were used by the company Thunderbean Animation (which does high-quality scans of classic animation that is rarely shown to the public and puts them on bootleg Blu-ray discs) for their compilation containing all of the Censored Eleven cartoons.

What I Like About This One:

The animation and the score are both still excellent.

The opening song was quite good.

The title song is pretty catchy.

When Nicodemus tries to club a chicken on the head by gesturing it to “come here”, the chicken points out the club behind his back, revealing that it was wise to him early on.

The cartoon does a good job at making Hades look terrifying.

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org! (contains racial depictions of African-Americans; viewer discretion is advised)

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕