Buddy of the Apes

This article contains mature content and may not be suitable for all readers. This article particularly deals with content blacklisted from contemporary television for containing harmful, outdated racial stereotypes and/or imagery. This article is not censored, as to censor the article would be to pretend that these prejudices never existed. Please continue at your own risk.

Buddy of the Apes
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Airdate:	26 May 1934
Series:	Looney Tunes
Production Number:	LT-8-4
Vitaphone Number:	6217
Copyright Renewed:	26 October 1962
Starring:	Buddy
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Billy Bletcher Bernard Brown (both uncredited)
Director:	Ben Hardaway
Producer:	Leon Schlesinger
Animated By:	Paul Smith Sandy Walker
Film Editor:	Bernard Brown (uncredited) Treg Brown (uncredited)
Musician:	Bernard Brown Norman Spencer (uncredited)

Buddy of the Apes is a 1934 Looney Tunes short directed by Ben Hardaway.

Plot

In this spoof of Tarzan, Buddy encounters African natives. He gets help from animals, and together they fight half-naked natives.

Television

• Sunset Productions (1955–1968)

Censorship

• The Guild Films/Sunset Productions print of this short cuts the scene of the "look-out" cannibal native alerting the cannibal chief about Buddy and the animals.
• This short seldom airs on American television due to heavy African stereotyping that would be deemed offensive to modern audiences. It was in Nickelodeon's broadcast library when the channel had legal rights to air the Warner Bros cartoons, but the short never aired because of outdated racial stereotyping.

Notes

• The audio of Buddy's Tarzan yell was later reused for the Johnny Weissmuller caricature in "The CooCoo Nut Grove" (1936).
• The animation of the African Natives running towards the camera was later reused in "Buddy's Theatre" (1935) and "Speaking of the Weather" (1937), and they are re-drawn as the Dirty Sleeves in "Ali-Baba Bound" (1940).
• This is the first Looney Tunes short to be directed by Ben Hardaway.

Gallery

Production background