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Sunday Go to Meetin' Time is a 1936 Merrie Melodies short directed by I. Freleng.
Plot[]
Ringing bells in a lazy town announce that it is time to go to church. A black preacher with caricatured enormous lips greets his parishioners as he sings the song for which the short is named. A minstrel show dandy and his gal jazz up the song as they dance their way to church. A succession of gags featuring stereotyped black characters follows: a mammy and old uncle shine the heads of picaninny children; a woman steals a bra off a clothesline to use as a bonnet for her twin children.
His mammy wife finds Nicodemus playing dice. She exclaims, "You good for nothing! Get yourself to that church. The Devil's gonna get you sure as you're born!" and drags him off by the ear. Nevertheless, Nicodemus slinks out the door, opting to steal some chickens instead. A knock on the head sends him to the "Hades Court of Justice". A demon there reviews his crimes: "Shooting craps, stealing chickens, missing church, raisin' dickens!" and sends him deeper into hell. Big-lipped demons carry him to the Devil himself, who sings to Nicodemus that "you've got to give the Devil his due." The boss orders some demons to "give 'em the works," but Nicodemus wakes to find the prods of pitchforks are really the pecks of chickens in the land of the living. He hears the church bells and makes haste to the meeting house.
Notes[]
- The short's stereotypical portrayal of black characters prompted United Artists to withhold it from distribution in 1968, making it the second entry in the infamous Censored Eleven.
- It was announced in October 2010 that all Censored Eleven cartoons, including this one, would finally be available for release on DVD in 2011 on a Warner Archive DVD set. This has yet to come to fruition. It is unknown if the DVD restoration has the original titles as the original titles do exist.
- The cartoon was reissued in late 1944 after Schlesinger sold the studio. Since it still bears his name, the original closing was kept in the reissue.
- The plot of this cartoon is similar to the earlier "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" (1934) and the later "Wholly Smoke" (1938). The former is so similar that this short could be considered a remake of it. This would not be a coincidence, because Freleng directed both cartoons. The Walter Lantz cartoon "Apple Andy" also follows a similar story.
- "Sunday Go to Meetin' Time" has a religious theme because "churches were more easily portrayed in predominantly black settings due to the vivacity of their worship rituals."
- The animation of a married couple dancing on their way to church at the beginning was later reused in "Clean Pastures".
- The animation of Nicodemus being sent to Hades pinball style was later reused in "Speaking of the Weather" with the escaped convict in place of him.
Gallery[]
Further reading[]
- Bdeir, Ayah (Fall 2004). "That's all Sheikh: Arab representation in U.S. cartoons". CMS. 790. Media Theories and Methods I - Comparative Media Studies - Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Lindvall, Terry, and Ben Fraser (1998). "Darker Shades of Animation: African-American Images in Warner Bros. Cartoons". Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation. Rutgers University Press.
- Straight Dope Science Advisory Board (5 February 2002). "Did Bugs Bunny appear in a racist cartoon during World War II?" The Straight Dope.
References[]
- ↑ Catalog of Copyright Entries
- ↑ (3 October 2022) Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 (in en). BearManor Media, page 44.