The Isle of Pingo Pongo

Template:Infobox Shorts wTabs The Isle of Pingo Pongo is a 1938 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Tex Avery.

Plot

A cruise ship's trip from New York starts departing to the island of Pingo-Pongo, presumably located in the South Seas. The ship sails past the Statue of Liberty, who acts as a traffic cop, past the “Canary Islands” and “Sandwich Islands,” to the remote island. The inhabitants are mostly tall, black, and have big feet and lips. They at first play drums, then break into a jazz beat, still described as a “primitive savage rhythm.”

A running gag including Egghead runs a few times.

Home Video

None, but bootleg VHS and DVD sets have this cartoon, obviously unrestored and in low pitch, as no such restored print has ever been released on home video.

Notes

• This is the first cartoon to use the name Elmer Fudd, although it only uses "Elmer" on the lobby card. The first cartoon to use the name in the actual short subject is "A Feud There Was".
• The short was banned from syndication in the United States by United Artists in 1968. Ten other Warner Bros. shorts were also banned, dubbing the banned collection, the Censored Eleven. This ban has been upheld by the cartoon's successive owners (Ted Turner) and is unlikely to be released on home video (except for bootleg VHS and DVDs, see above), however, as The New York Times reports, unauthorized copies are relatively easy to find.
• Despite the reissue, a copy with the original titles and the first line is known to exist.

• The original credits show up while the Merrie Melodies theme is playing. Thus, there is no original title cue to go along with the titles. After the cue ends, the video skips to where the Blue Ribbon reissue started, although the first sentence that the narrator says is missing in the reissue.

• The short's reissue print can be easily found on video streaming sites of varying quality.
• Additionally, the short was recently viewed with 7 films part of the Censored Eleven at the TCM Film Festival in Hollywood on April 24, 2010, as part of a classic film series, presented by Donald Bogle. It is unknown if the original titles have been restored for the future DVD release. The release has yet to come, but Jerry Beck has said that transfers are done with a few extra banned films owned by WarnerMedia. However, around August 2016, Jerry Beck said that Warner Bros. was not going to release their Censored 11 DVD until their DVD market goes up in sales again.

Gallery

Lobby Card

External links

• The Isle of Pingo Pongo at the Internet Movie Database