The issue at hand (again) is the plan by Cartoon Network's British wing to cut many (not all) scenes of tobacco use out of classic cartoons. Over on Cartoon Brew, Amid Amidi asks the musical question, "If somebody tried to censor parts of a Picasso painting or a James Joyce story, there would be an uproar beyond belief. Animation, however, still doesn't merit similar consideration as Art, which is why the works of animation masters can be freely tinkered with and destroyed. When, if ever, will that change?"
My heart is in the same place as Amid's but my head — which I pray does not function like George W. Bush's "gut" — has some unfortunate answers. One biggie is that respect for art has to begin with the artist himself demanding (or at least, expecting) some level of respect. Years ago, when word got out that MGM planned to reanimate and redub parts of many Tom & Jerry cartoons to replace the black maid character, a lot of animation buffs were outraged. "Where's the respect?" they howled, and I recall talk of picket lines where we'd all put on the same kind of grotesque stockings that the black maid wore and we'd parade up and down in front of…
Well, I don't know where we'd have paraded. The plan never got that far, which was a shame because I'd have looked damned cute in those stockings. But then we heard that Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera had enthusiastically endorsed the changes and it seemed kind of inane to be picketing Hanna and Barbera for harming the work of Hanna and Barbera. A few years later, I arranged a night of Tex Avery cartoons up at U.C.L.A. with Tex present to answer questions. Several audience members tried to get him to say that he abhored the laundering of cartoons (his or anyone's) for present-day exhibition but Tex simply wouldn't say that. At one point, he suggested that if his cartoons were being shown to young kids — which had not been his intended audience when he made them — maybe they ought to have some of the more "violent" gags excised.
I remember the moment well. It's not every day you hear a hall full of Tex Avery worshippers actually boo Tex Avery.
Now, let me stop and defend those men for a moment: Their point-of-view might not have been mine but it was logical, especially to kids who'd grown up in the Depression era. Their goal was to keep the store open; to have the cartoons on the air and not withering in obscurity. It was important that the films continue to be exhibited and to make money. Maybe Tex's cartoons no longer made money for Tex but it reflected well on him that they made money for someone. He wasn't happy that certain, inexplicable edits were made in some cartoons but given the choice of being unedited and less commercial…or being cleansed and more commercial, Tex would have opted for the latter. Hanna and Barbera weren't proud of all the shows that were produced in their building, but doing Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch was preferable to closing the doors, laying people off and (by the way…) making fewer bucks.
Let me also point out that one aspect of this whole issue has gotten a lot better. I think it's a shame for great cartoons to be exhibited in edited, incomplete form…but back in the eighties and before, that's often all we had. Today, we can go out and buy uncut (usually) and nicely-restored (often) DVDs of what will probably soon be all the major theatrical cartoons ever produced in this country and most of the best done for television. Couldn't do that in 1977. The only version most folks could see of the 1951 Chuck Jones cartoon, Cheese Chasers, was the one CBS ran on Saturday morning. It was missing more than a minute, including its ending, and we worried then that the absent footage was lost and gone forever. That's no longer a concern; not with so many complete copies around on DVD.
So I have a little trouble getting too worked up over Cartoon Network UK cutting smoking scenes. I think it's dumb, especially because there's so little reason to do it at this time. There may never be even a solid financial reason to do it. But the cartoons are or will be around, unexpurgated, on home video…and besides, you don't see Joe Barbera objecting. He made the films now being edited and he's always had the clout to call the biggies at Time-Warner (or whoever owned his old films that week) and say, "Please don't do that to my work." But he never has. I love Joe. I worked with him for years and respect the hell outta him for many, many things…but even when he co-owned the whole studio and his word was the word of God, preserving the basic integrity of that work always took a back seat to marketing considerations. If they could have sold a new Jetsons show by making the characters Mexican, George and Jane would have been sporting sombreros in two seconds. I can't think of too many places in the mainstream American animation industry where that wouldn't have happened.
So to answer Amid's pained and admirable query: The reason the works of the animation masters can be tampered with so freely is that the animation masters never objected. Some of them even helped. That the situation is marginally better in live-action movies is because powerful directors, writers and actors and their unions have occasionally insisted on creative rights and creative controls, even if it means foregoing some sources of revenue.
Which brings us to the one thing that will change the practice of chopping up cartoons for new purposes and sensibilities. It will cease when consumers begin demanding the work be treated with more respect. Along the food chain, the only folks with more juice than the people who make the product is the ones who make it profitable. It will stop when customers become more demanding of better restorations and no cleansing of cartoons, ethnic or otherwise. I'm fantasizing of a day when someone high up in Time-Warner turns to someone else at Time-Warner and says, "Ratings [or sales] are way down because of that tampering we did. Have the guys in the vault haul out the negatives and restore everything."
That will happen if the marketplace demands it. Because even the most mercenary, insensitive ruiner of cartoons will give up the practice if there's no money in it.
Okay…enough chit-chat. Let's watch Fred and Barney pushing more cancer sticks on the children of America…