ReFrederator Blog

Wow! Seems like it’s time ReFrederator weighed in on the whole Turner-clips-out-all-the-smoking-scenes-in-old-Tom-and-Jerry-cartoons-in-Britian issue. In case you haven’t picked up on this in the media, on the Frederator blog, Cartoon Brew or the thousand other sites screaming bloody murder, check the story out here.

I’ve received personal emails from all over on this — some folks are even concerned that this sort editorial over reaction might be contagious, and we here at ReFrederator might be doing some toon tampering ourselves. As if.

Obviously, stuff like this drives us nuts for a whole slew of reasons. Firstly, it betrays a patronizing view of classic animation as artless kid’s stuff, designed, primarily, for unsupervised babysitting. Content is judged not for wit, charm or any possible aesthetic value, but is, instead, dispassionately screened for social toxins (no hint of racism, sexism, violence etc.)

In the second place, these measures always smack of hypocrisy. Big studios continue to release mainstream entertainment that feature sympathetic characters smoking up a storm — it’s unlikely director Bryan Singer had many arguments with Warner Brothers over Lois Lane’s occasional cigarettes in SUPERMAN RETURNS (hey, they were an actual plot point!) Or is it that sixty year old cartoons don’t have any creative stake holders available to put up much of a fuss? These little gems were not produced just for children — they were made to be enjoyed by a general audience! On a cynical level one might observe that there is little financial advantage in tinkering with contemporary product, whereas the belated censoring of older material presents some definite public relations and marketing opportunities (”Now — new improved, smoke free cartoons!”)

Finally, from a ReFrederator-centric vantage point, decisions like this junk up the marketplace with more inferior versions of vintage films. Take it from me, it’s a chore for everyone to wade through heavily censored, shortened or poorly ‘colorized’ editions of old time cartoons to find something that approximates what the original artists had in mind.

Of course, a whole internet full of people much more articulate than yours truly have been frothing over this mess for the last week or so, so I’ll pipe down. But we are interested in what YOU think — drop us a line!

Dave Kirwan