BCDB: Cartoon Reviews: Hittin' The Trail For Hallelujah Land

Piggy, a pig, and his girlfriend on an adventure along the Mississippi River. While these have got to be among the ugliest cartoon characters ever created, and with very little personality, this is a very good cartoon. The music is particularly catchy, and this is unusually event-packed, there are multiple subplots at once. The short opens with a black chorus singing the title song on a cartoony riverboat, with Piggy as the captain. Piggy's girlfriend, escorted by her servant Uncle Tom, joins him on the riverboat. Then the plot splits off-Uncle Tom falls asleep at the horse and falls into a haunted graveyard, and Piggy and the girl make music on the boat.Tom has to face murderous ghosts ("You're hittin' the trail for hallelujia land!") and finally runs away, falling in the river. Piggy sees him and goes to rescue him, having touble with an alligator along the way. (A funny gag has the pig jumping from the boat, with his mickey mouse-like shorts remaining in place, then "rewinding" back into his pants and jumping again.) While Piggy is preoccupied, a villain runs off with the girl. Piggy stops the villain (quite painfully) and everyone goes away happy (except for the villain.)
The reason we don't see this anymore is due to its black content, with Uncle Tom as a slave in the old South, depicted as easily frightened and superstitious. True, this is a bit offensive, but if it is ignored, so is some great animation, writing, and music. If you're interested and you ever find this available, don't hesitate to get it.
-Matthew