Jungle Jitters
- Studio
- A Vitaphone Production
- Distributor
- Warner Bros.
Synopsis
A dopey vacuum cleaner salesman works door to door in the jungles of Africa. He knocks on the door of the hut belonging to a group of cannibal African natives, who would love to have him for dinner. To avoid marrying the man-hungry white queen, he hops into the cannibals' stew pot.
Characters
Cannibals, Vacuum Cleaner Salesman, Queen
Credits
Directing
- Director
- Isadore Freleng (as I. Freleng)
Producing
- Producer
- Leon Schlesinger
Writing
- Writer
- George Manuel
Music
- Music
- Carl W. Stalling
Animation
- Animator
- Phil Monroe
Production notes
Clark Gable and Robert Taylor are caricatured when the queen imagines the salesman as being these two stars.
In 1968, United Artists (then owners of the A.A.P. library of pre-1948 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons) compiled the cartoons they considered too potentially offensive to be shown on television, and withheld those cartoons from distribution. AT that time, UA felt that these eleven cartoons should be withheld from broadcast because the depictions of black people in the cartoons were deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences.
This cartoon is one of those withheld from distribution, one of the so-called "Censored 11." (The "Eleven" are: Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land (MM,1931), Sunday Go to Meetin' Time (MM, 1936), Clean Pastures (MM, 1937), Uncle Tom's Bungalow (MM, 1937), Jungle Jitters (1938), The Isle of Pingo Pongo (MM, 1938), All This and Rabbit Stew (MM, 1941), Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (MM, 1943), Tin Pan Alley Cats (MM, 1943), Angel Puss (LT, 1944), and Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears (MM, 1944)). More recently, when Ted Turner became owner of the library, he continued the ban, and refused to allow any of these cartoons to be shown or released on video. To date, these shorts have not been officially broadcast on television since 1968.
Spike Lee excerpted three of the opening scenes in the finale of his feature, "Bamboozled."
In 1968, United Artists (then owners of the A.A.P. library of pre-1948 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons) compiled the cartoons they considered too potentially offensive to be shown on television, and withheld those cartoons from distribution. AT that time, UA felt that these eleven cartoons should be withheld from broadcast because the depictions of black people in the cartoons were deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences.
This cartoon is one of those withheld from distribution, one of the so-called "Censored 11." (The "Eleven" are: Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land (MM,1931), Sunday Go to Meetin' Time (MM, 1936), Clean Pastures (MM, 1937), Uncle Tom's Bungalow (MM, 1937), Jungle Jitters (1938), The Isle of Pingo Pongo (MM, 1938), All This and Rabbit Stew (MM, 1941), Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (MM, 1943), Tin Pan Alley Cats (MM, 1943), Angel Puss (LT, 1944), and Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears (MM, 1944)). More recently, when Ted Turner became owner of the library, he continued the ban, and refused to allow any of these cartoons to be shown or released on video. To date, these shorts have not been officially broadcast on television since 1968.
Spike Lee excerpted three of the opening scenes in the finale of his feature, "Bamboozled."
Pictures
Reviews
African Cannibals
This early cartoon depicts the view of African culture as seen by White America in the late 1930's. In it's time it would have been seen as light entertainment but now it serves as an example of the ignorance of our fore fathers. This cartoon is very educational in seeing why such racial troubles exist in America today. By seeing and discussing films like this one, we explore the arrogance of the past and are able to see how far race relations have truly come.
Jungle Jitters
Ironically, amid all the black characters, I find the white salesman the most offnesive. Not because he's any sort of stereotype, but because his manner of speech gets quite nauseating after a while. I'm certainly glad he committed suicide by jumping into the cooking pot.
Other than that it was a nice (not great) little romp for Freleng.
Jungle Jitters
The opening gags involving the cannibals are of the most blatant sort imaginable, but they don't take much away from a rather engaging central story of two white folks who end up at the alter. The queen is an absolute howl, and the nerd vacuum-cleaner salesman is a transcendental bore.....to the cartoon's advantage.
(Let me put it this way: they're about as much an insult to white people as the other characters are to blacks!)
Jungle Jitters
The opening gags involving the cannibals are of the most blatant sort imaginable, but they don't do that much to obscure a quite engaging central story about two Whiteys who end up at the altar. The Queen is an absolute howl, and the nerd Vacuum-Cleaner Salesman is a transcendental bore--to the cartoon's advamntage.