Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers cartoon series that preceded the Merrie Melodies series, and is both WB's first animated theatrical series and the second longest continuous animated series in any medium. The regular Warner Bros. animation cast also became known as the "Looney Tunes" (often misspelled, intentionally or not, as "Looney Toons").

Controversy

A handful of Looney Tunes shorts from the World War II era are no longer aired on American television nor are available for sale by Warner Bros. due to the racial stereotypes of African-Americans, Germans, Italians, Japanese, and Jews included in some of the cartoons (ironically, a significant number of the artists, executives, and producers of these cartoons were Jewish). Eleven cartoons were withdrawn from distribution in 1968 and are known as the Censored 11. This has caused dismay among some animation enthusiasts, however, who feel that they should have access to these shorts. There has been some success in returning these cartoons to the public; in 1999 all Speedy Gonzalez cartoons were made unavailable because of its alleged stereotyping of Mexicans. But because the level of stereotyping was minor compared to the World War II era cartoons mentioned above as well as the protests of many Hispanics who said they were not offended and fondly remembered Speedy cartoons from their youth, these shorts were made available for broadcast again in 2002.

Related Topics:
World War II - Stereotype - African-Americans - Germans - Italians - Japanese - Jew - 1968 - Censored 11 - 1999 - Speedy Gonzalez - Stereotyping - Mexicans - Hispanics - 2002

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