Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land

Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land
Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land
	Uncle Tom is terrorized by skeletons in a scene reminiscent of Walt Disney's 1929 film The Skeleton Dance.
Directed by	Rudolf Ising
Produced by	Hugh Harman; Rudolf Ising; Leon Schlesinger;
Starring	Johnny Murray; Rochelle Hudson;
Music by	Frank Marsales
Animation by	Isadore Freleng; Paul Smith; Bob Clampett;
Color process	Black and white
Production; company	Harman-Ising Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures; The Vitaphone Corporation;
Release date	November 28, 1931;
Running time	7 min (one reel)
Language	English

Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land is a 1931 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Rudolf Ising.^[1] The short was released on November 28, 1931, and stars Piggy.^[2]

The minimal storyline centers on the plucky Piggy's efforts to rescue his girlfriend and a doglike Uncle Tom from perilous predicaments and villains. The short's use of the racial epithet "Uncle Tom" prompted United Artists to withhold it from syndication in 1968, making it one of the infamous Censored Eleven.

Summary

Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land

Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land has a rudimentary plot, unlike most of the Merrie Melodies of the time, which barely have any plot at all.^[3] The cartoon stars the Mickey Mouse-esque Piggy, his girlfriend Fluffy, and a canine Uncle Tom.^[4] The film opens with a singing steamboat dancing down a river. On the deck, three blackface caricatures play the song for which the short is named on the harmonica, banjo, and bones. Meanwhile, Uncle Tom drives Fluffy toward the boat by donkey cart. The scene shifts to Piggy the riverboat captain in a sequence reminiscent of Disney's 1928 film Steamboat Willie.^[4]

Fluffy joins the frolicking steamboat passengers and reunites with her boyfriend, but during the revelry, Piggy falls overboard. The pig has a run in with an alligator, but he makes it back to the boat. Meanwhile, Uncle Tom's donkey bucks him into a cemetery. There, in a variation on a stock gag featuring a superstitious black man,^[5] he is scared by three dancing skeletons reminiscent of those in Disney's 1929 short The Skeleton Dance. Tom escapes to the middle of the river, but a shoddy boat leaves him stranded and drowning. Piggy saves the day but not before a vaudevillian villain kidnaps his porcine paramour. Piggy captures the villain on a passing mail hook, leaving the villain tortured over a buzz saw. This short marks the second and last appearance of the characters Piggy and Fluffy.^[4]

Distribution

Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land was released in theaters on November 28, 1931 by Warner Bros. The cartoon's copyright expired in 1959, making it go into public domain. However, the cartoon has been withheld from distribution since 1968. At that time, United Artists owned the rights to most Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah land and ten other cartoons were deemed to feature racist depictions of African Americans that were too integral to the films for simple cuts to make them palatable for modern audiences.^[6] The cartoon has never been released on laserdisc, home video, or DVD, not counting public domain home releases. These eleven cartoons make up the so-called Censored Eleven.^[4]

Reception

On December 19, 1931, Motion Picture Herald said, "A New York Strand audience seemed to enjoy this number of the Merrie Melodies series in which popular song numbers accompany the animated cartoon figures."^[7]

Credits

Produced by Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger
Directed by Rudolf Ising (uncredited)
Drawn by Isadore Freleng and Paul Smith
Musical score by Frank Marsales

References

^ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 12. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 118. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
^ BBeck, Jerry, and Will Friedwald (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Owl Books. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2. Page 12.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Cruz, Brian (2003). "Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land Archived 2007-06-14 at the Wayback Machine". Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: The Early Years. Toon Zone. Accessed June 21, 2007.
^ Lindvall, Terry, and Ben Fraser (1998). "Darker Shades of Animation: African-American Images in Warner Bros. Cartoons". Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation. Rutgers University Press. page 128.
^ Did Bugs Bunny appear in a racist cartoon during World War II?, The Straight Dope, February 5, 2002
^ Sampson, Henry T. (1998). That's Enough, Folks: Black Images in Animated Cartoons, 1900-1960. Scarecrow Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0810832503.

External links

Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land at IMDb
Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land at the Big Cartoon Database
Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land on YouTube

[1] Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 12. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.

[2] Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 118. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.

[3] BBeck, Jerry, and Will Friedwald (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Owl Books. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2. Page 12.

[Cruz-4] Cruz, Brian (2003). "Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land Archived 2007-06-14 at the Wayback Machine". Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: The Early Years. Toon Zone. Accessed June 21, 2007.

[5] Lindvall, Terry, and Ben Fraser (1998). "Darker Shades of Animation: African-American Images in Warner Bros. Cartoons". Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation. Rutgers University Press. page 128.

[6] Did Bugs Bunny appear in a racist cartoon during World War II?, The Straight Dope, February 5, 2002

[Enough-7] Sampson, Henry T. (1998). That's Enough, Folks: Black Images in Animated Cartoons, 1900-1960. Scarecrow Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0810832503.

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v t e Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin
Characters	Uncle Tom
Film adaptations	Uncle Tom's Cabin (1903) Uncle Tom's Cabin (Thanhouser, 1910) Uncle Tom's Cabin (Vitagraph, 1910) Uncle Tom's Cabin (1914) Uncle Tom's Cabin (1918) Topsy and Eva (1927) Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927) Onkel Toms Hütte (1965) Uncle Tom's Cabin (1987)
Related works	A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin Tom show
Animation	Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land (1931) Mickey's Mellerdrammer (1933) Uncle Tom's Bungalow (1937) Uncle Tom's Cabaña (1947) Southern Fried Rabbit (1953)
Anti-Tom literature	Aunt Phillis's Cabin The Planter's Northern Bride Little Eva: The Flower of the South Uncle Tom's Cabin As It Is Uncle Robin's Cabin "Uncle Tom's Cabin" Contrasted with Buckingham Hall, the Planter's Home Ellen; or, The Fanatic's Daughter The Ebony Idol Frank Freeman's Barber Shop The North and the South; or, Slavery and Its Contrasts Mr. Frank, the Underground Mail-Agent The Cabin and Parlor; or, Slaves and Masters The Black Gauntlet White Acre vs. Black Acre Antifanaticism The Lofty and the Lowly The Leopard's Spots
Related	Josiah Henson 1849 autobiography Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site Dimples Goodbye Uncle Tom Tit for Tat Uncle Tom syndrome Underground Railroad The National Era Onkel Toms Hütte (Berlin U-Bahn) Harriet Beecher Stowe House (Brunswick, Maine)