Detouring America

Detouring America
Directed byFred Avery
Story byJack Miller
Produced byLeon Schlesinger
StarringRobert C. Bruce
Mel Blanc (all uncredited)
Music byCarl W. Stalling
Animation byRollin Hamilton
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
August 26, 1939
Running time
7 minutes 57 seconds
LanguageEnglish

Detouring America is a 1939 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Tex Avery.[1] The short was released on August 26, 1939.[2]

Plot[edit]

A tour of the United States, with recurring checks on the progress of the human fly climbing the Empire State Building. Also featured are jokes and gags on the Everglades, the Wyoming prairies, Alaska, a California prospector, Sioux Indians and a Jerry Colonna-esque (literal) Texas cow-puncher.

Home media[edit]

Censorship[edit]

  • Two scenes are excised from the cartoon when aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang United States television networks due to ethnic stereotyping against Native Americans and Inuit. They are:[3]
  • The scene with a poor, black hitchhiker at the North Pole, who sings "Carry Me Back to Ol' Virginny". Then, an Eskimo sends him back by taking him all the way back to the Virginia state line.
  • The scene with an Indian mother dealing with her dopey, oversized, adult son she's carrying on her back.

References[edit]

  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. 91. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  2. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 104–106. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  3. ^ "The Censored Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Guide: D".