Buddy of the Apes (A Closer Look-Out)

Director: Ben Hardaway

Summary: In this spoof of Tarzan (the movie version with Johnny Weissmuller as the title character), Buddy (who is living in the jungle) is targeted by African cannibals and the only ones who can stop them are his animal buddies.

The Channel: Sunset Production/Guild Films syndication

Part(s) Edited: I was going to omit this one, since this is one of those cartoons that rarely, if ever, airs on American TV due to outdated racial and ethnic caricatures and the fact that Buddy cartoons aren’t very popular, but, it turns out that this did air on television edited. Between 1955 and 1968, “Buddy of the Apes” aired without the scene of the "look-out" cannibal native alerting the cannibal chief about Buddy and the animals (I’m going to assume by how it’s worded on the Looney Tunes wiki that the rest of the scenes with the African cannibals wasn’t edited). This also was on Nickelodeon’s list of Warner Bros cartoons they could legally air at the time they were running the Nick@Nite version of Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon, but, due to Standards and Practices (read: the network censors), couldn’t air it because it would take too much time, money, and effort to edit all the racially insensitive scenes.

How It Plays Edited/Video Comparison: Turns out the version I have is the edited Guild Films/Sunset Productions version. I still did a compare/contrast approximation video, but with a twist. This is one of those “so obvious, it hurts” cuts that even first-time viewers like me can pick up on because of how quickly it goes from the “look-out” cannibal sliding down the tree to the chief ringing the triangle nose ring on the cannibal sitting next to him. There’s something obviously gone.

Availability Uncut: As of 2024, there’s no uncut version on official release (or even unofficial release, as it’s not a public domain cartoon that’s always featured in home media releases that have public domain cartoons) and most WB cartoon fans (barring the hardened completionists) aren’t clamoring for remastered, uncut, and uncensored Buddy cartoons (heck, some were surprised when “Buddy’s Beer Garden” made it to the Looney Tunes Golden Collection). The version I found on Archive.org is the edited Guild Films version, so that will have to do until someone pipes up and says an uncut version exists. It happened to “Buddy the Woodsman,” so anything’s possible.