Available Updates (Vault Diznee)

“Drawn and Quartered” is still on hiatus until 2027, but I do want to chime in with some additions and corrections involving the cartoon shorts that are available for release, as the Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault, volume 3 was released this month, and there are a lot of WB shorts I’ve covered that were censored, but are now shown uncut on this Blu-ray. Normally, I’d go back and add an “EDIT” on the actual entry, but this is a better way of doing that, though I did go back to the "Sinkin' in the Bathtub" entry and the "12 Missing Hares" entry to announce that, yes, these are available on Blu-ray, uncut, uncensored, and remastered/restored for HD, since, hey, they're might be people reading those posts (and I'm sure there are: as of this writing, "Sinkin' in the Bathtub"'s entry is at 116 views while "Joined at the Hypocrisy: A June Bugs Special in April" is at 269).

The cartoons I cover will be in order of appearance on the Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault, volume 3 (and, while I’m here, I might as well include volumes one and two). The ones I haven’t covered yet, but have been shown edited on television will be highlighted. A full list of shorts (both the ones that were shown edited and/or banned from American TV and the ones that were safe to air) can be found here, here, and here. I’m only listing the cartoons that are on all three Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault Blu-rays as of 2026 and were either banned or censored when aired on American television (and international TV, but mostly American TV).

Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault, Volume 1

Disc 1

“Beauty and the Beast”

“A Day at the Zoo”

“The Dixie Fryer”

“Double or Mutton”

“Each Dawn I Crow”

“Easy Peckin’s”

“Feather Dusted”

“A Kiddie’s Kitty”

“Quackodile Tears”

“Ready, Woolen, and Able”

“Terrier-Stricken”

“Tweet and Lovely”

“Tweety’s Circus"

“Two’s A Crowd”

“Wild About Hurry”

“Zip ‘n Snort”

Disc 2

“Ain’t She Tweet”

“Birth of a Notion”

“Bye, Bye Bluebeard”

“Daffy Duck & Egghead”

“Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z”

“Gonzales’ Tamales”

“Hare Trigger”

“Hare Trimmed”

“Horton Hatches the Egg”

“Little Boy Boo”

“Past Perfumance”

“Porky’s Duck Hunt”

“Red Riding Hoodwinked”

“Rhapsody Rabbit”

“Snow Business”

“Zoom and Bored”

Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault, Volume 2

Disc 1

“A-Lad-In His Lamp” (not on the 12 Missing Hares/Banned Bugs Bunny 12 list, but did air with a scene cut on Cartoon Network and was eventually phased out due to Middle Eastern/Arabic stereotypes. This short also didn’t air on the former WB network for the same reason it was eventually phased out)

“Ain’t That Ducky”

“Boston Quackie”

“The Daffy Duckaroo”

“Dr. Jerkyl’s Hyde”

“Fastest With the Mostest”

“Fowl Weather”

“I Taw a Putty Tat”

“I Was a Teenage Thumb”

“Mother Was a Rooster”

“Pests for Guests”

“A Sheep in the Deep”

“Sock a Doodle Do”

“A Street Cat Named Sylvester”

“To Itch His Own”

“A Waggily Tale”

Disc 2

“Awful Orphan”

“A Bird in a Guilty Cage”

“Bowery Bugs”

“Claws for Alarm”

“Frigid Hare” (proud member of the 12 Missing Hares/Banned Bugs Bunny 12)

“Hare Remover” (its inclusion here is debatable, as, while there is a scene that looks as if it’s missing a part, said missing scene hasn’t resurfaced nor was it added to the cartoon when it was included on the Blu-ray set. Nonetheless, it will be covered on the “Lost and Missing Scenes” entry).

“The Heckling Hare” (same as above, though cuts were made on some TV versions to either cover up the point where the cartoon prematurely ends or to cut out the falling sequence entirely for time reasons)

“Hop and Go”

“Jumpin’ Jupiter” (part three of Andrea Hicks’ and Sarthurva U.'s coverage of the Porky/Sylvester horror vacation shorts is coming. I promise)

“The Last Hungry Cat”

“Mouse Menace”

“Ready.. Set.. Zoom!”

“Stop! Look! And Hasten!”

“Whoa, Be-Gone!”

“Wise Quackers” (if you can believe it, this short actually did air on American TV with minor cuts before disappearing because of the slavery references)

“You Were Never Duckier”

Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault, Volume 3

Disc 1

“Billboard Frolics”

“A Feather in His Hare” (nothing was cut from this, but it is part of the 12 Missing Hares/Banned Bugs Bunny 12, which I did cover on this blog. That post is considered one of my best works, next to the FAQ about The Censored Eleven and, for some reason, my entry on “I’ve Got to Sing a Torch Song”)

“Horse Hare” (just like the previous entry, this is a “12 Missing Hares” short. Unlike “A Feather in His Hare,” this one was shown edited on television before being phased out)

“Lady, Play Your Mandolin!”

“Sinkin’ in the Bathtub”

“Tree Corner Tweety”

“Tweet and Sour”

Disc 2

“Ballot Box Bunny”

“Boobs in the Woods”

“Case of the Missing Hare”

“Fox Terror”

“Foxy By Proxy”

“Fresh Airedale”

“Goldimouse and the Three Cats”

“Herr Meets Hare” (no parts cut, but it was included on the 12 Missing Hares/Banned Bugs Bunny 12 list)

“Holiday for Shoestrings”

“Mississippi Hare” (another 12 Missing Hares/Banned Bugs Bunny 12 member, and, like “Horse Hare,” it was shown on American TV with parts cut and is part of the blogpost I did about those shorts)

“Mutiny on the Bunny”

“Pizzicato Pussycat”

“A Star is Bored” (yeah...when I get to this one, it’s going to be an exercise on how good of an amateur video editor I really am)

“The Windblown Hare”

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As always, Stay Looney and Be Merrie!

Detouring America (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the United States/Big Chief Baby)

 

Director(s): Tex Avery (credited as “Fred Avery”)

Summary: A travelogue spoof showing viewers a tour of the United States, from literal cow-punchers in the rolling plains to mosquitos in the Florida Everglades and a human fly attempting to climb the Empire State Building.

Fun Facts:

• This is Termite Terrace’s second Oscar-nominated short (the first one being “It’s Got Me Again” from all the way back in 1932), and, like “It’s Got Me Again,” “Detouring America” got beat out by a Disney short. In this case, it was their adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Ugly Duckling.”

• This isn’t to be confused with “Cross-Country Detours,” which is also a travelogue spoof that has been edited on American TV, but that one is funnier and has a scene that a lot of people remember for lascivious reasons. If you know it, you know it. Otherwise, you’re going to have to look it up for yourself or wait until I get to it.

Letterboxd Says The Darndest Things: Oof! You’re not going to find many fans for this one, mostly because the reviewers know nothing about past celebrities and get easily offended over the outdated racial and ethnic caricatures. There was one review worth posting here that does make a good point, but I feel like every “anti-establishment” stand-up comic has made this joke at least once or twice in their careers, so it’s not exactly anything new (and, if they haven’t, shame on them. I thought their job was to smash the system with humor):

Greed, animal abuse, military propaganda and racism. I guess they really showed America as it is.

Yeah, the greed was a gag involving a California prospector finding gold and trying not to draw attention to it, only to fail when everyone else moves in on his territory, the animal abuse is either a mosquito screaming “OUCH!” after being swatted by an explorer in the Florida Everglades or a cow literally getting punched by a cow-puncher who sounds like then-popular comedian Jerry Colonna (who has been caricatured a lot in these old cartoons and even did the voice of the Mad Hatter’s buddy, the March Hare, on the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland); the military propaganda is just a look at a military academy where the soldiers from the waist up look ready for battle, but their legs and feet aren’t (it’s making fun of the military, not advocating it); and the racism isn’t as terrible as they make it out to be. It’s still potentially offensive, but it’s just a product of its time, as mentioned in those Looney Tunes DVD warnings they’ve had ever since Looney Tunes Golden Collection, volume three.

It’s like no one knows what nuance, history, or humor is anymore. Anyway, enough whining. Let’s get to why you’re here: to see what was cut and why.

The Channel(s): Cartoon Network and Boomerang (Associated Artists Productions transfer). Even though the labels say that this was also cut on TBS, TNT, and MeTV, the Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki doesn't say that those channels edited this short, I'm assuming they did, if they didn't outright ban it.

Part(s) Edited: Two scenes featuring outdated racial and ethnic stereotypes were cut:

• After the second check-up on The Human Fly’s climb up the Empire State Building, the uncut version had a scene where we go to Alaska, where a poor, black man is thumbing a ride while singing “Carry Me Back to Ol’ Virginny.” An Inuit (or “Eskimo,” as they were known back then) walks up, looks at the camera, shrugs his shoulders, and literally carries the black man to the Virginia state line. In my opinion, that’s actually sweet of him to oblige, despite their racial and geographical differences, but, considering how pro-slavery “Carry Me Back to Ol’ Virginny” is lyrically, yeah, it does kind of ruin it. Still, just the fact that the scene comes off as sweet at face value in something from 1939 shows that humanity and its history isn’t as awful as others claim.

• The second edit comes after the third check-up on The Human Fly, where we go to a Native American village in the American Southwest. Despite claims to the contrary (which have been debunked on the Looney Tunes Fandom Wiki, though not the old Censored Cartoons Page), the entire sequence with the Native American village wasn’t cut. What was cut was one scene where a Native American woman has her overgrown son on her papoose and tells him that it’s time to cut the umbilical cord and walk on his own, with the overgrown son whining that he doesn’t want to (still relevant these days regardless of race or ethnicity). The other scenes, like the Native Americans walking vertically down a cave village, the elder slithering out of a teepee after going inside for some “Wa-Hoo Snake Oil,” and an Indian snake dance involving actual snakes.

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit(s): Nothing. It’s one of those spot-gag cartoons where it’s just a collection of jokes tied to a central idea. Even I didn’t notice that those scenes were gone until much later (though that’s because the censored version aired more on American TV than the uncut version and doing that does condition you into thinking it’s uncut...until you learn years later that it’s not). The completist who likes their past media uncut and uncensored (or close to it, as a lot of scenes do get lost to time or were only thought of, but never made real) might hate the edited version for “erasing history,” but, if the cartoon is as bad as Letterboxd says it is, then what’s the point of fighting over a censored scene if you don’t care much for the cartoon it’s attached to?

I should also note that the vintage cinema channel, Turner Classic Movies (which does air some of what Cartoon Network and Boomerang airs, often with cuts, though some are uncut for historical reasons, like Herr Meets Hare) did air this uncut back in 1999. It’s not really a ground gear, but it should raise some ire over the hyprocisy of American censorship (or really, censorship in general, geography nonwithstanding).

Video Comparison: 

Availability Uncut: Yeah, this one is strictly a mainstay on home media. For those who want it on a Warner Bros. cartoon compilation set, it’s on the fifth volume and second side of the Golden Age of Looney Tunes laser disc (which was still going on in 1997, which surprises me because I thought laser disc was phased out earlier than that). For those who want it as a bonus feature on a feature film release, then you can find on on the DVD and Blu-ray version of the film Each Dawn I Die (WB cartoon spoof is the 1949 short, “Each Dawn I Crow”), starring Gregory Raft and James Cagney. The DVD version came out in 2006 while the Blu-ray is a more recent release (2021). It’s also available as part of a 2008 collection of Warner Bros gangster movies called Warner Bros Pictures Gangster Collection, volume 2 (not very imaginative, but it does says what it is). “Detouring America” and Each Dawn I Die are both on the second volume, joining such other films as Bullets or Ballots, City for Conquest, “G” Men, San Quentin, and A Slight Case of Murder.

Is/Was It on Streaming or Digital Download: Not as of this writing. Like I said before, this mostly was released on home media and seen on television.

‘Til next time: Stay Looney and Be Merrie!

Have You Got Any Castles? (Black Woollcott)

Director(s): Frank Tashlin

Summary: The second of Frank Tashlin’s “Midnight in the Bookstore” shorts (first is “Speaking of the Weather,” which I covered before, and the third is “You’re An Education”). This one is introduced by Alex Woollcott, includes The Three Musketeers breaking The Prisoner of Zenda out of jail, and Rip Van Winkle shutting down the latest après-minuit literary party because he needs his sleep (why? He’s had 100 years’ worth).

Compared to “Speaking of the Weather,” this is a bit heavier on the racial/ethnic caricatures of years past, but “You’re An Education” wins at the end of the day. Despite that, this short (and the other two)  did make its rounds on American TV and did appear on home media, as mentioned below.

The Channel(s): Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodie reissue version, TBS, Cartoon Network, and unnamed syndication (local affiliate stations).

Part(s) Edited: Before I get in on the edits done to remove racial/ethnic stereotypes, I’d like to start with the edits done on the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodie reissue, which also applies to the syndicated versions and the versions shown on TBS and Cartoon Network.

Alex Woollcott (who was caricatured before on Tashlin’s “The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos”) did not like his caricature in this short, so he requested it to be cut when the short was reissued to theaters (which, coincidentally, happened after he died). This decision affected only two scenes in this short: the beginning where Woollcott introduces the literary performance and the end when he closes out the short, and the cuckoo bird is muffled while Rip Van Winkle continues to sleep (that scene was an innocent bystander that got removed because the Alex Woollcott scenes got deleted). The reissued version was the version that aired on television (when it did air on television), including TBS and Cartoon Network.

In addition to the appearances of Alex Woollcott, TBS’ version also cut Bill “Bojangles” Robinson tap dancing up and down the cover of The 39 Steps, the “Swing for Sale” part that was recycled from the Censored Eleven cartoon “Clean Pastures,” and both scenes of Rip Van Winkle cutting Uncle Tom’s hair to use as earplugs during the performance of the title song (with Uncle Tom punching Rip Van Winkle in the face several times and cutting his beard the second time).

If you can believe it, Cartoon Network actually aired this cartoon during their weekday morning installment show, The Acme Hour (which is a collection of Warner Bros., MGM, and Fleischer shorts with the intro, outro, and commercial bumpers showing what it’s like to be on the business end of classic cartoon slapstick, like getting hit in the face with a plank, falling off a cliff, having a piano drop on your head, wearing rocket-powered roller skates, covering a house with invisible paint, flooding a living room after using an ACME brand glass cutter on an aquarium, etc) and aired a version where the only edits made were to the bookend scenes with Woollcott, as well as the final image where Rip Van Winkle is asleep on the cuckoo clock after tying the bird’s beak shut, making this the closest that a Censored Eleven cartoon has come to airing on television in the United States because the “Clean Pastures” part with Cab Calloway singing “Swing for Sale” wasn’t censored. The short eventually got phased out and replaced with other cartoons, so, you know, pyrrhic victory.

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit: It’s been a while, but we’re back with, “The edits are jarring, but since this is one of those thinly-plotted musical cartoons, it doesn’t affect anything else about it.” At least, when it comes to the “Clean Pastures”/“Swing for Sale” part that was edited on TBS. The reissue cuts will leave you wondering what was edited from the beginning and ending (though the ending cut is seamlessly done) and why if you’ve never seen this short before and know nothing of its history…then, when you find the reason, you’ll either still ask, “Why?” or just say, “Oh,” and carry on.

Video Comparison: You can tell that the Alex Woollcott scenes were supposed to be edited out because the newer version has film splice marks on it. The other cuts, well…let’s go to the video:

Availability Uncut: It’s on the Golden Age of Looney Tunes laser disc (volume 1, side 1: 1930s Musicals) and VHS (volume 1: 1930s Musicals), but it’s most likely the version that didn’t restore the Alex Woollcott scenes. Those scenes wouldn’t be restored until the Looney Tunes Golden Collection volume two DVD set. This also applies to volume two of the Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection (and all its repackaged versions, such as The Looney Tunes Collection All Stars, The Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Double Feature [a repack of volumes two and three], and The Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection volumes 1-3 repack). It’s also a special feature on the DVD version of the movie Varsity Show, starring Dick Powell and Fred Waring, though I don’t know specifically if it’s the older version without Alex Woollcott or the newer version with him. The older version has become harder to find than the newer version, which is everywhere thanks to the short being in the public domain since 1967 and the relative ease in which one can upload the newer version on YouTube and let that proliferate (or “go viral,” in today’s terms).

Is/Was It Available on Streaming?: No, it isn’t. That also applies to “Speaking of the Weather” (which I covered prior to the news that Tubi uploaded the Warner Bros shorts on their service) and “You’re An Education” (which I’m covering in a future special post about cartoons with scenes that have missing scenes long before television censors got their hands on them. It wasn’t edited for anything on the one time it aired on Cartoon Network, but it was replaced with another cartoon on a rerun of the animation history show, ToonHeads, for the episode “Midnight in the Bookstore”). This shouldn't worry you, though, because it's a public domain cartoon and it can be watched on YouTube or on the Golden Collection DVD.

As an added bonus, here’s the actual, uncut version of “Have You Got Any Castles?”, complete with outdated racial stereotypes and scenes featuring Alex Woollcott:

And a censored version shown on a former WB affiliate known as WB18 (I have no idea what state had that as a channel. The closest I could find is either WBG18 in Wheeling, West Virginia or WVTV18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin):

This version just cut the “Bill Robinson tap dances up and down The 39 Steps” and the “Swing for Sale” part (in very much the same way I did on the approximation video, only they left in the part where The Invisible Man and Topper perform a tap-dance number. I just assumed it would be cut for continuity reasons, like the part where they show Greta Garbo on the cover of So Big in yet another joke about how she had big feet for a woman), as well as the Alex Woollcott scenes. The Rip Van Winkle/Uncle Tom parts weren’t censored.

‘Til next time…