Uncle Tom's Cabana (1947) is Tex Avery's forbidden masterpiece, and in my opinion one of his funniest MGM cartoons. Also, it's one of his most "problematic" creations, due to the extreme racial caricatures. Some people today could find this cartoon very offensive, but the visitors of our blog are capable to watch and understand this or other similar cartoons in the proper context.
This cartoon haven't been shown on TV for several decades, and it was officially released only once, as the part of "The Compleat Tex Avery" laserdisc box set. French DVD box set of Avery's cartoons doesn't contain this, and few other controversial titles.
Uncle Tom's Cabana is a very free and loose "adaptation" of the popular book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (already parodied by Avery ten years earlier in his excellent WB cartoon Uncle Tom's Bungalow )
Also, it technically belongs to Avery's "Red Hot Riding Hood" series, only the wolf has been replaced by a human character: Simon Legree, an extreme caricature of the villain from original book. "Red" is in this cartoon called Little Nell, a southern belle, and her dancing scenes were beautifully animated by Preston Blair.
Here are the first 50 screenshots from this cartoon, and they serve as an appetizer for tomorrow. In part two of this post, you'll find 70 more screenshots with some of the most outrageous gags and reactions ever seen in Tex Avery's (or anybody else's) cartoons.