Cartoon violence

[Comicfan]

From Tom and Jerry to Chip and Dale, slapstick is a commonplace theme in cartoons from all studios. But have there ever been instances of violence in classic 'toons that actually makes you wince/feel uncomfortable?

Two examples that come to mind for me, both from "Tom and Jerry"

-Tom falling from the sky and splitting a tree in two with his crotch(!) in
"The Flying Cat"

-In "Trap Happy", the scene were Jerry smashes Tom's foot with a hammer, causing him to drop part of a wall, nails and all, onto Butch's fingers. Jerry then whacks poor Butch's trapped fingers with the hammer, "playing" them like a piano. Even the scene of Buch pulling his hands free from the wall is painful to watch.

What about you all?

[Cool Cat]

One of the most gag that make me uncomfortable is the "electric shock" gag, in golden age cartoons and in actually cartoons too.

[Jeff]

A couple of gruesome ones off the top of my head:

- Bosko slices up a mouse and let's the body parts dance around in Hold Anything
- Bugs Bunny shooting a dog in the mouth point-blank with a pistol in the director's cut of Hare Ribbin'

[Larry T]

We've had many lengthy discussions about this topic, but my greatest scenes include:

Who's Cookin' Who I always thought that scene where Woody slams the Wolf's head into the waffle iron was pretty violent- even though it's slighty extended when the wolf scrambles trying to pull his head out, it's the whining sound he makes that really gives you the impression that it hurts!!!

Also, in The Barber Of Seville where Woody swipes at the Railway worker's face with a jagged switchblade.... then jabs him in the crotch with it!!!

The scene in Cat Napping where Tom goes through the lawn mower alive while in the hammock..... ouuuuccchhhhhh.

Or better yet, in Bad Ol' Putty Tat, when the rocket yanks Sylvester's jaw out and his muzzle falls flat..... Aaaaaggghhhhh.....

[J. A. Boschen]

One cartoon that I alway thought had a violent ending but is actually quite hilarious is the ending in the Pluto cartoon "Squater's Rights" from Disney, 1946. This is the cartoon that features Chip and Dale taking up residence in Mickey's and Pluto stove. I won't ruin this film for anyone, but the whole entire ending that features a stituation with a shotgun, is in my oppinion: extremly violent, sort of bad in taste, but incredibly hilarious. Check it out.:D

[Daffysleftfoot]

Any cartoon where Bosko gets it in the taint. :eek:

[doctoon]

I vote for the Famous Studio cartoon NO IFS, ANDS OR BUTTS (1954), in which Buzzy the Crow fires a pistol through Katnip's teeth.

[Cartman]

Donald Duck crashing into a snowman rock in DONALD'S SNOW FIGHT is pretty painful.

[Chow Hound]

- Bugs Bunny shooting a dog in the mouth point-blank with a pistol in the director's cut of Hare Ribbin'

That one bothers me too; not because of the violence itself, but because of the perpetrator. It's out of character for Bugs to commit cold-blooded murder, and I'm glad the studio didn't release it that way.

[J Lee]

That one bothers me too; not because of the violence itself, but because of the perpetrator. It's out of character for Bugs to commit cold-blooded murder, and I'm glad the studio didn't release it that way.

All the Lou Lilly-written cartoons for Warner Bros. are really violent, with characters at the end either winding up dead and/or buried -- no problem if you're malleting Hitler into his grave as in "Russian Rhapsody", but not-so-hot if you've got Bugs sticking a gun in a dogs mouth after apparently being bitten in half by the same canine (aside from reanimating the ending, they also had to add the scene of Bugs scruntching up his legs inside the sandwich, because the original image also apparently was too distrubing to release).

[Chow Hound]

All the Lou Lilly-written cartoons for Warner Bros. are really violent, with characters at the end either winding up dead and/or buried -- no problem if you're malleting Hitler into his grave as in "Russian Rhapsody", but not-so-hot if you've got Bugs sticking a gun in a dogs mouth

That's true, I wouldn't mind seeing Bugs sticking a gun in Hitler's (or Hirohito's or Mussolini's) mouth and pulling the trigger.

[Nelson]

You wanna see some serious violence in a cartoon, then watch any "Herman And Katnip" cartoon.

[CueBallCat79]

Also, in The Barber Of Seville where Woody swipes at the Railway worker's face with a jagged switchblade.... then jabs him in the crotch with it!!!


And of course Bugs did something similar to Elmer with a shaving razor in The Rabbit of Seville.

[Leviathan]

One of the cats (Sylvester?) gouging Porky in the eyes at on point in KITTY KORNERED (Clampett, 1946) was pretty painful to watch for me. I usually blink when this occurs

[mmtper]

You wanna see some serious violence in a cartoon, then watch any "Herman And Katnip" cartoon.

It's been a long time since I've seen 'em, but single worst violent gag I can recall was from some Herman and Katnip episode (I don't know the name) where the cat somehow gets a stuffed moose head stuck on his head and it's shot off with a rifle. The moose's glass eyes are knocked loose and roll in front of the groggy Katnip, who screams oh no MY EYES then jams the false eyes into his head. I'm Blind! he pathetically screams, I can't see! and hysterically he runs down the street, screaming and bumping into everything.Meanwhile Herman merrily waves adieu to the audience and that's the cartoon's happy ending.

That one really disturbed me as a kid. Itchy and Scratchy could match that one, maybe, but I think their creators' intentions were entirely different.

[travis t]

- Bugs Bunny shooting a dog in the mouth point-blank with a pistol in the director's cut of Hare Ribbin'

Has anybody actually seen the directors cut?

[J. J. Hunsecker]

You wanna see some serious violence in a cartoon, then watch any "Herman And Katnip" cartoon.
Ditto for me too. I always found the slapstick in the Paramount Famous cartoons to be rather painful, unintentionally disturbing and in poor taste; but more importantly, it was never funny!

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Has anybody actually seen the directors cut?
It's available on The Golden Age of Looney Tunes vol. 5 laserdisc.

[BloodyChamp]

One cartoon that I alway thought had a violent ending but is actually quite hilarious is the ending in the Pluto cartoon "Squater's Rights" from Disney, 1946. This is the cartoon that features Chip and Dale taking up residence in Mickey's and Pluto stove. I won't ruin this film for anyone, but the whole entire ending that features a stituation with a shotgun, is in my oppinion: extremly violent, sort of bad in taste, but incredibly hilarious. Check it out.:D

Same with "Shhhh..." I was alone in my dimly lit house when I first saw it, first saw it since early childhood anyway. I've since appreciated the cartoon for what it's worth, which is a place among the all time greats imo, but I was frightened and saddened when I first saw the thing.

[Bobby Bickert]

It's been a long time since I've seen 'em, but single worst violent gag I can recall was from some Herman and Katnip episode (I don't know the name) where the cat somehow gets a stuffed moose head stuck on his head and it's shot off with a rifle. The moose's glass eyes are knocked loose and roll in front of the groggy Katnip, who screams oh no MY EYES then jams the false eyes into his head. I'm Blind! he pathetically screams, I can't see! and hysterically he runs down the street, screaming and bumping into everything.Meanwhile Herman merrily waves adieu to the audience and that's the cartoon's happy ending.

That one really disturbed me as a kid. Itchy and Scratchy could match that one, maybe, but I think their creators' intentions were entirely different.


"Mouseum" (1956?)


The setup, if not the payoff, of a bit in "Cat Carson Rides Again" disturbed me. Herman uses an axe to cleave the barrels of a shotgun Katnip is pointing at him so that they wrap around and go into Katnip's ears! But when Katnip pulls the trigger, instead of getting his head blown off, he just ends up with a headful of buckshot, which empties out like a gumball machine.

[Comicfan]

During an audio commentary in one of The Simpsons DVD sets, Matt Groening cites Herman and Katnip as a specific influence on "Itchy and Scratchy". IIRC, he makes some comment to the effect that both series contained "ugly, crudely animated characters comitting horrible acts of violence on each other.". Seems to fit.

[Jaime_Weinman]

The gag in "Sahara Hare" where Sam gets cut in half is surprisingly unpleasant, and never gets a laugh from the people I've shown it to. The problem may be that there's a fade to black at that point, so we don't see Sam reconstituting himself, so we don't have the release of knowing that it wasn't painful.

In general I think the thing that can make a cartoon gag unpleasantly violent is if it looks like it's actually painful.

The "Herman and Katnip" stuff mostly falls into category 1, gags that are just ugly portrayals of one character inflicting horrible pain on another. Whereas when Daffy shoots himself in "The Scarlet Pumpernickel" and we can even see the hole in his head, it doesn't creep us out because he clearly isn't bothered by it at all.

[Comicfan]

Some of the shots of a post-injury Tom are somewhat disturbing, especially if his wounds look "real"-i.e. black/bloodshot eyes, bruises, etc. as opposed to the usual singed fur, flattened head, etc. Some specific scenes of this type are after Jerry beats up Tom in "Mouse Trouble" and Tom emerging from the rubble after the house explodes in "The Missing Mouse" (As a side note, both scenes also involve Tom doing that creepy, echoing "Doon't youuu belieeeve iiit!", whish is disturbing in its own right.)

Also painful is the scene in "Wee Willie Wildcat", where the lil' wildcat puts the rock in Barney's football. IIRC, it's one of the few times in a cartoon where we actually see a character's bones breaking!

[Tom41]

It's been some time since I've seen it, but I don't remember a scene in Sahara Hare where Yosemite Sam gets cut in half! Perhaps it was deleted from the version I saw on Boomerang - but it definitely had the scenes where he tries to stop his camel by hitting its head! Speaking of which, I always found the lump on the camel's head, along with the 'how many lumps' gags in various LTs rather painful!

Another thing that's slightly disturbing is in the Sylvester & Tweety cartoon "Satan's Waitin". Sylvester is on a rollercoaster, ready to hit Tweety with a club, but is hit in the face by a DO NOT STAND UP sign (cut on some networks) - and loses another life. I find that one a bit disturbing because unlike most cartoon violence (very exaggerated), it could really happen!

[J Lee]

It's been some time since I've seen it, but I don't remember a scene in Sahara Hare where Yosemite Sam gets cut in half! Perhaps it was deleted from the version I saw on Boomerang - but it definitely had the scenes where he tries to stop his camel by hitting its head! Speaking of which, I always found the lump on the camel's head, along with the 'how many lumps' gags in various LTs rather painful!

Sam's trying to scale the wall of the fort by climbing up a 2-by-4 board, which Bugs cuts in half at the top with an axe, and the cut continues down the board, taking Sam with it in the end.

The interesting thing is Freleng himself said audiences don't like to see characters physically fall apart, though he did it several times in his cartoons. The reaction to the cleaved Sam from "Sahara Hare" may be one of the reasons why he came to his opinion.

[Larry T]

But when Katnip pulls the trigger, instead of getting his head blown off, he just ends up with a headful of buckshot, which empties out like a gumball machine.

And in Herman the Cat-toonist we see Katnip get his head cut off with a pair of scissors in full view. But the scene in that one which bothers me most is where Herman erases Katnip's foot and he limps after him until he realizes it's gone- kind of eerie because of the way this would happen in real life- often if someone is in an accident and they don't realize one of their limbs is missing, they sometimes get up to escape or try to save themselves and fall flat, but continue trying because they haven't looked and realized the body part is no longer there.

Paramount/Famous runs the gamut on tasteless cartoon violence. Huey getting an axe struck against the neck in full view, the fox's face blowing up and falling back down in component parts, Casper's little fox friend being blasted to death and killed by hunters, and Katnip getting cut to slices by a rolling wheel-o-knives in Mous-eum.

Yech- John, did you mention once that it was Myron Waldman who thought this kind of humour was insanely funny? That would explain why it's so predominant in those cartoons....

[J Lee]

And in Herman the Cat-toonist we see Katnip get his head cut off with a pair of scissors in full view. But the scene in that one which bothers me most is where Herman erases Katnip's foot and he limps after him until he realizes it's gone- kind of eerie because of the way this would happen in real life- often if someone is in an accident and they don't realize one of their limbs is missing, they sometimes get up to escape or try to save themselves and fall flat, but continue trying because they haven't looked and realized the body part is no longer there.

Paramount/Famous runs the gamut on tasteless cartoon violence. Huey getting an axe struck against the neck in full view, the fox's face blowing up and falling back down in component parts, Casper's little fox friend being blasted to death and killed by hunters, and Katnip getting cut to slices by a rolling wheel-o-knives in Mous-eum.

Yech- John, did you mention once that it was Myron Waldman who thought this kind of humour was insanely funny? That would explain why it's so predominant in those cartoons....

Dave Tendlar (either as head animator or later as director) helemed most of the Famous Studios cartoons that have the gags that still creep people out, but when Myron Waldman would make his occassional foray out of his usual area of cute characters doing cute things, some of the endings he signed off on as head animator were also pretty creepy, and that's not even counting the "Dead Ferdy" ending of "There's Good Boos Tonight" which was supposed to be heartwarming.

"Winner By A Hare" of course has Moe blowing his brains out (after a series of some pretty funny gags), while even somthing like the earlier "Cad and Caddy" has the golfer going crazy and burying himself alive at the end of the cartoon (after a series of some pretty funny gags). And even going way back to 1941's "You Can't Shoe a Horsefly" the final gag has Hunky grabbing and killing all the flies that had been bothering Spunky, is a bit unnerving for a first-time viewer (though I will admit after freeze-framing the ending and finding one of the headstone graves marked with Hebrew symbols along with all the regular grave markers, that was a pretty cute touch by Waldman or Dave Fleischer).

Paramount definitely wins the award for creepiest images overall. It's just that during the Willard Boswky period at Fleischer and the early Famous cartoons, it seemed as if they knew what they were trying to do with the disturbing scenes. The later cartoons have scenes that are supposed to be just funny, but end up being painful or unnerving.

[mmm...donuts]

Although this isn't a very violent scene, I've always considered The Two Mouseketeers's final scene with Tom being beheaded quite disturbing.

[Geezil]

Then there's the "gag" (and I use that word sarcastically here) in Bad Luck Blackie where the bulldog makes sure the kitten gets his tongue caught in a mousetrap, while innocently drinking from a saucer of milk (followed by a very painful-in-itself close-up of the kitten silently looking down at the damage).

Back when, I recall, the Thalia in upper Manhattan included that short in one of its sold-out summertime evening cartoon fests ... and the audience reaction to that scene ranged from shocked silence to boos to groans, to sobs from some of the littler members of the audience. :(

Forever unforgivable, even for Mr. Tex "Over the Top" Avery. (And even if the bulldog does ultimately get his, and then some.)

[Timber Wolf]

When I was six or seven years old and I saw Boobs in the Woods on Nelonen (a Finnish channel), I hated the ending where Porky uses Daffy as a motor. Many years later, I had forgotten the cartoon, but when I saw it on Golden Collection, I remembered seeing it before. When I watched the cartoon again, I just thought of the ending as funny. :D