While at the New York Comic Con, I paid a visit to the Warner Archive booth and discovered a most pleasant surprise. The man working said they are coming out with the infamous Censored Eleven, and it will be available though the Archive sometime in 2011. He also mentioned that it is their most requested title. I asked him if I understood correctly, just to double check. He confirmed that yes, they will be available through the Warner Archive online some time in 2011, and they will be completely uncensored.

The Censored Eleven is a group of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons that were withheld from syndication by United Artists in 1968 due to their racist content and have been deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences. They have never been officially released since then The cartoons in the Censored Eleven are: Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land, Sunday Go to Meetin' Time, Clean Pastures, Uncle Tom's Bungalow, Jungle Jitters, The Isle of Pingo Pongo, All This and Rabbit Stew, Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, Tin Pan Alley Cats, Angel Puss and Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears.

http://www.toonzone.net/news/articles/35331/nycc2010-warner-archive-to-release-the-censored-elevenSpeaking

It's that usual 10% that feel uncomfortable with these cartoons.

I'd like to find out if Whoopi Goldberg would have a monologue with this and I know that this DVD is for Cartoon Nerds...and not intended for children!

UPDATE (10/13): The New York Post reports that they have also seen the ToonZone.net information and when they asked Warner Home Video for comment about it, the studio replied that there are "no firm plans" at this time.

It wasn't an out-and-out denial either, however.




Extrapolating a bit on the Post's write-up, the indication was that neither a timeframe (not even a release year, for example) nor method of delivery have been decided upon yet.

As an example, if such a release comes out it might arrive in 2012 rather than 2011; and it might come out through traditional retail channels rather than via Warner's MOD program.







Nor would we think, potentially, is the theoretical content of such an (unannounced) release necessarily limited to the above-named 11 shorts, as other shorts also became restricted later on (such as 1944's Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips by Friz Freleng, for example), and Warner might like to include those on such a title as well.

The bottom line is that things might be a bit more serious about such a release than they have been in the past, but it's still not "just around the corner" quite yet.


Stay tuned and we'll keep you informed!

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Bugs-Bunny-Looney-Tunes-Comedy-Hour-The-Censored-Eleven/14541



NY Post Article - http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/movies/censored_eleven_release_not_yet_Y8btAPRvWins2yxpMPU5cK

This may be the same scenario as "Song of the South" being released.