Clean Pastures Review

Clean Pastures is a 1937 animated short film from the Merry Melodies series. It is an infamous, controversial film.

I am not an African American so maybe I am not competent to write about this film, but I will do my best. So basically this film portrays black musicians who eventually go to heaven where jazz is accepted. I guess that is the plot in a nutshell and it angered so many people that it is now one of the Censored Eleven from Warner Bros.

I personally disagree with the notion that this film is so extremely racist. Certainly the character designs with big lips and everything are just horrible, but this is actually a major improvement over the previous Merry Melodies as black people and their culture I felt were celebrated here and the fact that they go to heaven is admirable. That is why the film honestly contains more positive than negative aspects about black culture and the PC-obsessed world now faults it too much. But as for the movie itself, it is okay, nothing too remarkable. The animation and the music are solid, but the characters are forgettable.

Clean Pastures is an infamous film which is not really all that racist when you think about it. It has a solid plot, but forgettable characters.