Tin Pan Alley Cats Review

Tin Pan Alley Cats is a 1943 animated short film from the Merry Melodies series. It is an imaginative, but otherwise flawed entry.

‘Porky in Wackyland’ was the role model for the second half of this movie meaning that it’s happening in an imaginative world filled with psychedelic, crazy imagery. I really enjoyed those scenes as they were so crazy and weird that they led to a very intriguing experience.

But other than that, the movie is pretty standard and even though it belongs in the Censored Eleven, it’s not that racist at all as it deals with a Fats Waller personality and jazz music which to me is more an homage to African American culture than racism. But the movie simply did not have enough originality in it as ‘Coal Black’ did this kind of stuff so much better back at the beginning of this year. The protagonist is solid, but others are sorely lacking.

Tin Pan Alley Cats has a weaker first half, but the second half is quite strong with a very psychedelic, crazy imagery.