After crash landing in Africa, Tom and Jerry masquerade as Africans in a futile attempt to adapt to a strange environment.After crash landing in Africa, Tom and Jerry masquerade as Africans in a futile attempt to adapt to a strange environment.After crash landing in Africa, Tom and Jerry masquerade as Africans in a futile attempt to adapt to a strange environment.
- Directors
- Stars
Photos
Aubrey Lyles
- Jerry
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
F.E. Miller
- Tom
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- Quotes
[first lines]
Tom: If we take this dumb stuff right to Africa, we'll be heroes.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Bamboozled (2000)
Featured review
It's really dumb but there's something relevant buried inside
I'm gonna be a contrarian with this animation not because I'm endrosing the short's message or its clear gross ideas, but simply because there's more to it
than meets the eye and in fact there is a strong and important to learn from here. "Plane Dumb" is basically its title but trade plane for plain. It's a product of its
era so there we have a racist film, unfunny and very prejudicial for its own sake. The animation quality lies basically in its creative drawings, effects and the way
the story moves for the lead characters in between the countess difficuties they face throughout the picture. Watch it with a certain objectivity and you'll feel less
offended as the film progresses.
Here, Tom and Jerry (the buddies, not the cat and mouse) will deliver products to Africa by plane. But in their closed mind they think they'll only get accepted and not face danger there if they disguise themselves as blacks - that's when the joke gets painful and never funny since they do the blackface thing. However, the plane crashes on the ocean and later on they are attacked by sharks, whales, other animals until they reach the coast where the danger comes from lions, bats and natives.
The dialogues are silly and really hard to hear due to the poor sound quality; the racism goes beyond the stereotypes and blackface, it also presents Africa as a whole nation instead of continent; the only things that exist there are wild animals and savages. It was a form to amuse audiences back in the 1930's but doesn't hold any effect on us except as seeing a problematic vile project. But there was something in "Plane Dumb" that most audiences fail to take notice: the ultimate message that is "far ahead" for its time is that racists don't have a place in the world, racism and prejudice are not tolerable things. Pay attention how Tom and Jerry ultimately fail at everything they do. Sure, they survive shark attacks, manage to use the whale as a tool to save themselves but everytime during the trip things end up badly for them - and that's why today's audiences can have brieft moments of laughter with such dumb characters. By taking things at face value they only put themselves in harm's way.
If you're on the other side of the fence maybe you can learn a lot from this short animated film. It's not much of an excuse to defend its existence but since it's still here it's up to us to try to learn something, to realize how much we evolved with times and how we can make better things when we are united and creating more powerful art forms. 7/10
Here, Tom and Jerry (the buddies, not the cat and mouse) will deliver products to Africa by plane. But in their closed mind they think they'll only get accepted and not face danger there if they disguise themselves as blacks - that's when the joke gets painful and never funny since they do the blackface thing. However, the plane crashes on the ocean and later on they are attacked by sharks, whales, other animals until they reach the coast where the danger comes from lions, bats and natives.
The dialogues are silly and really hard to hear due to the poor sound quality; the racism goes beyond the stereotypes and blackface, it also presents Africa as a whole nation instead of continent; the only things that exist there are wild animals and savages. It was a form to amuse audiences back in the 1930's but doesn't hold any effect on us except as seeing a problematic vile project. But there was something in "Plane Dumb" that most audiences fail to take notice: the ultimate message that is "far ahead" for its time is that racists don't have a place in the world, racism and prejudice are not tolerable things. Pay attention how Tom and Jerry ultimately fail at everything they do. Sure, they survive shark attacks, manage to use the whale as a tool to save themselves but everytime during the trip things end up badly for them - and that's why today's audiences can have brieft moments of laughter with such dumb characters. By taking things at face value they only put themselves in harm's way.
If you're on the other side of the fence maybe you can learn a lot from this short animated film. It's not much of an excuse to defend its existence but since it's still here it's up to us to try to learn something, to realize how much we evolved with times and how we can make better things when we are united and creating more powerful art forms. 7/10
helpful•00
- Rodrigo_Amaro
- Jul 3, 2020
Details
- Runtime7 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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