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The author waxes philosophical on what he would do if he were to make his own cannibal movie.
Now banned from television for the most part, cartoons (humorous animated shorts) commonly featured cannibals and cannibal stereotypes from the silent era into the 1960's. Here are brief descriptions of some of them. Nobody ever actually gets eaten in cannibal cartoons, except for one (Chew Chew Baby).
Bugs Bunny helps a penguin to get back home to the south pole, only to find out that the pengin's real home is New Jersey. On the way they get captured and cooked in the pot by cannibals. The scene begins with a map, showing the location to be somewhere around Panama. What cliche African cannibals are doing in Panama is not explained. Also features a charicature of Humphrey Bogart as Fred C. Dobbs (from The Treasue of the Sierra Madre) as a running joke. I loved this cartoon when I was a kid. It is almost never seen now (probably because of the cannibals).
A cartoon spoof on the 1930 documentary "Africa Speaks" this featues Flip the Frog on a big game safari in Africa and encountering a tribe of stereotypical cannibal natives with a self-propelled cooking pot. Another cartoon banned for racial stereotyping.
Silent era animation from Disney that combines a live action girl (Alice) with cartoon situations. In this one, Alice meets some cannibals and "cans" them. Really, it's just Alice in the jungle with lots of animals. Eventually some cartoon cannibals show up and there is a fight as Alice and her cartoon companion try to escape. This is very early animation filmmaking.
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A 1957 Crusader Rabbit cartoon produced for television. Crusader Rabbit was one of the first animated cartoon series done for television and broadcast on children's television programs like Sherrif John and Captain Kangaroo. The humor is based mostly on puns. In this episode from the third season, Crusader Rabbit and Rags the Tiger travel with animal trainer Clyde Beauty into the Belchin' Congo to find the Apes of Rath, and get captured by a local tribe of cannibals.
Mutt and Jeff are shipwrecked on a south seas island were they are captured by cannibals. Chubby Jeff goes right into the pot, but skinny Mutt gets locked up in the fattening hut. The cheif's fat daughter falls in love with Jeff and wants to marry him. The "Aroma of the South Seas" is the cannibal woman's stinky foot.
aka Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle
Betty and Bimbo (the dog) are shipwrecked on a cannibal island. The little dog gets caked in mud, and the cannibals think he's a god. Betty does a sexu hula dance and everything is fine until a rainstorm comes and washes off the mud, forcing he and Betty to beat a quick escape!
Bosco, who apparently is a negro, gets shipwrecked on a cannibal island and barely escapes the cooking pot.
A Disney Silly Symphonies cartoon. A tribe of cannibals (that look like turtles, you bet your sweet ass they do) have their dinner party interrupted by a hunting lion.
An explorer returns from Africa with a pygmy who starts eating all his friends. One of the first cartoons banned from television; not because of racial stereotyping, but because the cannibalism scenes (Chew Chew the Pygmy actually eats people!) were thought too graphic for television.
A classic Jay Ward Fractured Fairy Tale about a little Tinker who is sent by the King to vanquish a Troll. The troll asks the Tinker to fix his People Pot, "the pot in which we Trolls cook people." The Tinker fixes the pot like new, only to be thrown in it by the Troll. "You're a people aren't you?" he asks, "well then you're going to get cooked!" Luckily, the Tinker has a silver hammer, which is the one thing that can kill a troll. This can sometimes be seen on old Rocky and Bullwinkle re-runs.
A Tom and Jerry cartoon. Tom is shipwrecked on an island and Jerry the mouse pretends to be a cannibal. He has Tom fooled until the real cannibals show up.
An old and rarely seen George Pal Puppetoon animated short, this features Jim Dandy as a sailor who becomes shipwrecked on a South Seas island. There he meets the lovely island girl Sarong Sarong and it's love at first sight, until a tribe of cannibals attacks and Jim is captured. Jazz Exotica music and classic "tiki" images are used as the natives introduce Jim to the cooking pot via a slide-chute. Is it the end for Jim and his island love? Of course not, but an excellent example of pre-PC Hollywood animation nonetheless. Available on the "Puppettoon Movie" DVD only.
A fabulous old Betty Boop cartoon featuring music from Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra. Betty Boop journeys to Africa with her friends Bimbo and KoKo where their safari is attacked by cannibals and Betty is captured. Bimbo and KoKo set off after her, eventually finding her tied to a tree in the cannibal village and being prepared for the pot. The title comes from the Louis Armstrong tune that is played throughout like a music video.
A 1933 cartoon featuring a series of celebrity caricatures including Bing Crosby, Greta Garbo and Mae West at a radio station. The cartoon shows listeners around the world including a cannibal in Africa. Ed Wynn keeps announcing that it is 8 o'clock. Like many cartoons of the era some of the images are of questionable ethnic sensitivity and some segments, including the cannibal one, are often cut from modern broadcasts.
A Superman cartoon, Lois Lane is the captive of an evil scientist who controls a cannibal tribe. Superman must save her before dinner time.
A travelling salesman tries to peddle his wares to a cannibal village and ends up in the pot. The Chief's ugly daughter wants to marry him though. Which fate will he choose?
Little Bosco is given cookies to take to his grandmother's house, but on the way he imagines himself interrupted by cookie hungry cannibals.
aka On The Pan
The Little King goes to Africa where a tribe of cannibals plan to cook him for the chief's birthday dinner.
An early Walt Disney Micky Mouse cartoon. Mickey is Robinson Crusoe and saves Friday from the cannibals. Friday helps Mickey to escape the island when the cannibals return.
An obscure and rarely seen, and now banned for racial stereotyping, George Pal Puppetoon. The Scarecrow falls asleep while reading Robinson Crusoe and dreams he is on trial by a cannibal tribe for stealing from Jasper. Each time he is found guilty of a charge, the cannibals throw another log on the fire under the pot he is in, and sing a song that goes, "put on the log, put on the heat." Never shown on television anymore and not available on video.
A rare, banned Popeye the Sailor cartoon that finds Popeye shipwrecked on a cannibal island! He checks into a hotel where the chief sizes him up for dinner. Popeye doesn't realized what's going on until he finds himself in the pot! Luckily for Popeye, the natives use spinach for the soup!
In another banned Popeye the Sailor cartoon, Popeye is searching for his long-lost Pappy and finds him living on an island as a cannibal King. Pappy doesn't want to leave and the natives don't want to give up their king, so Popeye ends up on the dinner menu.
Porky Pig is Robinson Crusoe. Shipwrecked on an island he is captured by cannibals who are going to throw him into the pot.
A knight and a dragon meet cannibals in a jungle.
Filmation/Viacom 1979
A latter day Mighty Mouse cartoon, this was part of the New Adventures of Mighty Mouse made by Viacom in the late 70s after the discontinuation of Terrytoons. In this one, Mighty Mouse tells a bedtime story to a little mouse boy about fairly Pixie Pureheart, who is captured by a Troll who plans to cook her in the oven for dinner when she can't pay the toll to cross his bridge. Mighty Mouse comes to the rescue. Oil Can Harry is the Troll. This series of cartoons was in between the original Terrytoons and the much more entertaining Ralph Baksi series.
A Mighty Mouse cartoon. Mighty Mouse comes to save the day when a family of mice, including a sexy, short-skirted mouse daughter, are shipwrecked on an island full of mice-eating cannibal cats.
Mickey Mouse and Pluto go to Africa to sell pots and pans and musical instruments to the natives. The natives capture them and throw Mickey in the pot. Mickey wows them with his saxophone and they decide to jam instead.
A sailor is shipwrecked on an island and captured by cannibals who take off his clothes and put him in the pot. He makes several escapes, including disguising himself as one of the cannibals and trying to get the cheif cooked instead of him, but ends up recaptured and back in the pot. In his final escape he uses a couple of spears as oars and escapes using the pot as a boat.
Third of three Betty Boop cartoons featuring jungle cannibals. Betty and Grampy are planewrecked on an island and are spotted by native cannibals. An old poster for this cartoon shows Grampy in a pot while the cannibal chef smacks his lips at a tied up Betty. What happens in the cartoon is that as soon as Grampy and Betty spot the cannibals, Grampy quickly builds a monkey-powered helicopter out of parts of the wrecked plane and the pair escapes before anyone goes into the pot.