It should come as no surprise that some of the best cartoons are the ones you never see: too raucous and bawdy, too politically incorrect to be viewed on television or even distributed in DVD collections. It should also come as no surprise that a lot of them were made in the '30s; during wartimes, depressions and prohibitions, back when everyone, including animators, were bogged down by social unrest and had a lot to get off their chests. The Burns Film Center's latest shorts program, Jazz, Sex and War Cartoons is the kind of rude, faithless, low-down fun that you've either been waiting for or need to be exposed to. It feels more like being entertained in a cigarette-smoky speakeasy than watching anything on The Cartoon Network. These were characters that knew how to get down and dirty after the kiddies cleared out of the theaters; from Betty Boop's S&M adventures to Popeye patriotically punching out racial stereotypes and, of course, an appearance by the swivel-hipped siren of cartoonland, Red Hot Riding Hood. So, while black and white pornography and cultural insensitivity may be a little dated, this collection of cartoons is hilariously funny, which of course, is timeless.
June 13. Burns Film Center, 364 Manville Rd. (betw. Wheeler & Tompkins Aves.), Pleasantville, West Chester, 914-747-5555; 7:15, $13.
