Animation censorship

Here's an absolutely fascinating article about censorship in golden-age Hollywood animation. I've giving this article from the letterbox and widescreen advocacy page a rant alert but it's well worth a read.

There are plenty of articles about "Tom and Jerry" and "Song of the South", but I never knew that the pastoral symphony in "Fantasia" was cropped and digitally manipulated to remove black centaurs in typically racist caricatures from the time. I understand why Disney feels the need to remove these for a family audience today, but as a piece of cinema history it is a shame it's not available to see in another version. However some of these clips are available. Click on the still to see a clip of the black centaur polishing the white centaurs hooves. I find it a disturbing scene but I'm not sure that means we should blot out the past. As the author says, if we do not learn from the past, we are condemned to repeat it.