China Jones

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Screen Shot 2021-09-15 at 2.04.35 PM.png|Screenshot of 2021 restoration from Warner Bros. Discovery RIDE
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ChinaJonesRestoredScene15.jpeg|The scene that was censored on Nickelodeon
China Jones is a 1959 Looney Tunes short directed by Robert McKimson.
== Title ==
The title is a parody of the 1950s television series China Smith.
== Plot ==
China Jones (Daffy Duck) is an Irish private eye working in Hong Kong in the Far East. Jones, looking for a fast buck, finds his next call via a fortune cookie in a restaurant with a message inside from someone telling Jones that they're being held prisoner in a Chinese bakery and that the reward for freeing them is £150 (around £4,374 in today's money). Jones is unsure where to look out of the thousands of Chinese bakeries, until his servant bangs a drum advertising good hot tips at a bar run by Limey Louie, a friend of Jones who is currently doing time. As Jones leaves the restaurant, he encounters Charlie Chung (Porky Pig) and thinks he's also working the same case hoping to get the reward; Chung's suggestion of bringing up a "matter of money" only further convinces Jones of this being the case.
As Jones heads off via rickshaw to investigate, the servant turns out to be a minion for Limey Louie (who has already gotten out of prison), who goes on ahead and tells him that China Jones is about to come. The ex-convict knew that Jones, whom he blames for his imprisonment, would fall for his trap and disguises himself as his widowed "wife" who is grieving for Louie. As Jones comes in, Louie beats Jones up, comparing that to the way that the police treated "her" husband. A dazed Jones then asks for a hot tip, and Louie gives him a card that suggests he visit "No. 10, Wong Way". Deciding Wong Way might be the right way to the bakery he's looking for, Jones takes a taxi to the address from the tip and finds a lady calling herself the "dragon lady". As Jones asks her why she is called that, the lady breathes fire on him. After Jones comes back from Wong Way, he tells Louie that the tip he'd been given was a little too hot to handle, so Louie gives Jones another card that suggests he investigate "Ho Down Wharf, second sampan". Once Jones arrives at the wharf, as soon as he boards the sampan in question, someone cuts the mooring rope securing it, causing the sampan to instantly sink into the wharf, Jones going down with it.
After Jones comes back from the wharf and inquires in irritation about more "hot tips", Louie drops his ruse and declares his intention of revenge on him. Jones promtly escapes into the back room and tries to make his exit via the back door, only to notice a space marked "trap door" at his feet. His attempt to open the door from a distance with a bamboo stick ends up triggering the actual trap door right beneath him and he almost falls into an alligator pit. Unfortunately, Louie comes in and makes Jones fall into the pit by playing "This Little Piggy" with his fingers.
As Jones narrowly escapes via a back hatch, Charlie Chung comes back and Jones begs him to arrest Limey Louie. However, Chung explains that he was not a detective; he's a laundry man, and that the money he was talking about earlier was Jones' laundry bill. Jones still refuses to pay the bill, sarcastically telling Chung "Confucius say 'can't squeeze blood from turnip!", but Chung threatens him with a club, telling Jones "Also say, 'better you press shirt than press luck!'". Jones ends up as a "prisoner" in Chung's laundry, forced to work there until he can pay off his bill, ranting in subtitled "Chinese", "Help! - I'm being held prisoner in a Chinese laundry!"
== Television ==
* The Porky Pig Show: Episode 25 (7 March 1965) along with "Rabbit Rampage" and "Mouse Mazurka".
* Porky Pig and His Friends (1970s)
* Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon (1990s, edited. See "Censorship" below)
== Availability ==
Gfdsgfdhj.jpg|Super 8
Lt vs5.jpg|(1982) VHS The Looney Tunes Video Show, Volume 5
CARTOON CAVALCADE PORKY PIG.jpg|(1988) VHS Porky Pig Tales
516XKXZN4WL.jpg|(1990) VHS Porky Pig (1990)
ClassicCollection.jpg|(1995) VHS Classic Collection (WHSmith Exclusive Video)
LTSPB Vol. 2.jpg|(1995) VHS Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 2)
Lt collection porky pig.jpg|(1996) VHS Looney Tunes Collection - Porky Pig
CARTOON CAVALCADE PORKY PIG 2.jpg|(1997) VHS Porky Pig Tales Time-Life edition
Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Vol. 3.jpg|(2024) Blu-ray Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 3 (restored)
=== Streaming ===
Lt warner bros discovery ride.png|Warner Bros. Discovery RIDE (2021 - 2023) (restored)
== Censorship ==
* When this cartoon aired on Nickelodeon in the 1990s, the end where China Jones (Daffy) is imprisoned in Charlie Chung's (Porky's) laundromat, loudly ranting, "Help! I'm being held prisoner in a Chinese laundry!" in faux Chinese was cut, ending instead on Charlie Chung brandishing a club and telling China Jones, "Confucius also say, 'B-better you press shirt than press luck."http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-c.aspx
* This short has seldom aired on American television ever since Nickelodeon stopped airing Looney Tunes cartoons due to outdated racial stereotyping of East Asians that modern audiences would find offensive. Despite this, it was available to stream on the discontinued Warner Bros. Discovery RIDE service until its shutdown in October 2023.
== Notes ==
* The part where China Jones/Daffy hits an alligator with his bat and closes the cellar door is reused from "Stork Naked".
* This cartoon was originally slated to be included on the Looney Tunes Super Stars' Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl DVD, but was replaced early in development due to executive backlash from Warner Home Video.https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/whv-announcement-looney-tunes-super-stars.290816/#post-3537991
* The press release for Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 3 wrongfully stated this as a Chuck Jones-directed cartoon instead of a Robert McKimson one. This error was corrected shortly afterwards.https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=21818237#post21818237
== Gallery ==
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ChinaJonesMuchoLocosDragonLadyComparison.jpeg|Comparison of dragon lady scene from this short (left) and "Mucho Locos" (right)
ChinaJonesLC.jpg|Lobby card
== References ==
Category:1959
Category:Cartoons directed by Robert McKimson
Category:Daffy Duck Cartoons
Category:Porky Pig Cartoons
Category:Shorts
Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce
Category:Cartoons with music by Milt Franklyn
Category:Looney Tunes Shorts
Category:Cartoons animated by Warren Batchelder
Category:Cartoons animated by George Grandpré
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Robert Gribbroek
Category:Cartoons animated by Ted Bonnicksen
Category:Cartoons animated by Tom Ray
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by William Butler
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by June Foray
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons produced by John W. Burton