Title: Pied Piper Porky
Studio: Warner Bros.
Date: 11/04/39
Credits:
Supervision
Robert Clampett
Animation
John Carey & Dave Hoffman
Musical Direction
Carl W. Stalling
Series: Looney Tunes
Running time (of viewed version): 7:00
Synopsis: Porky fails to catch the last rat, and leaves it to a cat.
Comments: Silhouettes in the title card. Yet another intro text Clampett cartoon, text followed by an establishing shot pan (also with text over it), and a final push in. Followed by a push in on another shot, followed by more text; with a down pan on it, yet. Hmmm. That last text has a double World's Fair joke: "Weather Report San Francisco ... Fair, New York .... Fair, See both fairs for $10.00." The rat has good movement. Another cartoon that has its meat after the end of another story, even more so than in Naughty Neighbors. The rat seems to be black, and refers to Porky as boss; he might be intended as a Rochester vocal caricature. The cat has very human fingers in one shot. There's much camera movement in the chase scene; impressively pulled off. Ape cat. Very low shot of Porky. Incidentally, the cat seems to be named Herman. Incidentally, Porky almost disappears form the cartoon once the cat appears. Ditch that title character guys, it's 1939. The characters themselves aren't very good looking.
You could tell by the end of 1939 that Clampett was really getting frustrated at having to use Porky in every cartoon, a problem that would continue until Leon finally started letting him do Merrie Melodies in 1941. Foster's not credited on this one, but he did take the basic idea nine years later and reworked and improved it into "Paying the Piper" (which actually made Porky integral to the story past the first two minutes of the cartoon).
ReplyDeleteDon't hang that just on Clampett. Everyone was ditching their main characters in those characters' cartoons.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but with Bob, the point was all the other directors at Warners in 1939 at least had a variety of stories they could do, while Bob, stuck doing nothing but B&W Looney Tunes, was forced to use Porky in every single short. That had to be frustrating, especially seeing Hadrdaway and Dalton having the option to do color and B&W shorts and Jones' new unit doing nothing but color cartoons.
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