129. Plane Dippy (1936)

Release date: April 30th, 1936

Series: Looney Tunes

Director: Tex Avery

Starring: Joe Dougherty (Porky), Billy Bletcher (Sergeant), Berneice Hansell (Kitty), Jack King (Professor Blotz, Kid)

The first cartoon to proudly display “Featuring Porky”—a trend that would continue on for years and years. Beans makes his last ever appearance, reduced to cameo, while Kitty also bids goodbye by clinging to a small role. Porky’s time has finally arrived! Our hero wishes to enlist in the air force, but quickly discovers he isn’t much good at it. Instead, he’s sent to clean a voice operated airplane, and things quickly turn sour—and destructive.

We begin with our hero strolling down the street. He comes across a poster: JOIN THE ARMY — INFANTRY DIVISION. Porky thinks it over with careful decision, yet decides it’s not for him. Another: SEE THE WORLD — JOIN THE NAVY. The same thoughtful mulling, the same rejection. And finally: LEARN TO FLY — JOIN THE AIR CORPS. The perfect job. Porky gives his affirmation with a dutiful salute, and marches inside to speak about the job.

Right away, he approaches a burly (and surly) general, who is scribbling away at his desk. Porky wordlessly salutes at attention, and is blown back from the impact as the sergeant growls “WELL?” Porky says “I wanna learn to f-fl—I wanna learn to f-f-f—“ He can’t quite get it out, and instead resorts to making airplane noises while imitating a plane with his arms.

The sergeant grunts “What’s your name, bud?” and once more Porky gets tripped up in his words. The sergeant instead hands him a slate and some chalk and instructs him to write his name. A gag too good for words as Porky physically writes out “P-P-P-P-P-“ as he continues to stutter his name. To get him to spit it out, the sarge whistles—a common Dougherty era gag as I mentioned previously—and Porky gives us his easy to remember, alliterative name that rolls so easily off the tongue: “Porky Cornelius Washington Otis Lincoln Abner Aloysius Casper Jefferson Filbert Horatius Narcissus Pig.” A fantastic joke that hits really well with the timing. I wonder how many takes that took Dougherty—he only stutters a few times.

Instead, the sarge drags Porky by the arm and throws a uniform in his arms. He tosses Porky into the changing room and waits patiently for a few seconds. Out comes a giant lump of clothes, much to the sarge’s surprise. To assert he’s dealing with the same stuttering pig from before, the sergeant pokes his head inside the oversized collar, and a “hello!” responds from the abyss of fabric. Porky’s “hello!” is hysterically out of place and sounds nothing like him, and was likely used for that reason. It’s incoherent, and slightly confusing at first, but it also enhances the gag. To remedy the situation, the sergeant picks up the mass of clothes and dunks it in a nearby barrel of water. The clothes gradually shrink, and we’re reunited with Porky as he now dons a suitable uniform.

Tex’s love of typography gags is prominently displayed as we get white text on a black background: DIZZINESS TEST. The words whirl around in a circle as we transition to the next scene, the sergeant winding Porky up like a top with some duct tape. With a whip of the tape (or ribbon, up to interpretation), Porky whirls around the room Tasmanian Devil style. The sarge stops him and picks him up, just in time for Beans to make a cameo by drawing a straight line on the floor. The sarge places Porky back down on the line, and he zips uncontrollably around the room.

Bullets spell out our next test: TARGET PRACTICE. Porky and the sarge are in a different room, both positioned behind a gun on a tripod. The sarge provides a demo by propelling a toy plane into the air and shooting the gun at the plane, hitting it in one go. He grins at his handiwork and offers Porky the gun to do the same. The sarge tosses another toy plane in the air, and Porky attempts to shoot it. Instead, he has great difficulty controlling the gun, shooting everywhere BUT the plane and nearly taking out the sergeant himself. A cloud of smoke fills the scene. Once the smoke clears, Porky’s left standing on a wooden floor, now finding him outside as the entire building is reduced to debris and bricks around him. The gun and the plane survive the wreckage, and Porky gives the gun a frustrated kick. To his befuddlement, the kick prompts the gun to shoot, and it hits the plane perfectly.

READY FOR DUTY. Now, the sergeant tosses rifles into the hands of aspiring soldiers, the force of the throw so strong that they each stumble backwards (fittingly accompanied by a gunshot sound effect.) dutiful Porky prepares to receive his honor... and a duster is thrust into his possession (still hilariously accompanied by the gunshot sound.) as Porky ogles at the duster, the sarge thrusts a paper that merely reads “ORDERS” into his grip and points to a nearby shed. Outside of the shed reads a sign: “ROBOT PLANE — KEEP OUT!” Perfect for Porky to wander into.

Porky obeys captain’s orders, and meanders into the shed. He gives a few whistles to alert his presence, and he’s met with nothing. Suddenly, a monkey whips a cloth off of a covered object, spinning Porky around like a top from the impact. Thusly uncovers said robotic plane as the monkey inquires “Well?” Porky hands him the orders with a loyal solute. “To Professor Blotz — this helper O.K. for your robot plane tests.” 

Professor Blotz doesn't interrogate Porky, instead showing him his new invention. He drags over a radio and microphone, ordering “Get ready!” into the microphone. A signal is sent directly to the robot plane, the propeller whirring to life. “Take off!” Porky runs out of the way as the plane zooms into the air. Professor Blotz shows off his fancy voice activated plane, much to the fascination of Porky. Loops, nosedives, ascensions... there’s nothing the plane can’t do.

Now the professor offers the microphone to porky, coercing him with “Try it!” Porky struggles to get his command out, and the plane comically shudders and jitters in conjunction with Porky’s stuttering. The plane does an uncertain l-l-lo-loop d-de l-lo-loo-lo-loop and hastily g-go-goes u-u-up. The plane inches closer and closer to a nearby hot air balloon, and Porky manages to order it down just in time. Professor Blotz yanks the microphone out of Porky’s grip as the plane parks itself outside, growling “Ooooh, get to work!” and thrusting the feather duster in Porky’s hands.

While Porky starts his cleaning duties, the professor haughtily places his radio in the window of the shed. Out come Little Kitty, a puppy, and the unnamed dog with an overbite from I Haven’t Got a Hat. Kitty giggles as the puppy licks her and asks the dog “Does he do tricks?” 

Of course! The dog orders his pup to sit up. Of course, the microphone picks up on his voice, and porky, who’s dutifully dusting the plane, now finds himself clinging onto the plane which is now sitting on its hind legs.

“Wag your tail!” The plane shakes its rear wings to the befuddlement of porky. Now kitty tries, armed with a balloon. “Get the balloon!” She tosses her balloon and giggles as the puppy chases it. And, of course, Porky is thrown into the seat of the plane as it takes off at frightening speeds and immediately pops the hot air balloon, the gag made even more amusing with the detail of two figures floating with parachutes after the accident.

Porky is now stuck in a shanghaied plane. Kitty orders the pup to chase his tail, and the plane spirals towards the ground in an attempt to chase its own tail. In the midst of the game gone horrible wrong, Porky reduces a clock tower to debris as he rams into each “level”. He finds himself flying through a nearby circus. He pops out of the other side of the tent, acrobats performing their routine as they hang from the bottom of the plane.

Now led towards the ocean, Porky’s plane serves as a speedboat as the acrobats transition into water skiers. The timing of all of these scenes is very well done. Just the right sense of urgency conveyed, yet executed so the gags have time to settle in as well. A swordfish leaps out of the waters and cuts the line connecting the acrobats to the plane, and they’re left behind as Porky is sent underwater, desperately trying not to cut the fish into sushi. Some nice camera angles as porky chases a fish in and out of the foreground.

The plane leaps in and out of the waves like a dolphin, chasing the hapless victim fish. Eventually, Porky resurfaces with an intimidatingly huge whale hot on his tail. Elsewhere, the dog overbite orders his pup to chase a cat (“Sic ‘im!”), and Porky is sent hurtling straight towards an innocent victim flying in his own plane. The two planes tussle, the poor pilot clinging onto a lone propeller as he sinks towards the sea below. Porky tears into a blimp. Once advertising “SMOKE ROPO CIGARS”, the blimp is cleverly reduced to “SOS” thanks to Porky cutting up half of said blimp.

Even the clouds fear Porky, taking form of an anthropomorphic human running away from the destructive blades of the plane’s propeller. The cloud man seeks refuge in his cloud house, slamming the door on Porky. Porky is then launched into a nosedive, shredding a farmer’s stack of hay into a shower of already made straw hats. A group of planes zip out of frame so as to avoid porky and zip right back up into their leisurely positions, the timing spot on and making a seemingly pointless gag much funnier.

A whole crowd of children have congregated around the pup causing so much trouble. All of the kids shout various conflicting commands, all picked up by the receiver. Porky’s plane is all but in control, at one point doing back hand springs and zigzagging all throughout the screen. The little puppy has tired itself out, and his owner coos “You’ve had enough”, summoning him home.

Good news for Porky as the microphone picks up the “come on home” command. The plane skids to an uneasy halt, animation light, delicate, and floaty as the wings scrape the grass. The plane skids right through the shed, and Porky is launched out as it crashes into the window. And, with amazing speeds, Porky propels himself to the registration office. A sign on the outside advertises the army as Porky declares “I wanna learn to march!” 

Finally, our happy little soldier gets the ending he’s always wanted. An eager Porky marches in the infantry, intermittently flashing hilariously ecstatic grins at the audience. Perhaps even funnier is that he isn’t even in time with everyone else’s march, doing a much more hurried speed walk (speed waddle?) slightly out of time. A happy end as we iris out.

While this isn’t my favorite Tex Porky short, it’s undoubtedly entertaining. Speed is a big factor to Tex’s cartoons, and it certainly plays a big role in this one, conveying the urgency and out of control nature of Porky’s shanghaied plane. The opening almost feels a little TOO fast, with Porky getting registered right away and doing all his tests one after the other. It’s a minor complaint, and it isn’t even that noticeable. Also amazing how, for lack of a better word, relevant this cartoon is today, where voice control becomes more and more popular. A highly amusing short that’s worth a watch, just because.

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