132. Fish Tales (1936)

Release date: May 23rd, 1936

Series: Looney Tunes 

Director: Jack King

Starring: Joe Dougherty (Porky), Billy Bletcher (fish)

Let the fun of the Jack King Porky cartoons begin. In truth, he didn’t direct that many at all. Maybe 4 tops, but they’re so strange that they left such a mark on me. I said i’d never rewatch them again, and here I am! They’re not as bad as I make them out to be, and they’re certainly ambitious, which I give King credit for. Yet they’re certainly... off putting, and this one is the most disturbing in my opinion. So, with that warm, happy, promising introduction: Porky heads out to the lake for some fishing, but once he falls asleep he has a surreal dream that the fish are catching HIM instead, and it’s up to Porky to escape before turning into a pig roast.

Any day is a happy day for Porky  We open to our porcine pal strolling along, fishing rod in hand, whistling merrily. Life is good. He passes by a tiny hole in the ground, where two little worms poke their heads out. They both follow porky to his boat, tied to a stake in the ground on land. Porky climbs aboard and notices the worms, sticking his can out so they can climb in. One of the worms hops in and signals for the other to join, the other strutting around à la Mae West until the first worm yanks him inside. The animation of the worms, and in this cartoon in general, is very fluid and enjoyable.

Porky cranks the motor on, and the boat sputters to life. Unfortunately, there’s one caveat: the boat is still tied to the stake in the ground. Evidently the motor’s got quite the oomph to it—some lovely animation as Porky’s boat threatens to drag the entire land behind him. Instead, the boat is swung around in a circle, the rope eventually wearing thin and snapping, sending Porky catapulting across the lake. Seeing as Bob McKimson gets an animation credit, I wonder if this is his work: very solid, top notch, mesmerizing animation.

The engine roars on, the ship now completely out of control. A sharp veer towards the left sends porky headed straight for a battle ship. He moans in agony and covers his face, preparing for the impact. But, with a good dose of cartoon logic, the boat takes a sharp turn downward, plummeting into the lake, under the boat, and rocketing back towards the surface again. Speed is very strong and tactile, and could very much be likened to Tex Avery’s knack for speed.

Unfortunately, Porky’s relief is only temporary. Though he narrowly avoids crashing into the ship, his boat is once more hurtling towards the ship. This time, he doesn’t dodge it—he flies straight through, cutting up a dining table (the next Porky cartoon, fittingly enough, is Shanghaied Shipmates, one scene in particular staged very similarly to this one) and zooming out through the other end of the boat. The ship sinks in the distance while Porky continues his wild goose chase of a ride.

The animation and speed combine to make a very exhilarating experience. The drawings are three dimensional and almost make for a sense of motion sickness as he zooms across the screen. Though this cartoon is a strange one, it’s certainly ambitious and takes many risks, and King deserves credit for that alone.

After whirling around like a torpedo, Porky finally realizes that maybe, just maybe, he should reach for the brake. He feels around aimlessly with his foot and finally stomps on the pedal, and the boat spins around in a flurry of activity to a halt at last. Dazed from the impact, Porky slumps over the boat to recover from his vertigo. In the process, he accidentally swallows a fish and snaps awake, spitting it out. He feels his face and collects himself, making sure he’s truly in the clear.

And, just like that, Porky reaches for his fishing rod and finally sets out what he intended to do in the first place: fish. Already he nabs a big bite, and prepares to reel in for the long haul. Instead, he reels in a mounted fish head. Clearly displeased, Porky frustratedly tosses his catch back in the water. Next time, he reels in a REAL catch. To deposit his win, he stretches a bucket out like a long tube and places the fish inside, the bucket returning to its natural state. The gag would have been funnier if it were more apparent, but it’s handled a little too nonchalantly and thusly reads as more incoherent and arbitrary instead of funny.

Already, Porky grows tired of fishing, literally. Fashioning some rope as a makeshift pillow, Porky lies down and settles in for a nap. We pan down to the waters below, and spot a quite frankly terrifying fish who’s ready to do some fishing of his own. He opens a picnic basket and rifles through, attempting to find suitable bait: a donut will do. He stuffs the donut inside a rifle and shoots, the donut attached to a string. Very similar to the rifle/fishing rod/grappling hook invention featured in Gold Diggers of ‘49.

In an almost identical manner to the terminally boring Old Glory 3 years later, Porky’s “dream self” rises from his real self and takes the bait. I think this is a big downfall of the cartoon—spoiling the surprise halfway through. If you’re going to go the surreal route, stick with it and don’t spoil the audience that he’s already having a dream. Wait until the end for him to wake up for real to imply that it was already a dream instead of explicitly stating “This is a dream, folks!” Keep your audience on your toes by tricking them into thinking it’s real. But I digress. The fish reels in his catch, sending Porky hurtling down into the water and scooping him up in a net, removing the donut from Porky’s snout where it had been clamped down.

The fish carries Porky by the feet and waddles along to his humble abode. He signals that he’s home (by making a really strange noise—the only way I can describe it is that it sounds like an abbreviated version of Porky’s ostrich from Porky’s Pet), and two of his children excitedly run out to greet him. Yet first, they swim inside merrily to their mother, exclaiming in incomprehensible chatter that their father is home with a big catch. The entire family crowds around Porky  one of the fish children poking him and giggling. Like a real fish, Porky jitters around, and it’s enough to scare the children. They run inside the house and dive inside the laundry hamper, both of their heads covered by a bra. 

Here’s where things get delightfully (or not) strange. The fish takes his catch inside and “skins” him, cutting off Porky’s sweater. He places the naked, writhing pig inside an aluminum pan, dressing him up so he makes the perfect pig roast. Thanks to a hearty helping of pepper being doused on him, Porky sneezes and propels himself across the counter, the fish responding “Gesundheit!” and positioning him back in the pan. He garnishes his potential meal and slaps another pan on top to cover him, and places him in the oven.

Thus sparks the infamous, disturbing, uncomfortable and quite frankly hilarious scene of Porky roasting alive in the oven, coughing and sputtering (and stuttering) “LEMME OUTTA HERE!” Porky manages to buck the lid off of him, pushing the oven door open and making a break for it.

It seems that even nature is against Porky as he traverses the unknown waters—an eel threatens to tie him up and restrain him, chasing him around. Porky manages to sock the eel in the face, with enough force that the eel ties itself up in a knot. Of course, the eel unravels itself and chases Porky with more determination than ever.

The chase leads to a sleeping fish (perhaps the same one from before, I had always been under that impression but now rewatching it I don’t think it is), Porky and the eel swimming into its mouth. The fish blows the eel out of its mouth like a party streamer, now awake, both the eel and Porky swimming back out of its mouth. The fish only looks on in bewilderment. Elsewhere, a swordfish threatens to slice Porky in two. Thankfully, it gets its nose lodged in a spare wooden beam. Porky uses this opportunity to grab a mallet and hammer the swordfish’s nose in, bending the point.

While attempting to make his escape, Porky comes across a particularly angry octopus, who captures him in its tentacles. Some nice, stretchy animation as the octopus spanks Porky, who is slingshotted into the distance and flies back into frame thanks to the octopus’ iron grip. Now, the octopus attempts to do what the eel couldn’t: strangle him. 

As Porky fights for his life, we fade back into reality, where Porky is, for reasons unknown, naked, and coiled in his rope. He wakes up and collects himself, wrangling himself out of the rope. Determined to never see a fish ever again, Porky throws all of the fish he caught out of the boat (even though we ever see him catch just one fish.) Iris out as a terrified, naked pig zooms into the horizon in his motorboat.

I’m actually glad I rewatched this one, because I’ve definitely re-evaluated my stance on it. I still don’t like it that much, it’s not very funny and more uncomfortable than anything, but at the same time it’s unconventional and has some great bursts of animation. Jack King was certainly experimental, but his experiments rarely ever worked out in his favor. I’ve never classified his cartoons as funny, especially in comparison to Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, and later Frank Tashlin (who’ll be coming into the picture soon.) He DOES have at least some sort of eye for cinematography, playing around with camera angles and close ups, which I admire. This cartoon was strange and was meant to be strange, so I appreciate that he took a different route. It’s still overwhelmingly off putting, but it’s not as terrible as I had thought it was before. There’s some great animation, especially the beginning half of Porky’s wild boat ride. The cartoon was meant to be disconcerting, and it more than succeeded. I don’t think I’ll be watching this again soon, I still don’t particularly LIKE it but I can appreciate it more. Because of that, I’m ambiguous on the recommendation. It’s just so strange that it could constitute a watch, but if you’re looking for something funny and/or charming, this isn’t your best bet. But, with that, 

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