140. Porky’s Poultry Plant (1936)

Release date: August 22nd, 1936

Series: Looney Tunes 

Director: Frank Tashlin

Starring: Joe Dougherty (Porky), Tedd Pierce (Rooster), Dorothy Lloyd (Chicks)

A cartoon with a number of important firsts! Starting with the most obvious: this is Frank Tashlin’s first cartoon! He was only 23 at the time. He worked at Schlesinger’s as an animator from 1933-1934, but got fired after Leon Schlesinger wanted a cut of Tashlin’s comic (titled Van Boring, a play on his former boss Van Beuren) and Tashlin told him to go to hell. After floating around from Ub Iwerks and Hal Roach’s studios, Tashlin returned to Schlesinger’s in 1936 to replace Jack King. Tashlin would leave once more in 1938 after an argument with executive Henry Binder, working at Disney and Columbia Screen Gems before returning once more to schlesinger’s in 1942, leaving in 1944 (his cartoons running from 1943-1946 due to the backlog) to head into the movie business. One of my favorite directors for sure with his sharp eye for cinematography and liberal use of line of action and dynamics.

Another important first is that this is Carl Stalling’s first cartoon at Warner Bros! To label Stalling as a genius would be an understatement. Composing for over 600 cartoons and staying all the way until 1958, his scores greatly enhanced the impact of so many cartoons. His biggest shtick was accompanying scenes with literal, appropriate scores—if a character strikes it rich, “We’re in the Money” would play. Any scene involving a tree was usually accompanied by “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree”. A character is hunting, you can count on an underscore of “A-Hunting We Will Go”. It seems simple, but stalling pulled it off amazingly well and his music is an absolute delight to listen to.

In regards to the synopsis: Porky’s been struggling with a declining population of chickens thanks to some hungry hawks. When another hawk snatches a chick, Porky is determined to reunite the baby with its mother by any means necessary.

15 seconds in and Frank Tashlin already works his cinematography magic with this amazing pan. Pan across an aerial view of a big farm, focusing on a line of chicken coops. We hone in on a flag that triumphantly reads “Porky’s Poultry Plant”, a wonderful pan sliding down the pole and to the coops themselves as a leisurely rooster make his way out of the coop, yawning and stretching. He wanders over to a crate situated behind a microphone and a music stand, stepping on the crate and flipping the music open to reveille. A few clears of the throat and hearty slaps to the sides later, the rooster clucks reveille over the PA system.

One by one the hatch doors are opened from the coops, all sorts of birds streaming out. Chickens, ducks, geese, you name it. Elsewhere, Porky himself steps out onto his porch and revels in the freshness of a new day. He stretches and announces (stutters) “Boy, what a day!” The animation is truly hilarious as Porky beats his chest repeatedly, so hard that he ends up in the midst of a coughing fit. He grins sheepishly at the audience and jogs away offscreen—a great first impression by Tashlin.

Porky pours some fresh seed into a tin pan from a chute, scattering it along the ground, calling for the animals to come and get it. All the chi-chi-chicks and du-du-ducks and gee-gee-geese come running, followed by a poor little chick who keeps getting swept up in the stampede. The animation of all of the animals running towards the feed is very smooth and satisfying to watch.

The birds move in droves, zigzagging in one giant pecking pack as Porky tosses the seed back and forth on the ground. Again, great animation. Very frenzied with a lot going on. I’d hate to be the one animating it! The poor chick tries its damnest to get some food, but continues to get run over by the starving stampede. Porky notices and frowns at the gaggle, but an idea hatches. He scoops a heaping handful of seed into his hand and fakes the birds out by pretending to throw it. The birds fall for it, running away, and porky pours the handful of food down just for the chick, who inhales it immediately and swells up like a tiny balloon.

More barnyard gags ensue. A duck scrapes corn off the cob with its beak in rows, Porky feeds a gaggle of geese who get their long necks tied together in the midst of the rush (including a neat shot of Porky tossing feed directly at the audience), and so on. A few chicks follow some worms who dive in their holes, and Porky  grabbing a funnel, plays it like a pipe and acts like a snake charmer (porky the worm charmer!), the worms writhing out of the ground and getting sucked into the chicks’ mouths. This gag would be traced over in Bob Clampett’s Chicken Jitters, including a slightly incongruous large Porky body with his smaller, more refined 1939 head.

Transition to a much more somber mood. We see a poster with the profile of a hen on it reading “OLGA—STOLEN BY HAWK APRIL 6, 1936”. Another hawknapped hen by the name of Dorothy. We zoom out to see a teary eyed Porky mourning the loss of his precious hens (one of them named Petunia, sharing the name of Porky’s future girlfriend also created by Tashlin in Porky’s Romance.) Porky’s remorse fades to vengeance as he now confronts a giant poster with a menacing hawk on it (looks more like a vulture to me), hilariously labeled “PUBLIC CHICKEN ENEMY No. 1”. Porky vows to exact revenge: “I’ll get you yet, you old buzzard!” 

Just the time to fade to a hawk floating around in the sky, searching for its next victim. It looks down at the ground and is immediately pleased, licking its chops in anticipation. It circles around an oblivious hen, who’s minding her business, pecking at the ground with her children nearby. Clever staging as she spots the shadow of the overhead hawk and panics, attempting to wrangle her children as the hawk settles into a nosedive. Porky spots the hawk and immediately runs to turn the crank on the “hawk alarm” (a siren.) panic and crisis ensues as all of the birds scramble to take shelter as the hawk zooms overhead. The speed isn’t as exaggerated as it could be (a small nitpick), but the sense of urgency is very much present.

The hawk has a particular chick cornered, dashing back and forth between the fence as the hawk’s shadow follows. Now we have some nice exaggeration and speed as Porky repeatedly fires a rifle, the impact so tremendous that he’s sent whirring backwards through a pond like a speedboat and sent crashing into an apple tree. Tentatively, all of the birds poke their heads out of their respective hiding places to see if the coast is clear. It appears so. The mother hen is relieved... until she isn’t. She panics, hurriedly counting how many of her children are present. One appears to be missing. We see that the hawk overhead now has her missing chick in the safety of its talons.

Now in a hysteric frenzy, the hen rushes up to Porky, clucking like mad. A very clever decision to have her clucks briefly morph into decipherable English: “Oh, my baby! Oooooh, Porky! Look! Look look look!” She points upwards, and Porky does a take. He immediately rushes inside the barn to get something.

What follows is a sequence with nonstop great animation. We start with a straight in view as an airplane barrels towards the screen, the plane flying upward and curving slightly towards the camera before settling, Porky inside. The plane feels very volumetric and three dimensional, and the animation is just mesmerizing. The hawk recognizes he has someone on its tail and panics—excessive bullets fired from Porky don’t fare well either. We have some more stunningly beautiful camera angles as Porky follows the hawk, shooting the tail feathers off of the hawk. The scene is urgent, fun, captivating, and exhilarating.

Desperate, the hawk calls for help. A nearby flock of hawks overhear and follow, all taking off like airplanes and using a cliff as a runway. Now Porky is outnumbered. If the population of his foes wasn’t enough of a reminder that he’s being hunted, pulling his tail repeatedly serves as another suitable reminder. The hawks taunt porky, each plucking at his tail before dropping him back in the plane. Another beautiful angle (this time an undershot) as we view the hawks bombing Porky with a barrage of eggs.

More creative (and unseen) animation as porky ushers the hawks into a cloud, firing his gun. The camera jolts back and forth, back and forth, our only context clues being gunfire, crowing, and a chorus of “Ow!”s. With that, Porky comes out of the clouds the way he came, the hawks trailing HIM and now armed with his gun. The bullets spray the propeller, reducing it to nothing. Some dizzying angles as Porky is plummeting straight to the ground. A great number of shots one after the other, not even a second long. The chickens, porky, the laughing hawks, and then an upshot of a windmill. Porky crashes straight into the windmill, which proves to be a worthy substitute for a propeller, the windmill blades situated right where the propeller used to be. Porky is now back on track.

A scene that reminds me of many of Tex Avery’s “interlude” gags (like the train sequence in Porky the Wrestler, as we’ll soon see, though to a much lesser extent), the hawks now form a huddle and converse. Thus sparks a game of football, the rooster at the PA system from before (vocals by Tedd Pierce) providing the riveting commentary. Hilarious animation as two hawks play monkey in the middle with Porky, using the defenseless, unmoving chick as a ball. Unfortunately for the hawks, one of them misses the throw (“and he fumbles!”). The chicken is now plummeting straight towards the ground.

Porky immediately swoops in, the nervous hen from below passing out from the excitement. Porky recovers the little chick, victoriously cradling it in his hands. But the chase isn’t over yet: the hawks are gaining furiously on Porky. To retaliate, Porky smothers them in a thick cloud of exhaust. Sure enough it works: all of the hawks plummet to the ground, the chickens below even digging a giant hole for them to pile up in. Once everyone is settled, the chickens cover the dirt up and you have yourself a grave. The cherry on top is the Tedd Pierce rooster forlornly placing a flower on top of the dirt mound.

Finally, all is well. Porky comes to a not so smooth landing, the plane rocking back and forth a few times before settling. He hands the chick back to the hen, reassuring “Here’s your baby, Henrietta. All safe and sound.” 

Henrietta smothers her baby in reunion kisses and hugs. She clucks terms of endearment as she struts along, but the all too familiar shadow of a hawk stops her dead in her tracks. Now in a frenzy, she rushes back to porky and alarms him, who wastes no time retrieving his rifle. Porky aims, preparing to fire... and we zoom out to reveal the source of the shadow: a weather vane. Iris out as Porky points and laughs at his mistake.

I forgot how dynamic of a cartoon this was! I knew the opening shot of the flagpole was great, but I completely forgot how exhilarating the entire hawk chase scene was with all those wild angles. The exposition of the cartoon ran a little long in my opinion, but the snappy pace of the hawk scenes definitely make up for it.

Tashlin’s first cartoon and he’s already showing how great of a director he is! Those angles can’t be beat and you need to see them for yourself. As heavy as Tashlin’s vendetta against Porky was (complaining there was nothing to do with him and that he took too long to talk), he characterizes him well. Tashlin’s Porky is certainly the most endearing out of the Avery-Tashlin-King trio. Quite a few scenes of this cartoon were reused in Clampett cartoons such as Chicken Jitters and Wise Quacks.

With that said, you should watch it! The hawk scenes especially. This cartoon is chock full of interesting angles and dynamics. Very carefully crafted and fun to watch. And it’s tashlin’s first cartoon! Give it a go! 

Link!