155. Picador Porky (1937)

Release date: February 27th, 1937

Series: Looney Tunes

Director: Tex Avery

Starring: Joe Dougherty (Porky), Mel Blanc (Drunk, Hiccups), Billy Bletcher (Bull), Tex Avery (Drunk), Count Cutelli (Bull Roars)

While Mel Blanc provided Porky’s shrieks in Porky the Wrestler, this is often considered his first role in a Warner Bros. cartoon, or at least a role of substantial size. Porky has also been considerably slimmed down. Other directors such as Ub Iwerks and Bob Clampett would follow suit, with Frank Tashlin being the lone "fat Porky" straggler. This is where I think Looney Tunes really start to shift in tone and truly become recognizably loony. Porky gets slimmer, Mel Blanc puts his foot in the door... great things lie ahead! 

Here, porky assumes the role of a toreador, hoping to win the cash prize with ease as his buddies promise to dress up as a bull and provide an even fight. However, when his buddies get into the bottle, Porky finds himself fighting a REAL bull instead, and a cash prize seems none too likely.

The cartoon opens with an expositional foreword:

Tex does a wonderful job of painting the perfect setting that almost anyone can imagine (even if he does spell preceding as preceeding). And so, of course, it’s only right that the scene after the foreword completely defies every word. Gunshots, shouting, people running amuck, a flurry of activity. 

However, Tex was right on the soft strains of the guitar: a mariachi band gets together to play “La Cucaracha”. A variety of visual gags accompany the music, whether it be men head-butting each other, a man drying himself off with a towel, or a kid poking his head out of a pot carried by his mother, interjecting “Swing it, mama, swing it!”, a man shaking a cocktail, you name it. There’s animation reused from a Friz cartoon of a girl dancing with a cloth—I believe it may be from Billboard Frolics.

Enter Porky and his two mysteriously unnamed buddies, both sliding into view from opposite sides as they all approach the gate to the town. Porky and co are nonplussed by the fervent celebration—we get a rolling pan of the action. Gunshots, dancing, confetti, the works. A poster tacked up to a tree captures the audience’s attention: TO-DAY 

BULL FIGHT 

1000 PESOS 

TO THE WINNER! 

The camera then trucks out to reveal Porky and his entourage staring at the poster. I was listening to Mark Kausler’s commentary on Porky’s Romance (which is coming up very soon, hooray!) and he mentioned how the camerawork could be a bit jittery and choppy on zoom outs such as these. The same applies here, the zoom out is a little jittery, but it’s a niche complaint. Something I never would have thought to notice! Porky signals for his buddies to bend down low, and he whispers an inaudible plan in their attentive ears.

Fade out and in to a costume shop, where Porky and co hurry inside. A few seconds later and out marches Porky in a matador costume, a makeshift bull outfit marching behind, tail pompously raised in the air. Topping the gag off, as if it wasn’t obvious, Mel Blanc provides his first coherent line of dialogue in a Warner Bros. cartoon as the two buddies unmask themselves, reassuring the audience “It’s us!” 

Elsewhere, the stadium packs full to bursting with eager spectators, waiting to see the bullfight in action. Some of the animation of the spectators streaming into the stadium would be reused as an overlay in Porky & Daffy. Elsewhere, porky and his “bull” tiptoe into the back entrance, where they encounter the actual bull for the fight, pent up in a cage that reads “1st event”. The real bull mistakes the fake bull for a female, hearts pouring out as Billy Bletcher provides an “Mmmmm-mmmm!” from the bull.

Porky wheels the bull cage out of the way, fetching an empty cage for his buddies to hide out in until the fight. Porky tends to his business, leaving his buddies alone, when a pesky bee flies into the cage. Clever visuals of the guy in the bottom half trying to smack the bee, his hand clearly sticking out of the tail. The bee lands on the bull’s “butt”, to which the hand promptly smacks. Though he hit himself in the process, the guy has successfully taken care of the bee, flicking it offscreen.

Meanwhile, a bottle of alcohol catches the attention of the front half. Carl Stalling debuts his favorite drunken motif of “How Dry I Am” as the bull head opens up, buddy #1 taking a hearty gulp of the liquor. Mel Blanc works his magic as #1 wheezes and coughs, sputtering “Hey, this is fine stuff!” Buddy #2 pokes his head out of the butt and helps himself. Wonderful animation as the alcohol settles in, #2 spinning and contorting the bull costume from the impact. He gives his seal of approval by slurring incomprehensibly.

The next scene has some wonderful animation paired with Mel Blanc’s hiccups. Drunk #2 begins to hiccup, sinking back into the bull costume. What starts as a string of hiccups morphs into an uncontrollably frenzy, the bull’s back half rocketing up and down and flailing all over the place as the hiccups render drunk #2 (and #1) useless. Eventually, the force of the hiccups is so strong that #2 lodges the entire bull outfit out of the cage, the cage now empty.

In the arena, a trumpeter blares out the beginning fanfare, and a number of miscellaneous doors—wooden, steel, even a safe—slide out of view, one by one, revealing the bullfighter’s entrance. This gag, paired with the same music, would be reused in Porky in Wackyland and later the remake, Dough for the Do-Do. The gag would be reused to a similar degree in another one of Tex’s shorts, Northwest Hounded Police over at MGM. While the gag is funny as it is, even more amusing is that the doors open to reveal absolutely nothing. A beat, and then tiny little Porky jumps out of a hidden door to the (our) right of the grand entrance, posing triumphantly. Porky shakes his hands in the glory, eating up the applause.

Back behind the scenes, a guard notices the bull is missing. He wheels away the cage, and spots the ACTUAL bull, wheeling the real bull back in its rightful place. Another door gag as an assistant opens a heavyset door, pulling a string that reveals the door to be a curtain. The bull is riled up, snorting wildly. Without any further hesitation, it zooms straight into the arena, spinning porky around in a whirlwind in the process.

Porky, believing the bull is still his scamming buddies, whistles in awe and speaks out of the side of his mouth, “Take it easy, boys! That was a little close!” With that, Virgil Ross animates a beautiful scene of Porky doing magic tricks, the bull running straight into Porky‘s telltale cape. The animation is as wondrous as the magic trick to the spectators. It's identifiably Ross' work--eyelashes, shiny eyelids, big eyes, and a dimensional snout for Porky. Porky turns the cloth inside and out—no bull. Eventually, he shakes the cloth, and his bull plops out onto the ground. Porky strikes a jubilant pose, with an angry bull glaring him down.

Suddenly, Porky whistles. “Hey, caddy!” A man appears with a golf club bag full of toilet plungers. You know, the essentials. Porky begins to attach the toilet plungers on the bull, one by one. The bull, enraged, shakes all of the plungers off except for one, that sticks to his butt. Determined to get it off, the bull fights with himself, and in the midst of the struggle, the plunger gets stuck on his nose. He struggles to pull it off, but manages to do so, drastically elongating his snout in the process and giving a hilarious, squeaky whimper. The payoff is amusing with the visual, but this is definitely an instance where Tex’s gags seemed to be randomly placed in with no merit. Why was Porky sticking the plungers on the bull in the first place? Nevertheless, the bull, now more furious than ever, prepares to attack.

Chuck Jones is responsible for animating this GLORIOUS next scene. It’s one of my favorite scenes he’s ever animated. Of the three specialties, two of them are included—closeups and drunks. Dogs is his third, but I guess you could count these guys as dogs. Regardless, Porky’s hammered buddies suddenly burst into the arena, the bull costume ripped in half (and the owners of each half are switched). Drunk #2 accompanies the vocal talents of drunk #1 singing "La Cucaracha." Mel Blanc’s vocals are absolutely HYSTERICAL. The hiccups, the slurring, the random YIPPEE! Even better is watching drunk #1 get up in drunk #2’s face, completely expressionless (except for a drunken smile), the cow head occasionally concealing his head as it falls down and he props it back up. Chuck’s movements are smooth, rubbery, and utterly hilarious. This is a great scene and the first time Mel Blanc truly shines for all to see.

Elsewhere, Porky’s still waving his little flag around, but pauses to admire the drunken music. Suddenly, a revelation. He recognizes his drunks. He stares at the drunks, and then at the bull, prying open the furious bull’s mouth. Sure enough, no pals of his are lodged down the bull’s throat. They’re over yonder singing a hammered rendition of La Cucaracha.

Mel provides Porky’s “WOO!” of terror as he scrambles away. Nice bit of a 4th wall break that unfortunately doesn’t realize maximum speed potential as Porky runs across the borders of the screen, running up the sides and upside down, the bull hot on his tail. Meanwhile, the time keeper (as his plaque labels in his stand) blows on a party streamer, a hammer popping out of the end and slamming on a bell.

Porky and the bull freeze in their tracks, Porky petrified with terror, so much so that two assistants have to physically pick him up from the ground and carry him off. The bull snaps in frustration and gives Porky a promising glare of vengeance.

Transition to a non-petrified Porky gargling with some liquid and spitting it into a funnel with the guidance of his assistants. The bull goes through the same routine, and when the assistant points to the funnel, the bull grabs it and talks into it instead. “Hello, mama! Hello, papa! It’s great, fine. Wish you were here!” Even better is the bull’s contented smile at the end of the “call”. A genius gag that is enhanced by the deep vocals of Billy Bletcher.

The time keeper blows on his party streamer/hammer, and the hammer stops to whack the keeper in the head instead of the bell, a loud bell chime reverberating regardless. The chase resumes. Bob Clampett animates the next scene of Porky sliding into the safe zone—I love Porky’s giant satisfied, ecstatic grins as the bull waits patiently outside, humming (a scene Clampett would incorporate in his own Porky’s Last Stand, a mega-favorite of mine). In Tex Avery fashion, the bull defies all logic by lifting the painted lines off of the ground and towering over a terrified Porky, who zooms out of sight.

Porky’s drunken buddies notice the plight, and are at least sober enough to take action. #1 whispers in #2’s ear, and we see the fully formed bull (really a cow) costume hide behind a wooden barrier. An arm reaches out and grabs a baseball bat and a plank, calling “Moooohoooooo!” (instead of “Yoohoo!”) in a seductive catcall. 

The bull takes the bait, lumbering over to the barrier, where the drunks await with their weapons. Even better than the typography zooming out of the scene as the fight ensues is Mel Blanc YELLING the onomatopoeia out loud, Batman style. “Bang! Bam! Bop! Wham!” The action freezes. Then more violence. Finally, a victorious rendition of “The Lady in Red” as the costumed bull marches proudly out of the barrier, unscathed.

The disguise approaches Porky, the head giving a befuddled Porky a wink. Then, the “bull” flops over on its back, tail straight up, a white flag of surrender waving triumphantly in the wind as Porky is showered with applause, beaming and raising his sword.

Just as Porky’s about to collect his earnings, the REAL bull shakes himself to his senses. Porky grabs the money bag from the judges, bowing as he twirls his hat victoriously in the air. The fake bull suddenly panics, zooming off screen. Porky turns around to see a very angry, real, slightly bruised bull snorting heavily at him. Porky shrugs it off, celebrating some more, until he realizes that That’s The Real Deal. Mel Blanc provides Porky’s panicked HOOHOO!s as Porky zooms out of the arena. A clever pause, and Porky zips back to the bull, offering his money bag, and rocketing out of sight once more. Iris out as the bull grumbles “Well, imagine that!”—another catchphrase used from a previous Tex cartoon, Porky the Rain-Maker.

As I said before, this is the cartoon that really starts that loony feel to me. Half of it is Mel Blanc’s prominence, the other half being Porky’s slight redesign—he’d be even skinnier in Tex’s next Porky, Porky’s Duck Hunt. This is a great cartoon for its time. Tex’s gags are amusing—that setup with the whole “sleepy village which is actually a village in chaos” is just sublime. Some gags made more sense than others. While the joke was supposed to be the visual of the bull’s elongated snout, Porky covering the bull in toilet plungers felt too incongruous and didn’t really fit in. Funny, but kinda just floating there. Regardless, you need to see this one. Mel’s drunken rendition of La Cucaracha is certainly the highlight, but there are a lot of fun gags elsewhere. Very high energy, very fun. Give it a go! 

Link!