176. Porky’s Garden (1937)

Release date: September 11th, 1937

Series: Looney Tunes

Director: Tex Avery

Starring: Mel Blanc (Porky, Chickens), George Humbert (Neighbor), Earle Hodgins (Salesman), Danny Webb (Popeye), Shirley Reed (Chick)

This would be Tex Avery’s final black and white cartoon until 1941, and his second to last Porky cartoon. How time flies! I enjoy his Porky entries a lot. The Blow Out, The Village Smithy, and of course Porky’s Duck Hunt are all shorts of his that I find myself coming back to frequently. But, of course, greater Tex cartoons lie ahead. 

Interestingly enough, this is also the second and final credit for animator Elmer Wait, who passed away in July of 1937. Chuck Jones once described him as “a fine young assistant animator who died too young.“ I’ve heard speculation Elmer of the Fudd variety was named in Wait’s honor–I’m not sure if it was that, or the fact that every other cartoon character in the 1930′s was named Elmer, but this is a claim I can find myself believing with more conviction than other animation claims. 

For now, we visit farmer Porky, who’s eager to enter the local contest for the largest home grown product. However, his stereotypical Italian neighbor seeks to out-perform him at any cost.

This cartoon is a peculiar anomaly in the Tex Avery-verse, in that it feels much more like the 1936 Avery Porky cartoons than the 1937 bunch—and almost deliberately, too. The cartoon starts off very similarly to his first directorial entry, Gold Diggers of ‘49, laying out the time (1927), the place (PodunkCenter), and the population (500 502 — Mrs. Castle Bottom just had twins!). 

Though Tex would constantly reuse gags all throughout his career (and quite well, often elevating the hyperactivity of the gag), it’s rather uncharacteristic for him to reuse a gag for nostalgic purposes. Nevertheless, the opening is amusing, and faster paced than its facsimile over at Gold Diggers of ‘49. The sound of the baby wail as the 500 is replaced with 502 is an extra bonus.

A sign gag featuring the tried and true income tax gag (which has been used, and will continue to be used, in a number of cartoons–Tex’s Milk and Money is another Porky entry that uses this gag):

Porky  is amongst the group crowding around the sign, joyfully declaring that he’s going to win first prize with his garden. Cue the antagonist of the picture, Porky’s curious Italian neighbor, voiced by George Hubert. 

Humbert was an Italian actor, starring in a large number of Hollywood films throughout the ‘30′s and ‘40′s. If I recall, Bob Clampett once mentioned that Tex would go to the movies to get ideas, no doubt his reasoning for getting Humbert to do the cartoon. Humbert’s vocals shine and add a lot of vitality to this otherwise tame entry. 

Speaking of, Italian neighbor is quick to contradict Porky: “Ohohohoho no, I gonna ween with my cheeken!” With that, he leapfrogs over Porky, who is quick to bumble along after him.

We get a brief overhead shot of the two neighbors and their respective houses, the overhead shot once again calling back to earlier porky entries such as Milk and Money. The competitors both go to their gardens to out-perform the other. Cue a short gardening sequence with Porky, who uses his straightened out tail to dig holes in the soil, big enough to drop seeds in. 

His neighbor, on the other hand, concocts a meal full of vitamins and tonics for his chickens cheekens, narrating all the way. The underscore is a stalling favorite, “Chicken Reel”, and if my memory is correct, I BELIEVE this is the first instance it’s used in a Warner Bros. short. 

Cue a seemingly arbitrary cut back to Porky, who finishes the job of planting. Back to the neighbor who summons his chickens to eat his mystery feed of who-knows-what. The chickens dig in… only to halt, spit out the food, and hold their noses (beaks) in disgust. Great timing–the drawings especially of the chickens rejecting the food feel quite Avery-esque, which is nice: it’s always nice to feel the personal touches of the director.

Cut back to Porky, a cue of “Carolina in the Morning” underscoring his plan to use hair growth tonic as a means of growing a quick, hearty, full harvest. The scene is cute, yet sluggish–if the cartoon were made even 5 years later, it would have been twice as fast, if not more so. 

Nevertheless, his plan works: the ground shakes beneath him, and crops as tall as the eye can see spurt out from the soil. Satisfied, Old PigDonald strolls inside, "Uh-veh-vuh-vo-do-de-oh”ing and “uh-uh-eh-beh-beh-boop-de-oop”ing all the way along (to remind our audience that this cartoon takes place in 1927.)

Meanwhile, pesky neighbor pops his head over the fence, equally as impressed with the results as Porky. Perfect food to fatten up the cheekens! The animation of the neighbor is rich and full, Humbert’s vocals of course magnifying the quality. With that, the neighbor loosens up one of the boards in the fence, sparking the feeding frenzy: “Come an’ get it!” 

The chickens do just that. Calling back to the days of Porky the Rain-Maker (where there were vegetable gags galore), we get a montage of semi-amusing “chickens eating vegetables in creative ways” gags. One chicken uses a tomato vine as a straw, sucking out the pulp from all of the tomatoes connected. Another rolls a line of peas straight into its mouth, rolling up the shell like a toothpaste tube. 

Though the gags rouse polite chuckles at most today, the most uproarious gag is the last one: a chicken and a baby chick fight over a watermelon. Big cheeken asserts its authority by flicking the baby chick away, spouting tearful insults at the bully chicken. Just then, fortune: the chick spots a patch of spinach, the seeds belonging to Jones (of Chuck Jones fame) Garden Company. 

I can’t say this with staunch certainty, but I do have reason to believe that this cartoon was backlogged for a few months: Chuck Jones would have been at Bob Clampett’s unit during the time of this cartoon’s release, but the allusion to his name, the animation of this scene looking peculiarly reminiscent of Bob Clampett’s animation, and the lack of Irv Spence animation leads me to believe as such. 

Nevertheless, as you may be able to surmise, the chick transforms into a caricature of Popeye, complete with Jack Mercer-esque mumblings and Popeye speak. The newly transformed chick socks the chicken right in the face, usurping the half-eaten watermelon slice and gobbling it down all in one go. Easily the highlight of the cartoon, and a gag that can be appreciated regardless of time period.

One last eating gag of a chicken plucking a ripe worm from an apple (fittingly scored to “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree”). The joke suffers from constipated timing, more on the part of Carl Stalling than the animator. There is a nice, quick, shiver take as the chicken attempts to rip the apple open into two halves. Fade out.

Fade back in on the feeding frenzy. Porky takes notice, and is not happy about it. He does a lumbering, quick little run that calls back to the 1936 porky entries where he was much more short and squat (Virgil Ross animation?), zooming out of screen, then back in again to retrieve a nearby broom. Porky swats the chickens frantically, but to no avail: despite his angry demands for them to get out, they continue to eat.

Virgil Ross animates the next scene as Porky confronts his neighbor: “Hey, n-nn-ne-neighbor, eh-teh-teh-tell your cheh-cheh-cheh-chi-chickens to keep outta my uh-geh-eh-geh-eh-geh-garden!” 

The neighbor complies, his vocals hilariously disingenuous as he haggles with the chickens, who, predictably ignore him. Thus sparks an overly-profuse string of excuses from the neighbor, who doth protest too much. “You see? I talk to them! But a-they don’t listen to me!” He pauses. “I’m too sorry for you.” Another pause, just as we think he’s finished. “…but I cannot talk-a cheeken talk!” One more pause. “I can no make-a the cheeken coming out!” 

Neighbor finally leaves the disgruntled pig to his own devices, laughing as he talks to the audience. “Eet’za too bad…” he looks at the audience and gives them a knowing wink as he finishes “but not too bad!” Overall, a great scene. Humbert’s vocals are divine, as is the comedic timing. Porky’s befuddlement by the rapid-fire responses from his neighbor is another plus.

 

Back to a downtrodden Porky, who mournfully sulks along to a succinctly timed rendition of “Am I Blue?” If you listen closely, you can hear the beats lining up exactly with his footsteps. Suddenly, a thick vine growing out of the patch catches his eye. He follows the vine, pulling it like a rope… and the perfect solution awaits on the other side of the fence: a giant pumpkin! Perfect for the harvest contest. 

Porky lugs his new prize out from the fence, which instantly attracts the attention of the hungry chickens. Spark the ever transformative Avery moment, where the cartoon halts to make a big production out of nowhere–in this case, football. The favorite “Freddy the Freshman” score serves as the backing track of the makeshift football game as the chickens line up to take position: “HIKE!” 

The next sequence appears to be animated by Chuck Jones: Porky runs long, pumpkin in hand as he swats away the oncoming rush of chickens. The extra touches of making Porky do some twirls and swivels as he attempts to maintain balance are not taken for granted. A nice straight-ahead shot of the football field turned garden, with a trellis in the foreground and clothesline in the background to form goal posts–very clever!

 

It’s not the chickens who serve as Porky’s pumpkin demise, but rather a spare crate left on the ground. Porky trips, horrified as he watches his pumpkin launch into the air and across the yard. We get a Tashlin-esque concealed pan as Porky darts through his house to retrieve his prize, the action obscured: we only see a brief glimpse of the house’s façade, the drumroll and sound effect of the airborne pumpkin being our only indicator to the success of the stunt. 

Thankfully, Porky shuffles out of the other end just in time to catch his pumpkin (topped off with a triumphant “ta-da!” fanfare.) Wasting no more time, Porky dashes down the road and off to the fair. Meanwhile, the neighbor’s chickens are all plumped up, ready to win the first-a prize.

 

“The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down” scores the scenes at the fair as we catch our hero bumbling along with his prize pumpkin into the fair, neighbor and cheekens not far behind. There’s a line of posters advertising the various attractions at the fair, including a caricature of Bobe Cannon (once more reinforcing the idea that this cartoon was back-logged: he would have been at the Clampett unit by the time of the cartoon’s release.) 

Earle Hodgins voices the salesman (a specialty of his–he played the pill-peddling salesman in Porky the Rain-Maker, as well as the oil huckster Honest John in Get Rich Quick Porky) peddling the miracle “reducing pills”. His test subject? An elephant. The salesman pops a pill in the elephant’s mouth, who stares at the audience nonplussed as he shrinks to the size of a mouse… literally. 

The next scene of the salesman is great, as it’s full of energy, zaniness, and fervor. If my backlog observation is correct, I'd attribute this scene to being Bob Clampett's handiwork. The voice of the salesman rises into astronomical pitch as he describes the size of the “teensy, weensy, weensy, bitsy, weensy, teeny little mouse”, capping it all off with a flamboyant “WOO!” and pose. The pose looks similar to the same one struck by Daffy in Clampett’s The Henpecked Duck 4 years later, another contributing factor to my reasoning. Nevertheless, a great scene of zany eye candy. 

Peddling his wares, the salesman accidentally knocks over a spare bottle of reducing pills, right in the trajectory of the passing cheekens. And, predictably, the cheekens devour the pills in no-time.

Cue a rather blunt cut to Porky, who’s about to receive first prize for his pumpkin, standing on stage and politely soaking in the glory. Just as the judge reaches to give him his dough, he halts, spotting the ginormous array of poultry behind the pig. The judge is quick to take back his bag of money, much to the awe of Porky. 

Neighbor accepts the bag–that is, until the pills kick in. The chickens revert back to the size of chicks, and there’s just enough comedic pause to let the joke sink in before the chicks revert back to mere eggs. 

We iris out–or so we think. Just another declaration of Tex’s love of playing with the iris out gags. That is one steamed ham.

Not the snappiest entry in the Avery repertoire, but not exceedingly dull, either. George Humbert steals the show with his acting, and the Popeye gag with the chick is wonderfully amusing. The cartoon mainly suffers from sluggish pacing in some parts, tired gags in others, but not enough to exclude a watch-through. 

It’s a fond look back at the earlier days of Tex’s directing, and asserts just how far the cartoons have yet to improve. So, for that, I’d say I’m relatively neutral on whether or not to persuade you to watch it: the Porky and ‘30′s cartoon lover in me say go for it! There are bits of greatness that you should definitely seek out. But it won’t kill you to skip this one either.

Here’s the link! (excuse the butchered titles/credits-- the Porky Pig 101 DVD set butchered a number of opening titles, and this short was unfortunately one of the victims.)