168. Porky's Super Service (1937)

Release date: July 3rd, 1937

Series: Looney Tunes

Director: Ub Iwerks

Starring: Mel Blanc (Porky, Cuckoo, Man,), Joe Twerp (Customer), Elvia Allman (Woman)

Though Ub Iwerks gets the director’s credit, Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones both tackled the directing duties on this one. This is Ub’s last credit at Warner Bros., touting a positively interminable stint of 2 (technically 3 if you count his early involvement in Porky’s Badtime Story) cartoons. Bob Clampett would be the one to inherit his unit—according to Bob, when he came into work one Monday morning, he found Iwerks’ director’s chair empty and was told that he was the director. 

Preliminary lobby card.

Slapstick is galore in this final Iwerks credit—Porky runs a service station, but runs into trouble when he has to fix up a car and keep an eye out on a sadistic, violent baby at the same time. With Chuck Jones’ frustration comedy and Bob Clampett’s sadistic antics, both combine to make quite an amusing effort for the time period.

Already, the title card greets us with some ambiance as the sounds of car horns and motors preface a jazzy rendition of “I’m Hatin’ This Waitin’ Around”, the cartoon’s motif. Already, a wise decision to preserve money as the opening of the cartoon is reduced to a few layouts and pans: an overhead view of the titular service station trucks into a vertical pan of gas prices. 

“GAS 3 ¢” is emblazoned proudly on the sign at the service station, but as the pan goes down, the audience (and customer) is taxed for much more than they bargained for: 

STATE TAX 6 ¢ 

CITY TAX 4 ¢ 

COUNTRY TAX 7 ¢ 

UNEMPLOYMENT TAX 3 ¢ 

SOCIAL SECURITY TAX 5 ¢ 

FARM RELIEF TAX 2 ¢ 

LUXURY TAX 8 ¢ 

CARPET TACKS 5 ¢

 TOTAL 43 ¢ 

As much of a groaner and an eye-roller the punchline is, my pun-loving self can’t get too angry about this. This was actually one of the first Looney Tunes cartoons I checked out on my own, and it gave me a good laugh the first time I saw it.

The titular pig himself is busy at work filling up gas, befuddled at the placement (or lack thereof) of a car’s gas valve. A question mark pops above his head to convey his plight, an Iwerks staple–Iwerks would even animate a scene in the Oswald cartoon Oh Teacher (1927), where a cat uses its own question mark as a tripwire in order to steal Oswald’s girlfriend from him. 

Porky, however, isn’t that sadistic (at least, not yet)–instead, he asks the car owner where the gas goes. The car owner responds back in anaccent, “You vant to know?” “Ye-ye-yes, I veh-vant to know.” The owner then addresses the audience: “Hmmph. Should I tell him?” This is certainly a radio catchphrase of some kind, but which it belongs to, I haven’t found. I can confirm that it’s bubbled up in a few other cartoons, at the very least.

Nevertheless, the car owner/dog lifts up the entire top of the car, where a gas valve is situated inside. Porky heads over to pump the gas, a closeup on the gas take reflecting an Iwerks “shiver take” as the arrow eventually approaches the 10 galloon mark. When the arrow approaches 9, a little cuckoo bird pops out of the gas tank, quipping “At the sound of the gong, it will be exactly 10 gallons”–a reference to time tones being played on the radio. The bird listens, and when the “clock” strikes 10, it retreats back into its rightful place. While perhaps not the funniest gag today, it does have some clever and smooth animation.

A nice bit of character animation as Porky happily flips his shiny new coin, interrupted by the sound of an approaching customer. Porky fills the customer’s car with oil as per request (”Oka-okeh-okeh-ok-oka-ok-ok–alright!”), thus sparking a variety of odd job gags—alerting a flat tire to a rather angry patron, who literally goes through the (car) roof in anger before tying a knot in the rubbery tire himself to fix the issue (complete with some rubbery animation, ever so common in the Iwerks cartoons), and hitting the dents in another car, including a spontaneous dent in the window, causing a broken window in the aftermath via hammer. 

The gags aren’t gut-busting, yet they have some nice animation to them, especially character animation with Porky. However, the start of the opening is slow in comparison to the second half—a part of me wonders if Iwerks had more influence on the first half before Clampett and Jones really sunk their toes in with the rest of the cartoon.

The second half of the cartoon is marked by the sound of an angry horn—that is, an angry woman honking her horn. Elvia Allman lends her voice to the persnickety customer as she rather bluntly asks (demands, really) Porky to fix her flat tire. Porky obliges, but is caught in a caveat—don’t wake the baby.

Bob Clampett is responsible for our introduction to the little dickens, animating Porky  popping his head in the car to remark “Cute little fella.” And so, we see for ourselves just how cute this little fella is as he breaks his “slumber” to stick his tongue out at our protagonist. A nice sense of comedic timing and foreboding—we already know that nothing good is going to come out of this ordeal.

As Porky dutifully busies himself with the tire, junior confirms the audience’s suspicions by whacking Porky over the head with his bottle. Porky, rightfully disgruntled, whips his head around to find the culprit before resuming his work. As he rotates the tire, junior assets his aggression even more by putting the car in drive.

And, predictably yet amusingly so, Porky is sent whirling around the back tire. He, along with the tire itself, are let loose from the car as they both catapult right into a metal pole. Iwerks’ dizziness lines as Porky collects himself coupled with the perfect pig-shaped dent in the pole definitely make Porky’s plight more amusing than painful. Carl Stalling’s gentle yet sardonic rendition of “My Little Buckaroo” adds another layer of sweet, incongruous irony to the entire cake.

Porky’s suffering has only just begun—a suspended part of the pole gives way from the impact and gives Porky another good konk on the noggin. As Porky once more attempts to collect himself, he realizes that he’s stuck inside the tire. Thus sparks a montage of him repeatedly straining to free himself, but to no avail–the timing itself at times is a little floaty and awkward (mainly when Porky’s crawling around on all fours), and the sound effects don’t feel as natural as they could be, but the facial expressions are rather appealing, and the movement is fun and rubbery. At one point, trying to free himself, Porky grabs the back of his overalls and accidentally pinches himself–certainly a Bob Clampett gag, as Porky turns defensive and looks around to see who snubbed him. 

While Porky  struggles, the demon baby slings his bottle at Porky, hitting him square in the arse and effectively freeing him from the tire (much to Porky’s vocal discomfort). The timing of Porky identifying the projectile and throwing it at the ground, shooting a glare at the baby, is absolutely priceless. He finally heads over to the car to confront the little dickens, but junior is peacefully sleeping, much to our hero’s head-scratching befuddlement. As he turns his back, junior once more shoots an angry glare, signaling that the fight has only just begun.

The frustration of Porky becomes much more visible (and hilarious) with this next scene as he prepares to work on the engine. Just as he lifts the lid of the car, junior, rife with sadistic energy, smacks the lid right over Porky’s head, trapping him inside. Junior’s gleeful expression coupled with Porky’s visible temperament really add a lot of flavor and feeling–as the charade continues, Porky finally allows himself to rip the hood of the car off its hinges and throw it off screen. Timing is succinct and snappy and allow for the jokes to hit quite well, even if it is a tad predictable.

However, the timing of the next sequence is not as snappy, and feels a bit like an odd transition between scenes, with an overall more whimsical mood as Porky listens to the engine for any problems. Nevertheless, junior’s attitude hasn’t changed in the slightest: he turns the ignition on, causing Porky to be electrocuted (with a rather ill-fitting scream not by Blanc). 

Junior gives Porky enough time to recover, honking the horn just when Porky’s listening to it, sparking some rather awkward animation of Porky getting punchy from the impact. While this scene doesn’t flow as well as others, it’s still rather amusing and creative–the Iwerks shiver takes and inverted colors during the electrocution sequence add a nice touch of individuality.

Next, Porky is dutifully oiling the engine, sparking junior to press the starter. The engine mechanics kick up, Porky’s snout getting stuck to the rising and falling pillars. He finally frees his snout (the scene reminding me of of W.C. Squeals’ snout sticking on the ice in Frank Tashlin’s Cracked Ice a mere year later), only to get thrown around by the rapidly pushing pillars of the engine. Rather creative as we see multiples of Porky bobbing around in a blur. 

Misfortune is still high, however, for the top of the engine closes on top of him, and all we see is bumps rising and falling in the metal above. Finally, Porky is shot out of the exhaust pipe, his body covered in soot, landing against the gas pump/clock hybrid from before, the cuckoo bird adding insult to injury as it gives a call after the impact. 

A rather abrupt transition as Porky, now unfazed, arrives back at the car to confront his foe once more playing possum. The facial expressions and overall timing give this away as a Bob Clampett scene as Porky shoots repeated scowls at the baby, who returns the favor with some rather snide, mocking expressions of his own behind the pig’s back. Porky finally believes he’s caught junior, who’s currently stretching his face out at Porky–yet, sure enough, junior goes right back to “sleep” when Porky turns around, causing the pig to give a frustrated snap of resignation. 

That doesn’t stop our protagonist from hatching a plan–he zips around to the other end of the car, right behind junior. Surely enough, junior prepares to make a face, but realizes he’s been duped. Wonderfully smooth animation of junior looking around in befuddlement, you can practically see those little gears turning. Finally, he whips around, spots Porky, gasps, and goes right back to sleep.

Regardless, they both know that junior’s been caught as they make eye contact once more. Finally, junior literally rolls away and heads to the window crank, sliding the window up and getting Porky’s snout caught in the process. Porky spits out a stream of threats and exclamations of pain (”OWW! Ouch! O-oh, leh-leh-let go! I’ll fix you! Eh-eh-eh-eh-don’t do that! S-s-stop! S-stop, ya hear me!?”) while junior sneaks out of the car, shutting the door and letting the pig dangle around helpless. In the midst of Porky’s rant, junior heads off and arrives back with a hose, placing it matter-of-factly in Porky’s overalls.

Suddenly, we see that the hose is connected to an air pump. Junior gives the wheel a few good turn, and air shoots through the tube and right into Porky’s pants. Porky is finally freed from the window, but is now rocketing around in the air, laughing hysterically. Mel Blanc’s performance of Porky’s hysterical laughter, sounding eerily similar to Daffy’s trademark HOOHOO! laugh is nothing less than contagious and commendable. 

While Porky flies around in the air, junior makes matters worse by carrying an oil gun and shooting spurts of oil right at the pig. And they said pig’s couldn’t fly! Unfortunately for junior, Porky’s movements are too erratic to make for a proper target, but no matter: a simple shut off of the air will do the trick. 

Porky flops to the ground, having little time to grasp his bearings as junior shoots his face full of oil. The physics of the oil are nice and rubbery, very malleable, thick, and stretchy–certainly reminiscent of the mud puddles in Iwerks’ previous effort, Porky and Gabby. As I said before, I’ve always admired the physics in Iwerks’ cartoons: you feel like you could grab everything for yourself. Very soft, stretchy, rubbery, easy to manipulate. 

Despite Porky’s demands for junior to give up the gun, the little baby from hell only squirts Porky with another helping of oil, this time covering his entire body. Once more, the animation and physics of the oil are to be commended. Porky slips around helplessly in the now fully formed oil slick, which sends him catapulting down a rather random set of stairs in the ground (though, upon further inspection, the stairs were present in the opening layout, so it’s not as spontaneous as it could be).

Junior once more attempts to target Porky, but no more oil comes out of the pump. Predictably yet amusingly so, the little dickens turns the gun to his own face. As he pulls the lever, a nice, hearty gush of oil covers his entire face. Sweet, slippery karma. 

Now, junior is just as covered as Porky is, and begins to wail. Porky’s nods of satisfaction are a hilarious detail–as is his surprise when he notices the persnickety mother approaching. Junior points at Porky, who doesn’t appear all that blameless as he now holds the oil gun, attempting to hide it behind his back coyly.

The mother gives Porky a good lecture about how he ought to be ashamed of himself, all the while disposing of her child like a rag doll and putting him in the back seat of the car. Elvia Allman’s speech is drowned out by the wails of junior, however, prompting the mother to give an eerily polite “Quiet, junior, when mother’s talking.” 

The timing of the next joke is spot on: as junior continues to bawl, the mother smacks him right in the face. The way the smack sound effect even cuts off and the total silence of junior combine to make a great payoff, though the joke IS rather dark and not the most ethical. Still, wonderful timing and execution on that one.

Comedic timing is still rife as the mother, now oddly subdued, ponders “Now… where was I? Oh yes. I’M GOING TO REPORT THIS TO THE AUTHORITIES!” In the midst of her “It’s getting so that you can’t trust anybody anymore” ranting and raving, junior, who’s seldom learned his lesson, reaches for a nearby gas hose and ties it around the car tire. 

Porky is left to his own devices as the mother and her hell child roll off into the distance. However, junior leaves one final impact: all three gas pumps are sucked out of their respective places and dragged behind the car. Even more insult to injury, the entire service station collapses on top of the unlucky pig. A VERY creative close as the “PORKY’S SUPER SERVICE” sign lands right on top of Porky, his disgruntled, oily self popping out right in the middle. Who needs a drum when you have a wooden sign? 

And thus wraps up Ub Iwerks’ directorial reign at Warner Bros. While his cartoons aren’t my favorite, I’ve certainly come to appreciate them much more, for their individuality (such as the shiver takes, visible reactions such as question marks and dizziness lines, and so forth) and rubbery animation. 

I definitely feel that this is his stronger effort out of his 2 pieces–it has a lovely score, the animation is fun and rubbery, and again, Bob Clampett’s sadistic energy coupled with Chuck Jones’ frustration comedy make for a delightful combination. Porky is SUPER appealing in the Iwerks cartoons as well in the design compartment–lots of really great expressions to freeze frame on. 

This cartoon is a winner for me–I say watch it! It’s not the most exciting Porky cartoon by any means, and it still has its weaknesses: the beginning half is rather slow, there are a few timing issues, etc, but it’s still rather enjoyable overall. I almost wish Iwerks had stayed longer, just to see what his other cartoons would have been like. Thankfully, though, Bob Clampett took his place, sparking the reign of my personal favorite director.

So, overall, give it a watch! 

Link!

162. Porky and Gabby (1937)

Release date: May 15th, 1937

Series: Looney Tunes

Director: Ub Iwerks

Starring: Mel Blanc (Porky, Gabby, Truck Driver)

A new name in the director’s guild for the first time in 9 months! Feels longer, doesn’t it? Ub Iwerks, as in Flip the Frog creator and co-creator of Mickey Mouse Iwerks, landed a very short term gig at Warner Bros. His WB gig was essentially a freelance gig as he floated around studios. He got some work to do, and Leon Schlesinger was able to meet his cartoon quota. He only directed 2 cartoons until one day he just up and left, leaving his unit to bob Clampett. 

After Jack King left the studio in 1936, Iwerks came. Bob Clampett, who had been promised a position by Schlesinger for quite some time, wasn’t too happy that this new guy was stepping in and taking a directorial position after HE had been promised a position for quite some time, so Schlesinger appointed him to help Iwerks out and to get that Looney feel in the cartoons. 

Clampett took Chuck Jones, Bobe Cannon, and manager Ray Katz with him. Thus, when Iwerks left, Clampett inherited the unit. Essentially, he, Chuck, and Bobe acted like co-directors on the Iwerks films, refining them to give the films a more WB feel. Clampett’s first official directorial entry, Porky’s Badtime Story, was started by Iwerks before he left the studio. This newly formed unit became known as the Ray Katz unit, separate from the Leon Schlesinger unit.

Preliminary lobby card.

With a new director comes a new “star” (or not): Gabby Goat. Gabby was Warner Bros.' response to Donald Duck. A temperamental, brash, angry sidekick to balance out the good-natured, happy go lucky, though slightly bland Porky, whose personality was still up in the air. Bob Clampett credits Cal Howard for the creation of Gabby, who would actually voice him in Gabby’s final appearance, Get Rich Quick Porky. 

Gabby himself only starred in three cartoons, never making it out of 1937. However, storyboards for Clampett’s Porky’s Party (1938) DO show Gabby (and Petunia) starring alongside Porky in the short. Gabby really interests me as a character. He was so rude that his brash personality was considerably toned down by his last entry. He paved the way for Daffy as a sidekick—in fact, Clampett would remake Porky‘s Badtime Story in 1944 with Tick Tock Tuckered, Daffy usurping Gabby’s role in the cartoon. While Gabby (and Iwerks)’s stint was short, he was actually revived in the second season of Wabbit/New Looney Tunes in 2018, voiced by Bob Bergen! 

The synopsis speaks for itself: Porky and Gabby are headed for a peaceful camping trip, but a variety of mishaps threaten any ounce of their enjoyment.

Iris in with Porky and Gabby (literally) trucking their way through the rolling country side, their car brimming with camping essentials and more. A jolly motif of “Gee, but You’re Swell” scores quite a majority of the cartoon, and the opening scene is no exception. Gabby doesn’t seem to share the same appreciation Porky  does for the outdoors, haughtily slumped over in his seat as Porky asks “Sure a swell day to go camping, isn’t it, Gabby?” 

Before Gabby can respond, their jalopy hits a rock, which catapults all of their camping supplies up into the air. Thankfully–because why else?–the supplies piles back up neatly in the trunk, recovering from the bump. That is, except for one. A frying pan smacks Gabby right on the head and gives him a shiner, much to Porky’s amusement. Gabby, full of malice, growls “YEAH!” in Porky’s face.

Just then, the two get stuck behind a moving van. We hear excessive honking as their jalopy zigzags back and forth, attempting to squeeze past, but the van is too big for the small country road they’re on. Gabby is the perpetrator behind the horn, doing a Fleischer-esque shiver take in anger as he honks on the horn and hurls insults. “Hey you! Get that big crate off the road! Move over, we ain’t got all day! What’s the matter with you, you deaf!? You can hear that, can’t ya!?” 

While Gabby engages in his hotheaded rant, Porky, behind the wheel, is able to pull up next to the van, where Gabby now yells at the bewildered truck driver in person. “Get over, ya big sheep!” As Gabby threatens to “bounce one up [his] chin”, the truck driver pulls on a lever, attached to a hand shaped paddle. The paddle smacks Gabby right in the face, causing him to spin around and dangle helplessly from the outstretched paddle as Porky drives on ahead, clueless. Reused from Porky’s Romance and from the radio show Community Sing, the truck driver tells Gabby not to get excited. Gabby retaliates in a flurry of sped up anger: “EXCITED?? WHO’S EXCITED!? I’M NOT EXCITED!!!” 

Conveniently, the paddle dumps gabby right in a mud puddle, sparking another angry outburst, now spewing insults and mud alike. Porky, still driving on his merry way, overhears Gabby’s rampage and screeches to a halt, now driving in reverse. The animation in this scene and the next one is nice and rubbery, very elastic and stretchy. Ub’s cartoons are hardly the most entertaining, but I do love how rubbery and tactile his animation is. Unfortunately, Porky too is smacked by the passing paddle on the moving van. He’s then tossed out of the driver’s seat and splayed onto the hood of the car.

While Gabby continues his muddy ranting and raving, the car conveniently runs right over Gabby, halting just above him. Porky looks around, befuddled, stuttering “Hey, Gabby! Where are you?” Mel’s deliveries as Gabby are more than amusing as Gabby growls back “Where am I! Where am I? Now ain’t that a smart question! I’m under the car, you big fathead!” 

Porky, unscathed by the remarks, climbs back into the driver’s seat and tells Gabby he’ll pull up. He does so, running over Gabby’s head in the process. More scathing remarks from Gabby, with some particularly fluid and lovely animation as he jumps up and down in the mud puddle.

Transition to the two back in their car, inching their way up a very steep incline. There’s some lovely synchronization between the animation and music as the car trucks its way up, the water in the engine spurting with each push up, all in time with the music. This collaboration is furthered as the score slows down, now as fatigued as the car trying to truck its way up. Very clever indeed. Just as they finally reach the top, the engine dies.

Porky suggests pushing, much to Gabby’s chagrin, making his distaste known by slamming the door as he begrudgingly exits the car. More rubbery animation as Porky pulls at the bumper from the front, Gabby pushing from the back, griping about how he wishes he’d stay home. “I don’t like camping, anyway!” 

Porky manages to pull the bumper off the car entirely, just in time for Gabby to get a running head start and ram into the back of the car, causing the car to topple over Porky and barrel down the hill.

Quite an interesting switch in angles as the duo run down the hill to catch the car, the decline turning into an incline once more, with the car slowing considerably and beginning its journey up the hill. Now, Porky and Gabby run AWAY from the car, not towards it, as the car slides back down the hill, seeing as it can’t accelerate or decelerate on its own. Predictable, yet fun to watch as Porky and Gabby engage in a game of cat and mouse with the car, the car ultimately barreling into them, sending the two twirling up into the air and landing neatly back in their respective seats. Cartoon physics to the rescue! 

A bit confusing as the car suddenly gains life again, trucking uphill, exhaust coming out of the pipe, but so be it. Porky and Gabby FINALLY reach their destination, the score now a rendition of “Speaking of the Weather”. But, as we all know, this is only half the battle. Porky triumphantly declares “Well, here we are! I’ll put up the tent. You unload the car.” Judging by the way Porky moves and how Gabby squints at him in contempt afterwards, I’d wage this as Bob Clampett’s animation. 

Gabby retorts “Yeah, I get all the hard work!” He struggles to untie the endless luggage piled up on the car. Instead, he pulls the weight of the entire car on top of him, luggage spilling out on the ground as the car does a few barrel rolls, landing neatly right side up. Gabby pokes his head out of the luggage pile, giving the audience an angry trademark Gabby Wink/Grimace. 

Elsewhere, while Porky’s setting up the tent, a pesky bee comes to assess the situation. Some more interesting rubbery animation combined with a shiver take as Porky angrily attempts to swat the bee away, getting stung in the ass in the process. The tent collapses, pinning Porky and the bee together under the same tarp. The animation is just lovely to watch as the bee swoops around in circles, the tarp leaving a trail behind. Very rubbery and malleable.

Gabby begrudgingly prepares the furniture when he hears Porky. “Gabby! Gabby! Get a sly fwatter–a-a–a fly swatter!” Gabby mutters to himself, scouting out a fly swatter, when he hits gold. A shovel. Three times as big and three times as effective! Gabby’s gleeful, slightly twisted grin as he charges towards the tent wielding the shovel is priceless. He’s a little too eager to bash some sense into that bee. 

Porky’s still being stung to pieces when Gabby arrives. This is probably one of the funniest moments in an Iwerks cartoon at WB, the timing is just too good: Gabby hesitates, watching Porky writhe around in agony under the tarp, before bashing Porky’s head in. Porky (rightfully) cries “OW!” and we hear silence. No movement. Even better is when Gabby carefully picks up the tarp and looks inside, making sure his pal is still breathing. Instead, the pesky bee flies out from the tarp and stings Gabby right on the nose.

More wonderfully fluid animation and speed lines as Gabby now chases the bee with the shovel, cursing all along the way. Ub’s Flip the Frog cartoons didn’t shy away from cursing (lots of “damn!”s), so I wonder if he ever thought about giving Gabby a proper sailor mouth. Seems likely. The bee lands on the exhaust pipe of their car, and when Gabby hits the pipe with his trusty shovel, the force is enough to knock out the engine of the car, popping out of the grill.

More Bob Clampett animation as porky recovers, struggling to tie the tent’s rope to a stake in the ground. Now, Porky asks for a piece of rope, much to Gabby’s chagrin. “Rope… rope… I ain’t got any rope! Guy’s always wantin’ something. Why don’t he get his own rope? Ah, here’s a piece!” Sure enough, a spare piece of rope slithers out from the pile of junk by the car. Treg Brown’s use of a donkey braying as Gabby pulls on the rope is a great touch. 

Unfortunately, we see that the rope is attached to the outboard motor. Gabby gives a hearty tug, and the rope is freed from the motor, which activates it. The motor flies into the air, threatening to guillotine anyone who comes in contact with the blades. Gabby is knocked into a hole the motor dug into the ground, peering out of it for safety (in a very similar manner to Porky poking his head out of a hole in Porky’s Last Stand and later The Timid Toreador--both Clampett entries.). Speaking of Porky, he dives into his tent for safety as the motor cuts the tarp away into pieces. 

The animation in this sequence is lovely, accented by “Black Coffee”. Gabby resorts to shooting at the motor with a rifle. Cartoon physics–the knockback from the rifle sends Gabby flying, landing on a car horn, which catapults him forward. He shoots, he bounces, he shoots, he bounces, and so forth. One excessive shot sends him flying onto a spare mattress, the spring catapulting him into the air. 

Gabby shoots himself down, but it’s no use. The spring gets caught on a tree branch. The motor threatens to graze Gabby as he yells at Porky for help (”I’m caught on a limb!”). Rather, the motor runs into him, sending Gabby twirling around the branch and hurtling towards the ground, the spring coming loose. It’s difficult to put into words, but it’s a lovely scene with some lovely animation. 

Porky, who has now miraculously found some rope, fashions a lasso and corrals the motor. “I got it! I got it!” but, as always, there’s a catch. A loop ties around Porky’s legs, the motor dragging Porky along in the wild goose chase. Gabby scales up between two, lanky trees for safety, the motor cutting the bottoms off and making makeshift stilts. More beautiful animation as Gabby struggles to stay put. Eventually, the rope attached to the motor ties the two trees together, the rope loosening from Porky’s legs and sending both him and Gabby toppling to the ground. 

Befuddled, both investigate the eerie silence–no motor in sight. That is until the familiar sound of whirring grows louder from off screen. In a panic, the two bump into each other as they scramble to escape, both flopping to the ground just in time for the motor to rocket over their heads. 

All hopes of a camping trip are out the window as the two scramble into their car. The engine, which had been catapulted out the front, is now pulled inside as the two speed away, hoping to outrun the deathtrap. I LOVE the detail of Porky paddling at the air as they drive away, as if his meager attempts to paddle would speed the car up even more from the motor that flies threateningly close behind them. 

Meanwhile, they encounter an old friend: the moving van that Gabby had harassed from before. Once more does Gabby berate the innocent driver (”HEY! MOVE OUTTA THE WAY, WE’RE COMIN’ THROUGH!”) as we get an interesting angle of the motor heading straight towards the audience. 

Porky and Gabby duck, ready to meet their demise when the motor crashes into their car, pushing the car forcefully into the moving van. A cloud of smoke as the crash ensues. The truck driver has a tire dangling from his next, much to Gabby’s delight. Gabby bursts into a fit of hysterical, bleating laughter, nudging a dazed Porky so he can get a good look. The van driver pulls on his trusty lever, and the hand shaped paddle from before gives Gabby a well deserved smack. Iris out as both the van driver and even Porky beam at Gabby’s humiliation.

What an interesting cartoon, to say the least! There’s a lot of layers to it, while simultaneously, there aren’t at all. To put it bluntly, at surface level, this isn’t a very good cartoon. A few plotholes (like Porky randomly finding a rope after he needed one, the car miraculously working again after it had died, etc–but these are mainly cases of cartoon logic, don’t take these too seriously. These are observations rather than critiques), and the plot itself is very bare-bones. This is more so a series of mishaps rather than a cartoon with a concrete storyline.

Yet, with that said, I still enjoy it. The animation is the best part of the cartoon. I’m a very detail oriented person, and not a big picture person, which serves me well and detrimentally at the same time. So, I absolutely love how fluid, bouncy, and fun the animation is in this cartoon. That’s certainly an incentive to watch it. Carl Stalling’s music score, as always, compliments the cartoon quite nicely. 

Furthermore, this cartoon has some historical significance to it. Not very much, but it’s there: it’s Gabby’s first cartoon. That serves as another incentive to watch–Gabby isn’t too exciting of a character, but he’s so fascinating to me that I can’t help but like him. He’s like a hidden secret. Porky’s first sidekick, unless you count Beans, but Porky was more so Beans’ sidekick rather than Beans being Porky’s sidekick. Gabby’s pretty obscure, but someone from The Simpsons was a big enough classic cartoon fan to know who he was–they make a reference to him as “disgruntled goat”. This could be a coincidence, sure, but I’m definitely thinking this is a reference, especially considering another episode referenced Friz Freleng’s Pigs is Pigs from earlier in 1937. 

In all, this isn’t a great cartoon, and you probably COULD go without watching it and be fine, but I say watch it. There’s some wonderful animation and it has some interesting history, such as Ub Iwerks’ first cartoon at WB and Gabby’s first cartoon. Check it out for yourself and see what you think! 

Link!