Porky's Baseball Broadcast

Friz Freleng had one rule when doing movies: lots of perfectly-timed gags -- and if some aren't top-notch, the pacing carries you along. This one takes a while before you get to the good gags -- the first that I think top-notch is when the umpire comes out, but the pacing is always funny. As with almost any Freleng cartoon, well worth the few minutes it takes to watch it.

Note: when 'The Mayor' throws out the first baseball, it is a clear caricature of Fiorello LaGuardia, well-loved mayor of New York in this era. During a newspaper strike he went on the air to read the comics to his deprived citizenry, and here Freleng takes the opportunity to return the favor.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

'Porky's Baseball Broadcast' is not one of Friz Freleng's best cartoons and he was yet to be in his full prime, but for a relatively early effort from him it's a very solid one, nicely made and hugely enjoyable. There are corny moments, some predictability and, although he is a great announcer which is a role that plays to his strengths, Porky feels more of a supporting character and plays second fiddle to the baseball action.

The good news is that the baseball action throughout ranges between very amusing and hilarious. There is some finely witty visual characterisation, the animators clearly were having a great time here.

Everything goes at a fast pace without being rushed, very clever puns (the writers were also clearly enjoying themselves) and well-engineered sight gags,

Animation is excellent, it's fluid in movement, crisp in shading and very meticulous in detail. Ever the master, Carl Stalling's music is typically superb. It is as always lushly orchestrated, full of lively energy and characterful in rhythm, not only adding to the action but also enhancing it.

Mel Blanc's voice acting as always is impeccable.

In summary, solid stuff. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Can you imagine hiring a guy who stutters to do play-by-play of a sporting event? On top of that, it's a major event like the World Series!

Here, Porky is announcing the Series opener between the Red Sox and the Giants. The game is at Yankee Stadium - figure that out. Well, actually in this cartoon, it's "Yankum Stadium."

Anyway, what you get in this cartoon is typical of what I have seen in many classic-era sports cartoons: tons of puns. The writers really have a lot of fun with the many sports clichés we've always had. For a few examples, "tickets for the game are selling like hotcakes" shows us a guy pouring tickets out a vase on a hot griddle or "scalpers are a having a big day" and showing Indians chasing customers with an ax.

When the baseball game starts, you really hear the puns ("screaming" line drives, "stretching" a hit, etc.) and it's all very corny but a lot of fun to watch. No sporting events are as crazy as the ones you see in the cartoons, with the exception of maybe the Marx Brothers or The Three Stooges.

Not only do you have the customary clichés (a blind man being the umpire; a turtle catching, etc.) but a lot of goofs, too. For instance, the pitcher is supposed to be on the Giants but he's wearing a Cubs jersey. Oh, well, it's only a silly cartoon. Also, you see a few quick things that people of the day might recognize but few today would, such as the mayor being a caricature of Fiorella LaGuardia with the pasted-down hair. I'm sure fans appreciated the dig at getting stuck with a seat behind one of those iron poles, too. T

Even though this is labeled a Porky Pig cartoon, the baseball action is the center stage. Porky, by the way, does a fine job of announcing!

I've always noticed that during their first few years, the Looney Tunes cartoons were sort of like the Marx Brothers' movies with the kinds of gags that they pulled. "Porky's Baseball Broadcast" actually features the famously stuttering swine in more of a supporting role, as he narrates a baseball game in which every crazy thing possible happens: American Indians are the scalpers (not PC anymore), one of the players literally stretches, and a ball is truly a screamer.

As far as I can tell, Friz Freleng and the rest of the Termite Terrace crowd - to paraphrase Cyndi Lauper - just wanted to have fun with their work. This one is pretty funny; in fact, if you've seen enough Looney Tunes cartoons, you can probably guess what will happen just by Porky's narration. Some of the gags were later used in "Baseball Bugs".

PS: writer Ben Hardaway drew Bugs Bunny's prototype. Hardaway's nickname was Bugs, and he titled the drawing "Bugs' Bunny". So, they dropped the apostrophe, and the wascawwy wabbit was born.

Glad to see the identity of the often-used ball song "Frat",used throughout as also is "Stand up"from Warner's own 1937 "Hollywood Hotel" is used in the open';Friz, who'd returned from MGM doing a few shorts like "Katzenjammer Kids", based on the long running strip,is billed as "Isadore" (his actually name) just as in the old days..

The gags, including the scalper gag (though as someone else's already said,not PC these days--with SOME people!) thru the closing gag with the "Charles Laughton" guy in the running "pardon me" (which Friz reused in one of his best, 1948's "Hare Do"). (From Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone's radio bit, one of many Benny references that first Warners and later Hanna-Barbera on Flinstones, and IIRC sometimes other studios, would use) are memorable, even if they're reused (as the above film movie reference mentions) from Friz's (first "Merrie Melodies" trademark theme-song cartoon, "Boulvevadier from the Bronx", which explains how a cousin of Porky with heavy Eugene Levy-like eyebrows batting from the 1936 short returned.) The 1969 retracing typically freezes Charles Laughton's temper at tend so he is just stand still with the sound effects.Good no one was there to catch him..what would a sequel to this cartoon be like..the cops arresting him for this!!!?? (They probably would TODAY if this cartoon were made..today the Laughton guy tearing the stadium apart reminds me of Lindsay Lohan or Ozzie Osbourne "tripping" as the "William Tell Overture"'s "The Storm" form Disney's first Technicolor Mickey,1935's "Band Concert", plays on soundtrack.) And I agree with the poster who said (ala Cyndi Lauper) the guys who did this just wanted to have fun..(I know not my own comment but it was a excellent description.) PS I noted that the credits for many releases from 1940 that Freleng directed seemed to have these credits at the bottom!