Falsches Spiel mit Schweinchen Dick

I've seen two versions of this classic cartoon-the original black and white version on VHS tape during the '80s and just now in a colorized version on Facebook. Either way, it's a nice mix of live-action and animation as Porky Pig is convinced by Daffy Duck to try starring in feature films instead of the short cartoons he's been doing for years. So Porky goes to Leon Schlesinger's office to tear up his contract. When he leaves, Leon says "He'll be back". I'll stop there and just say this quite a funny short especially concerning some of the visual gags done in the live-action section. Mel Blanc does the voices of virtually all the humans except for Schlesinger and this was Friz Freleng's first short back at the producer's studio after being at M-G-M for the last two years. So this might have been inspired by Freleng's brief foray away from his home studio during that time. So on that note, I highly recommend You Ought to Be in Pictures.

Friz Freleng's 'You Ought to be in Pictures' is a brilliant, atypical Warner Bros. cartoon. Beautifully combining animation and live action film (only Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Porky's car are animated), it stars many of the Warner staff, including Leon Schlesinger who, despite playing himself, manages to be hammier than the pig he's acting opposite! While the animators at the Warner Bros. studio are out at lunch, the newly drawn Daffy Duck convinces the newly drawn Porky Pig that he deserves better than a career in animation and sets him on his way to seeking a starring role in the movies. His motives, of course, are to get rid of Porky so that he can take his place as Warner's big star. An early glimpse of the greedy, narcissistic version of Daffy (as opposed to the crazy version of Daffy more commonly seen in these early black and white shorts), this is also another clear case of Daffy stealing the cartoon, something that would lead to life imitating art as Daffy really did replace Porky as Warner's most popular star. Porky's trip to a movie studio and his high speed chase through the streets to get his job back make 'You Ought to be in Pictures' seem more epically expansive than the average short of this era and the interaction between real life and animation is surprisingly smooth for such an early example of the two mediums coexisting. All in all, 'You Ought to be in Pictures' is a fascinating, entertaining short which is extremely easy to love. Ironically, having achieved his aim of replacing Porky as a comedy star, Daffy would be complaining of being typecast as a comedy player just ten years later in Chuck Jones's 'The Scarlet Pumpernickel'. There's just no pleasing some ducks!

I realized before I watched this cartoon it would have a live action appearance of Fred Schlesinger, but I did not realize there were other filmed characters and that the very new art of live action and cartoon together would be done so well in this episode! I was expecting to see quite a lot of Daffy Duck in this episode, but Porky Pig is definitely the main character here. In the Warner Brothers studio, Daffy, who wants to be as high as Porky is right now, does his best to convince his cartoon companion to rid himself of his cartoon contract and go to the "features". Well, if you know Porky, you know he'll do pretty much the persuasive Daffy will tell him to and he goes off to ask Fred Schlesinger if he could leave the cartoon studio. Porky feels very nervous, but is pushed by Daffy and Fred seems to accept Porky is going...

I really enjoyed the characters of Daffy and Porky in this cartoon (even though Daffy was a meanie), the plot, the premise of the cartoon and the way the cartoon was funny even though there were no real jokes. The whole thing was very entertaining and very well done, with good moments from the three main characters. :-) If there was anything I felt even slightly iffy about the cartoon it was the fact that everyone was unnecessarily mean to Porky, but it is a "film thing", the way it happened.

I recommend this to people who love old Looney Tunes and to people who just enjoy and entertaining cartoon. Enjoy "You Ought to Be in Pictures"! :-)

P.S Both LeeEisenberg and ccthemovieman said in their reviews that they thought it was amazing how they managed this cartoon with live action while Roger Rabbit was nearly 50 years away. That is what I was thinking as well!!

Wow, this is different, and way ahead of its time, that's for sure. You have a 1940 cartoon that mixes live characters with cartoon ones, such as Porky Pig. This is almost a half-century before "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" came out!

We are at the artist's studio where Porky Pig and Daffy Duck are drawn and when everyone goes to lunch, Daffy comes alive and asks Porky, "Say, you want a good job?"

"I know where you can get a good job in features as Bette Davis' leading man," says the duckster. Porky is reluctant, saying he already as a good job and a contract but Daffy, sounding the Devil pouring bad advice into Porky's ear, advises him to go up and tell the boss that "I quit." Unfortunately for Porky, Daffy's advice wasn't very good.

I loved Porky's line to the boss: "What's Errol Flynn got that I haven't?"

Notes: It was interesting to see Looney Tunes producer Leon Schlesinger, although he wasn't much of an actor, and the voice behind all these famous characters, Mel Blanc, who plays both a security guard and a stagehand......This cartoon runs almost 10 minutes, which is several minutes longer than normal.

"You Ought to Be in Pictures" was made when the Looney Tunes were still in their infancy, but it's just about as good as their most famous cartoons. While the animators are out to lunch, Daffy Duck convinces Porky Pig that cartoons aren't for him and that he should work in feature films. But when Porky tries to enter a studio, the security guard (played by writer Michael Maltese) throws him out. After a few more mishaps, Porky finally decides to get revenge on Daffy.

Man, they pulled no punches when making these cartoons. And even though mixing live action with animation was a new thing, they really accomplished something cool.