Robinson Crusoe Jr.

Directed by Norm McCabe, an animation director I'm unfamiliar with, this early Porky Pig effort is pretty poor; not only is the animation sloppy, with Porky occasionally gliding against the background as scenes start, but the sense of humor is very early forties, with references to radio shows of the time that will be lost on today's viewers. Also, Friday is an unfortunate racial caricature, common at the time but jarring by current standards. The biggest problem though, is that the cartoon just isn't funny. This one along with several other early Warners efforts is available on one of those one dollar dvds, mostly efforts from 1941, and the only trait they share is the racial characterizations which would keep them from being shown today.

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 Pig has always been an endearing character, if more in support playing it straight than a lead (always worth watching but has been known to be misused and overshadowed by the supporting characters). Norm McCabe was overshadowed by very stiff competition when he was active, ones with more distinctive and imaginative styles, but he was a very competent director who never made it bigger (some of his work even relatively obscure) due to never making colour cartoons and being responsible for ones with racial stereotyping.

Neither Porky or McCabe are at their best here. 'Robinson Crusoe Jr.' is watchable but more for curiosity's sake than it being a good cartoon. Porky actually comes off better, he is likeable and amusing here and his chemistry with Friday is quite charming.

Mel Blanc is outstanding as always however. He always was the infinitely more preferable voice for Porky, Joe Dougherty never clicked with me, and he proves it here. Blanc shows an unequalled versatility and ability to bring an individual personality to every one of his multiple characters in a vast majority of his work, there is no wonder why he was in such high demand as a voice actor. Robert C. Bruce was famous for providing narration that entertained and educated, not the telling-the-story kind that Sterling Holloway for Disney was famous for, without being over-explanatory or distracting. This is especially true in the "How To" Goofy series for Disney. He does the narration here and does a nice job.

Animation-wise, 'Robinson Crusoe Jr.' mostly is pretty good. Much of it is 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.

However, Friday is over-caricatured and in a way that is likely to not fly today. 'Robinson Crusoe Jr.' has more to it though than that. Not all the animation works, transitions are unusually sloppy and Friday is unattractively designed. The story is slight and lacks energy or momentum, meaning that Stalling is practically doing most of the work to keep things afloat.

It is agreed that the cartoon is lacking in laughs, there aren't enough and what there are feel stale and others will go over some people's heads. McCabe's direction here is pretty routine and unimaginative.

Overall, watchable but a long way from great. 5/10 Bethany Cox

A relic of Porky Pig's early days as a star, "Robinson Crusoe Jr." also contains racial stereotypes. If, like me, you've read enough about the popular culture of the era, then the jokes will make more sense. Pretty hokey stuff. Warner Bros. made much neater use of the stranded-on-an-uncharted-island scenario with the Bugs Bunny-Yosemite Sam vehicle "Rabbitson Crusoe" and later with "Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island"; "Gilligan's Island" of course brought the genre to its panacea. Otherwise, this is a typical representation of Porky's days before Chuck Jones gave him the role of bringing order to Daffy's silliness.

PS: Norm McCabe, if I remember right, took over Tex Avery's unit after the latter left following an argument with producer Leon Schlesinger.