Pied Piper Porky

Clampett left Warner Brothers, did the Beany & Cecil puppet shows and seems to have dropped from the consciousness of animation fans. Yet there was no one with a wilder sense of cartoon stretching than he. He spent much of the late 1930s doing Porky Pig movies (when he produced his first masterpiece, PORKY IN WACKYLAND), but mostly he was confounded by the fact that Porky, although Termite Terrace's major star in the period, seemed to lack much of a personality; through the 1950s he remained more of a character actor than a star.

In this one he sets up the situation, which is a cat-versus-mouse routine. It's a very funny movie -- by this time, Warner's had developed its cartooning style, so that its shorts were all good -- but not one of the amazing ones. Still, it's well worth your time.

Before Bob Clampett became the star cartoon director at Warner Bros.*, he mostly directed Looney Tunes starring Porky Pig in various low-key roles. "Pied Piper Porky" casts the stuttering swine as the famous rat-removing character. After Porky discovers that a smug mouse has decided to stay, he sics a cat on the rodent, but things don't go as planned.

So, this is mostly a relic of what I would call Warner Bros. cartoons' pivot point: they were already really wacky, but not yet reflecting the absolutely zany imagery of animation's infancy. Worth seeing.

*From about 1936 to 1940, Tex Avery was the star cartoon director, with gag-centric classics such as "I Love to Singa", "The Isle of Pingo Pongo" and "A Wild Hare" (which debuted Bugs Bunny). Following his departure in 1941, Bob Clampett became the star cartoon director, turning out phantasmagoria-like classics such as "A Corny Concerto" and "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery". Following Clampett's departure in 1946, Chuck Jones became the star cartoon director; his cartoons were more intellectual.

Like many of their shorts in the 1930s, "Pied Piper Porky" is a black & white cartoon. It's odd, but by the mid to late 30s, Looney Tunes chose to feature it's regular characters in black & white and special, one off characters in color. Perhaps they felt that Porky was so popular that it didn't justify paying the extra cost to use color film stock.

In "Pied Piper Porky", Porky is much like the famous story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin...except that Porky cannot capture one very stubborn mouse. He tries sending a cat to catch the mouse....and that does NOT go well in the least!

Overall, a modestly entertaining cartoon short. Nothing brilliant but enjoyable and worth seeing.

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.

Have a good deal of respect and appreciation for Bob Clampett, more often that than not, and while not quite one of my favourite Looney Tunes characters (prefer those with consistently stronger, funnier and interesting personalities) Porky has always been very easy to like. 'Pied Piper Porky' is another example of being a good representation of them both, if not among the best efforts of either.

More so Clampett than Porky though. Porky is still very likeable and very effectively plays it straight. Even though his material is not as strong as that for the supporting characters (especially the mouse, the funniest and most interesting character in the cartoon) and their personalities to me stood out more.

Clampett brings his usual wacky, zany style, in visuals, humour and pacing, to 'Pied Piper Porky'. It may not be him at his most anarchic but this is a long way from tame Clampett, and is evidence of Clampett having his distinctive style early on despite it not always coming out in his pre-peak period.

Mel Blanc is outstanding as always. 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.

Animation is excellent, it's fluid in movement, crisp in shading and very meticulous in detail, plus it is very imaginative. 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.

'Pied Piper Porky' is lightning-speed energetic that one completely forgets the slightness of the story, and is also incredibly inventively timed and very funny, if not uproarious. There is not really that much wrong here, just that Porky as a lead character pales in comparison to the support somewhat, especially the mouse.

In summary, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox