Porky's Preview

I used to watch Warners cartoons all the time when I was a kid, but it's a long time since I last saw one, and I'm pretty sure I'd never seen this one before. The reason I'm sure is because it's in black and white, and I didn't even know Warners made cartoons in b&w. The lack of colour is no doubt why it wasn't shown on TV.

Anyway, the film is enjoyable enough while being nowhere near the best of Avery & co's output. There's only one laugh-out-loud moment which practically every other reviewer on this page has already described. Although the laughs are scarce, the wild imagination of Avery is plain to see as Porky Pig presents his own cartoon show made up entirely of childishly drawn stick figures (complete with crossings-out when he gets things wrong).

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.

Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best he ever did. While not one of the best Porky Pig cartoons and Avery himself went on to better things once he properly found his immediately distinctive visual and humour style we know and love him for, 'Porky's Preview' is a very nicely done and interesting cartoon. Do agree that 'Porky's Preview' is not generally a laugh-out-loud funny cartoon, and rarely is it hilarious. Both Porky and Avery has done funnier, this is a little on the bland side for both.

That is not to say that 'Porky's Preview' is completely laughter-free because that's not the case. The bit with the skunk is the funniest moment and is actually very funny indeed. Also though the Mexican hat dance was quite cool. There is not much to the story here, mainly it's an episodic series of vignettes with some better than others.

On the other hand, the animation is very good with a lot of great attention to detail and fluid crispness. Standing out the most in this regard is the character designs, they are very creative and are unlike many other cartoons from back then.

Carl Stalling's music is lush, energetic and characterful (sometimes wonderfully weird, which suited the cartoon well), with clever orchestration and a mastery of not just adding to the action but enhancing it as well (Stalling was a near-unequalled master at this, though Scott Bradley gave him a run for his money).

As said, the skunk part is very funny, though generally 'Porky's Preview' would have been even better than it turned out to be with more humour. The pace is lively and even though it became more refined, inventive and wilder later Avery's directing has moments of imagination (mostly visually). The characters are fun and Porky is his amiable self.

Mel Blanc shows once again his unrivalled versatility in voicing multiple roles (including Porky Pig, taking over from Joe Dougherty and providing the more famous voice that is far more appealing than Dougherty's whose Porky voice didn't quite do it for me) and giving individuality and variety to each.

In summary, very nicely done if also a bit bland. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Well, this cartoon gets points for originality, but that's about it. Humor-wise, it's almost nil in the laughter department except for a little skunk who draw one laugh with an aside comment to the audience. Other than that, there was literally nothing to laugh about. However, how it was drawn was unique.

Most of this turns out to be a cartoon-in-a-cartoon. Porky Pig is showing a tent audience a cartoon that he did, which is drawn like a small child would draw with stick figures. You see vignettes of anything from a race horse at Santa Anita to a ballet dancer on some stage. The drawings are exactly like you and I drew as very little kids and it was kind of fun to observe. I've never seen anything like this in a cartoon.

Overall, it's worth one viewing. I caught it as a bonus feature on the "Sergeant York" DVD.

Porky's Preview, like another short oddity called Lions For Sale, is inexplicably included as an extra feature on the Sergeant York DVD, and while neither short film has any discernible reason for being found here, they are both clever little bits of short film-making worth checking out. In this one, a series of sight gags as various characters make their way into a theater (ushered in through the dark aisles by a helpful firefly), at which Porky Pig introduces a shows a curious stick figure animation show of his own making. It had been probably 10 or 15 years since I've seen a Looney Tunes cartoon, which I watched constantly when I was a kid, so it was fun to hear the familiar intro and outtro again after not having seen it for so long, and completists will be thrilled to see a hard-to-find Looney Tunes short. Well worth the time, although strangely hidden.

While I am sure that there are some that disagree with me, but the Looney Tunes cartoons made before about 1942 were generally pretty shabby. They were often black & white and had pretty insipid characters. While these cartoons were a lot worse in the 1930s (when they tried to be cute and had a lot of singing), there's just no comparing the quality of these cartoons to the wonderful Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons once they found their comedic edge. It was like there was a renaissance at Warner Brothers starting about 1942 and the quality improved dramatically.

This cartoon is one of those films made just before the change at Looney Tunes. Porky Pig in this cartoon is still a relatively bland guy and the cartoon lacks color (literally and figuratively). It consists of Porky showing a cartoon he made to all the barnyard animals. It's very poorly done and I think we are supposed to laugh at how badly he made it. I dunno, I just thought it was bad. The film lacked zing and could have definitely benefited by adding Daffy Duck to the mix. Where is the edge?! Where is the humor?!