The Blow Out

Osama bin Laden, you may consider yourself the cleverest terrorist on earth, but you've got nothing on the bomber portrayed in the early Porky Pig cartoon "The Blow Out". The thug here goes around town planting bombs, and no one can catch him. But when Porky - doing good deeds so as to get enough money to buy a milkshake - gives back the bomb, the bomber isn't a bit happy.

Still listening, Osama? You've got nothing to worry about in the real world. While George W. Bush doesn't know jack about how to catch you, Porky catches the bomber without even trying.

OK, I'll stop pretending that I'm talking to Osama bin Laden. But the point is that while this is a very early Porky cartoon (at this time, he looked like a walking heart attack and Mel Blanc wasn't yet providing his voice), it's still fairly entertaining. I presume that at this this point, the Termite Terrace crowd was still trying to figure out exactly what path their work would take, so we needn't expect the sorts out completely wacky gags that characterized the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons in the '40s and '50s. Worth seeing. As it's not available on video or DVD - that I know of, at least - you can find it on YouTube.

The Blow Out was an early Warner Bros. cartoon that was the second made by "supervisor" Fred "Tex" Avery as director. It also starred Porky Pig in his early incarnation with original voice Joe Dougherty (who stuttered in real life). Other voices featured were Sara Berner who was later gossipy switchboard operator Mabel on "The Jack Benny Program", and Lucille La Verne who later voiced the Queen on Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She voices the bomber here. Porky is a kid here trying to buy an ice cream soda but finds he's five pennies short. So when he accidentally picks up a misplaced item from a passerby, he gets awarded one cent. After this gets repeated a few times, the pig finds the bomb-which he thinks is just an ordinary clock-and proceeds to give it back to the one who dropped it who of course keeps running away. Soon the cops follow. You may be able to guess what happens from here on but I'm not going to tell you. Needless to say, the ending is one you've probably expected from Tex Avery if you're familiar with his subsequent cartoons for both Warner Bros. and M-G-M. On that note, I definitely recommend The Blow Out.

This is an early Tex Avery, with Avery still feeling his way. The cartoon is actually more cute than menacing and Avery seems to have more fun with the villain than with our hero, the rather hefty Porky (this was a formative cartoon, when they were still fiddling around with character design and Porky carried a good deal more weight then), with Porky's role limited to one running gag and the payoff at the end. This is a cute cartoon and there are quite a few sight gags, but pacing is slower and the gags are more repetitive in nature and form than later Avery shorts. Avery taking baby steps. But I like this one a lot, personally. The original black and white is far superior to the later colorized version (usually true, but in this case, the use of shadows originally makes colorizing this one an especially bad idea), so try and catch the black and white. Well worth watching. Recommended.

Don't expect to see this one on TV. It is a perfect example that animators, especially at Warner Brothers, in the 1930's weren't afraid to use any topical subject for humor. No wonder Chris Rock cites Bugs Bunny as a major influence. It features Porky Pig before they slimmed him down. It was directed by Tex (as Fred in this case) Avery, his second directorial effort for WB. The Ha Ha subject? A terrorist bomber. It opens with a character looking like radio's The Shadow placing a bomb in front of a building and blowing it up. Next, newspaper front pages report on the further carnage and reward offered for the capture of the mad man. Porky enters the picture by trying to buy an ice cream soda. He comes up five cents short. He hits on the idea of picking up things people drop and returning them in hopes of a small reward. He sees the bomber deposit a bomb. The cartoon then kicks into high gear with Porky dogging the tale of the bomber trying to return the bomb. Now the hunter is the hunted, trying to escape his own murderous device. Porky finally chases him right into the welcoming arms of the police, earning the reward. He immediately goes back to the soda fountain and spends every penny on a mountain of ice cream sodas. If you think Tex Avery was the only animator who would make fun of terrorism, see Ali Baba Bound (Bob Clampett), oh yes, that one isn't shown any more either. Suppressing the past, doesn't it make you feel safe?

A mad bomber is at large at the beginning. We cut to Porky, who needs another five cents to buy a soda. This is about our enterprising guy trying to work the public for the five cents. Soon, he and the bomber become entwined and the show takes off from there. Well done early Porky cartoon.