Porky's Railroad

Porky's Railroad (1937)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent, if nothing overly special, short has Porky Pig traveling around in his 15th Century train when a newer, faster 30th Century challenges him to a race.

PORKY'S RAILROAD is pretty slim on story and I'd also argue that there really aren't too many laughs either. The short manages to be slightly entertaining thanks to the very good animation, which is certainly the highlight. I'd say that Porky is in fine shape and manages to hold your attention as he talks to his train and keeps trying to make it do better than it actually should.

Clearly this cartoon has been around a long time, produced prior to my birth. However in about 1997 I had an occasion to be viewing this piece in the company of several small children. In the midst of this viewing, I caught what I detected to be Morse code signals. I wasn't sure at first but as I carefully listened to this piece (on VHS tape), the more I was convinced that I was right. The problem was complicated because the Morse was somewhat hidden beneath a rendering of "California Here I Come." Nevertheless, taking time to be sure, I found that the real message was different from the message being show to those in a theater watching the cartoon. In the picture Porky, in a race against a new and modern train, was alerted by telegraph that a cow was on the tracks ahead. To convey this message to the film watching audience, a hand came to the screen taping a message on a telegraph key. There was this Morse code sound and the audience would have assumed the sound was a representation of a message to Porky that he should be careful. However the real message of the code was an invitation to contact the producer in Hollywood and receive a picture of Porky. At this late date it is fair to say that there is no way to know if anyone ever did this. In the days when this cartoon was being viewed by the theater going public, few in the audience would have had the opportunity to get a copy of this and go over it many times to weed out the truth of the hidden message. This didn't really become easily available to the general public until the development of VHS tapes. I view this as a simple little joke by the cartoon producers who probably had a long laugh in their offices for many years. A similar Morse code message can be found in The Lone Stranger and Porky produced in '39. Were it not for my skill at Morse, acquired as a condition of being a ham radio operator, this hidden message would probably never have come to my attention. I have no reason to think I was the first to note this message. Nevertheless it was an interesting experience to discover something few others would have noticed.

Porky Pig is a conductor driving an old railroad engine. It struggles to get up a hill. When it gets on top of Piker's Peak, it starts to pick up speed. Porky encounters a cow on the tracks which leads to a funny confrontation with a bull. The Streamline Train is much faster. Porky Pig is told that he and his train engine are no longer needed. In frustration, he challenges the new train to a race.

This is an early black and white Porky Pig. It is a fun train-based cartoon. It is solid fun with plenty of action and good cow fun. As often is the case, there is a racially insensitive joke, but that's nothing new.

One of the many cartoons from the days when Porky Pig was the top Warner Bros. cartoon star - though Daffy Duck would soon overtake him - "Porky's Railroad" looks to me like a parable of many American's hopes during the Depression. We see how Porky is the simple little guy with his ordinary train going about things as he's always done, but he gets replaced by a big guy, much like how the banks foreclosed on many people's homes during those years. So, Porky's only hope is to race the big galoot: he's the underdog against seemingly improbable odds.

Of course, I just might be reading too far into this cartoon. I don't know what specifically director Frank Tashlin wanted to say here; he may have just intended it as a way to pass time. Whatever the gist is, it's still a pretty enjoyable cartoon. Not their best by any stretch, but worth seeing.

In this one, our blubbery friend is an engineer on an out of date train. After many efforts to barely survive a trip, Porky bets he can beat a guy with a brand new, silver streak train. There are several pitfalls along the way, but something Porky does early in the cartoon becomes his salvation. This is a pretty typical cartoon with only a couple clever events.