Porky in Wackyland

Porky in Wackyland is a surreal if silly cartoon short that has been described as Daliesque but I guess the animators were surely on the funny baccy to come up with such a far out cartoon.

In darkest Africa Porky Pig sets out to catch the the mythical Do-Do bird a plot point not lost on the makers of Pixar's Up!

When he arrives he encounters all sorts of tomfoolery such as the sun coming up in the form of a human pyramid, a two headed dog fighting for itself and a three headed figure beast in the form of The Three Stooges before he starts the search for the Do-Do bird.

When we do finally see the bird we can only presume he got a script and mannerisms normally preserved for Bugs Bunny. Undoubtedly this is an unusual, avantgarde and also thought provoking cartoon.

"Porky in Wackyland" is a true milestone in animation. It is an amazing example of no-holds-barred animation. It's very obvious the artists had a great time just letting their imaginations go wild on this one. The plot is simple, Porky Pig is searching for the last Do-Do bird. His quest leads him to Wackyland. In Wackyland anything can happen...that's what animation is all about if you ask me. Anything can be brought to life in animation, all you have to do is dream it and draw it. "Porky in Wackyland" represents many crazy dreams, and many wonderful drawings. And on top of it all, it's very funny!

In 1937 Robert Clampett was promoted to director and one year later he created his first, true classic cartoon of the many that he would direct for Warner Bros. studio: Porky in Wackyland. Along with Tex Avery and Frank Tashlin, Clampett was instrumental in creating the Warner style. He was an innovator who liked to push the boundaries of the medium, and Wackyland is a perfect example of this. It was also the first of Clampett's many cartoons to use hallucinatory, surrealistic images; others would include The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, The Big Snooze and Tin Pan Alley Cats (which re-used animation from Porky in Wackyland.) Wackyland was later remade in color as Dough for the Do-Do by Friz Freleng.

This short has Porky hunting for the last of the Do-Do Birds. He ventures into the strange and hilarious Wackyland to find him. It's a classic Warner Bros. short with wild and random things happening every second. One of Porky's best.

This black-and-white early Looney Tunes cartoon looks different, sounds different...and is terrific.

We read in the "The Globe" that Porky is off on a rare do-do bird hunt, trying to get a bird that is nearly extinct and worth billions of dollars. He flies off to "darkest Africa" and winds up in "Wackyland" where the population is "100 nuts and a squirrel" and the sign that says that audibly speaks to Porky saying "It can happen here!!!!"

With that, we start seeing some really bizarre things regarding the scenery, the characters who inhabit this place and the weird things that happen. It looked a cross between a Salvardor Dali painting and Alice In Wonderful.

Porky is then led to "the last of the do-do birds" and this a one strange bird, who fits right into Wackyland.

This is great stuff, a real visual treat and a cartoon you could enjoy over and over just trying to catch all of the sight gags and great drawings in here. I couldn't help wonder what the audience thought way back in the 1930s. This had to be something really unusual for them to see.