Porky the Rain-Maker

Porky the Rain-Maker (1936)

*** (out of 4)

Porky is helping his father on the farm but things aren't looking too good. The plants are dying off because of the lack of water and now the chickens are refusing to lay eggs until they get fed. Daddy sends Porky into town to get some food for them but instead he buys some magic pills.

Obviously PORKY THE RAIN-MAKER is a take-off on the Jack and the Beanstalk tale and it actually comes across pretty good and manages to be one of the best in the series up to this point. The animation itself was quite good but the real stand out here are the various laughs that it manages to get and especially towards the end when a variety of animals start taking the pills and sure chaos is breaking loose. Fans of the series will certainly enjoy this one and especially with the laughs and action.

"Porky the Rain-Maker" is a short obviously inspired by the classic tale "Jack and the Beanstalk"...though the story has a lot of original content as well. When the story begins, Porky and his dad are concerned because there is a drought and the farm animals are suffering. So, Dad gives Porky money to go to buy feed for the critters...but instead he buys pills which control the weather. Dad is unimpressed and throws the pills away...and the animals eat them with expected results.

This is a cute short and I have no idea if you ever see Porky's dad again. The sight gags about the drought are clever and the film enjoyable. However, you DO wonder...why would they make FOG and CYCLONE pills in the first place?

Back when Porky Pig was Warner Bros. top cartoon star - and before Mel Blanc was providing his voice - they made this cartoon about Porky buying weather-making seeds for his farm. Since "Porky the Rain-Maker" came out pretty early on, we shouldn't expect to see any of the really wacky gags that became a staple of Warner Bros. animation through the '40s and '50s. But one might interpret this cartoon as a preview of the erratic weather that we now see due to global warming. Of course, I see a lot of things that probably aren't there; I'm sure that they probably intended this as a silly cartoon, and it comes out like that. Worth seeing, if only once. As it's not currently available on video or DVD, you can find it on YouTube.

In this variation on Jack and the Beanstalk, one would expect that the pills sold by the huckster would be useless. The thing is that they can make it rain. It's a series of sight gags which show the animals in the farmyard eating things like hurricane pills and exhibiting the result of them. It's quite good for its time.

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. 'Porky the Rain-Maker' is fairly early career Avery, but it's a good, very good even, early Avery cartoon. For Avery, 'Porky the Rain-Maker' is fairly tame with his uniquely wacky style being more obvious from the 40s onward, a sense that he was still finding his style. There is evidence of it though, especially when the pills start taking effect on the animals and the cartoon particularly starts picking up. Porky is fun and appealing, but there is a vast personal preference for Mel Blanc voicing Porky than Joe Dougherty, who didn't sound as natural as the character.

However, the animation in 'Porky the Rain-Maker' is characteristically great, crisp, detailed and fluid, the black and white holds up well. The music is energetic and lush, not Carl Stalling or Scott Bradley quality but it fits very well and is well composed.

'Porky the Rain-Maker' is timed beautifully and is very funny and inventive when things get chaotic. The story has shades of 'Jack and the Beanstalk' but with no beanstalk and giant, with the second half centring around the effects that the weather pills have on the animals and the consequences. Things don't get too predictable.

Tedd Pierce does a good job with his voice work. The father is suitably stern and the animals are great fun.

Overall, very well done if not one of Avery's best. 8/10 Bethany Cox