Porky and Teabiscuit

Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton's 'Porky and Teabiscuit' is an utterly pedestrian cartoon which, after Bob Clampett's barrage of amazing Porky Pig cartoons the previous year, seems like a step backwards. Casting Porky in his original role as a child, the clichéd plot unfolds slowly and uninterestingly as we follow Porky on an errand for his father which results in him being conned out of eleven dollars in exchange for a dishevelled old nag of a racehorse. Porky must enter a steeple chase to win back the money. The cartoon only picks up pace when the race begins and by then the cartoon is nearly over. It's far too little, too late and 'Porky and Teabiscuit' emerges as a misfire that seems unsure whether to go for cuteness or gags and ends up skimping on both. Unlike the majority of the Warner Bros. catalogue which is noticeably adult orientated, 'Porky and Teabiscuit' feels like a short made specifically for children and easily entertained children at that!

Little did these animators know how famous "Seabiscuit" would become almost 70 years later, thanks to a best-selling book and feature movie about the great horse of the '30s.

Anyway, we see a fairly young Porky Pig in this cartoon, a kid who works for his dad Phineas (who stutters the same as Porky). The "kid" loves horse racing and races his little toy horse - yet he's old enough to drive a car! Oh, well.

He goes into town to deliver feed to the stables at the track and collect $11 for it. Then, he accidentally winds up purchasing an old, broken-down horse, "Teabuscuit" for the 11 bucks. Oh, man, his pop is going to kill him when he finds out.

However, you just know something will work out, that the old beat-up but face-liking likable horse will do something good to bail out Porky.

This winds up being a "cute" cartoon, more than it is funny. The actual race was wild and insane, but not really anything that would provoke a big laugh. It's a passable animated short, decent but nothing great.

Porky Pig, while with a tendency to be overshadowed by funnier and more interesting adversaries or supporting characters, is still a likable and amusing character. 'Porky and Teabiscuit' is not one of his best cartoons but is decent enough and passes the time amiably.

The second half is better than the first half. The second half is dominated by the race, which is where 'Porky and Teabiscuit' really does come to life, with the wildness, insane looniness, imagination and razor-sharp wit one expects from Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies being hugely entertaining and thrilling. The first half is less good, the draggy pacing doesn't have the lustre as seen later on and it does try a little too hard to be cute and it feels a little mawkish. Porky is likable enough if also a bit bland.

Animation on the other hand is great. The black and white colours are lovingly done, the drawing is fluid and smooth and the backgrounds have some very nice detail. The music score by Carl Stalling is bursting with lively character, beautiful orchestration, clever instrumentation and an unmatched ability to enhance the action and elevate material to a greater level.

While stronger in the second half, 'Porky and Teabiscuit' is fun and witty enough and Mel Blanc as ever does a fantastic job with the voice work in multiple roles, all given completely different identities and voices from one another.

On the whole, not one of my favourites and somewhat uneven but still worth watching. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Following his debut in the 1935 Merrie Melody "I Haven't Got a Hat", Porky Pig mostly starred in hokey Looney Tunes until the early 1940s (Chuck Jones's "Old Glory" may have been Porky's only cartoon during this period that constituted anything more than a series of childish gags; I think that it was also Porky's only appearance in Merrie Melody during this period).

"Porky and Teabiscuit" was one of the hokey ones. While it did follow the theme of casting Porky as the underdog, it doesn't have much clever. Not that it isn't worth seeing (there are a few neat gags). But I suspect that most people will agree that if Leon Schlesinger Productions hadn't started giving Porky roles with greater complexity, then that would have quickly been all for him, folks. This one is OK, not great.

PS: directors Cal Dalton and Ben Hardaway headed what had been Friz Freleng's unit. Freleng worked at MGM from 1937 to 1939, returning to Warner Bros. when MGM canceled the series that he had been directing. Ben Hardaway's nickname was Bugs, and he submitted a drawing of a rabbit titled "Bug's Bunny". You can probably guess what happened from there.

Porky's father is a dealer in hay & grains. Porky is more interested in riding race horses. His father tells him to make a delivery to the race track. Instead of bringing home the money, he accidentally buys a sickly race horse named Teabiscuit. He decides to enter the steeplechase to get his money back.

I don't like the auction. I know that it generates a nice fully expected joke at the end. It is not reasonable and the joke is not enough. The guy should be auctioning off the horse. Why would anybody buy a rope? It's fine if nobody makes a bid for the horse. That could be funny. The rest of this is pretty good and it's fine.