You Ought to Be in Pictures

I've seen two versions of this classic cartoon-the original black and white version on VHS tape during the '80s and just now in a colorized version on Facebook. Either way, it's a nice mix of live-action and animation as Porky Pig is convinced by Daffy Duck to try starring in feature films instead of the short cartoons he's been doing for years. So Porky goes to Leon Schlesinger's office to tear up his contract. When he leaves, Leon says "He'll be back". I'll stop there and just say this quite a funny short especially concerning some of the visual gags done in the live-action section. Mel Blanc does the voices of virtually all the humans except for Schlesinger and this was Friz Freleng's first short back at the producer's studio after being at M-G-M for the last two years. So this might have been inspired by Freleng's brief foray away from his home studio during that time. So on that note, I highly recommend You Ought to Be in Pictures.

As all the animators at Warner Brothers run off for lunch, Porky Pig has just been drawn on an artist's pad. He comes to life, only to hear the voice of Daffy Duck, who is in a picture on the wall. Daffy begins to coerce Porky into demanding to be in legitimate pictures. Porky goes to the boss's office and makes demands and ends up quitting. The boss wishes him well and off he goes to a different movie studio. Things don't go so smoothly. First of all, he's supposed to be a leading man, opposite stars like Rita Hayworth. Let's not forget he is a pig with a severe stuttering problem. He has an encounter with a security guard, who chases him across the lot. Anyway, the joining of actual film and animation is pretty interesting. Of course, once Porky is out the door, Daffy is in the boss's office trying to move up in the business. Nicely done little cartoon.

An amusing behind-the-scenes, studio-tour parody, "You Ought to Be in Pictures" is especially comical as a gag on what was happening to Porky Pig's character in the Looney Tunes cartoons. In the black-and-white beginning, he was Leon Schlessinger and company's top toon, starring as a stuttering everyman-type anthropomorphic hog in such innovative animated shorts as "Porky in Wackyland" (1937). But, he soon began to be overshadowed by one of the characters the cartoonists tried to make his side-kick, Daffy Duck, who in this film tries to trick Porky into getting out of his contract so as to break into live-action features--and not coincidently put Daffy in line for a promotion. Little did they know, however, and unaddressed in this film, is that another star was just getting started at Looney Tunes the same year, Bugs Bunny. In the tradition of tragic irony, the Pig has been a secondary character ever since as if serving out Schlessinger's punishment for him trying to once be released from his contract. Echoes there of John Gilbert's career sabotaged by Louis B. Mayer holding a grudge. Or William Haines run out by Mayer. Or Judy Garland mistreated by Mayer.... Well, Mayer just wasn't a good guy.

Anyways, it seems as though just about every animation department made this type of cartoon-interacting-with-animators film at some point, and it's one of my favorite types of cartoons, for the reflexivity and technical craft of mixing animation and live action. Winsor McCay adding a framing narrative to explain how he made his cartoons and also becoming one himself in "Gertie the Dinosaur" (1914), Willis O'Brien's work with stop-motion animation culminating with matte shots in "King Kong" (1933), "Cartoon Factory" (1924) taking advantage of rotoscoping in Fleischer's Koko the Clown - Out of the Inkwell series, selective double-exposures and editing trickery in Disney's "Alice's Wonderland" (1923) and the rest of the Alice comedies, and this. It's not "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988) , but it's still clever and well done. The bit where Porky pretends to be Oliver Hardy to sneak onto the studio lot is pretty good, and the drawing live-action actors' hands for their interaction with the Pig is an innovation that I'm not sure I've seen done prior, or at least not quite as thoroughly. Another one of the "50 Greatest Cartoons" according to Jerry Beck's Looney-Tunes-heavy book, which although I might not go that far, there are certainly worse ways to spend nine minutes.

"You Ought to Be in Pictures" was made when the Looney Tunes were still in their infancy, but it's just about as good as their most famous cartoons. While the animators are out to lunch, Daffy Duck convinces Porky Pig that cartoons aren't for him and that he should work in feature films. But when Porky tries to enter a studio, the security guard (played by writer Michael Maltese) throws him out. After a few more mishaps, Porky finally decides to get revenge on Daffy.

Man, they pulled no punches when making these cartoons. And even though mixing live action with animation was a new thing, they really accomplished something cool.

This was a brilliant cartoon, mixing animation with live action. The result is one of my all time favourite Looney Tunes cartoons. Leon Schlesinger is great as himself, and Daffy is enormous fun as he tricks Porky into entering the movie business. But really it is Porky's picture, I particularly loved the part when he smuggled himself in disguised as Oliver Hardy. The animation is excellent and doesn't jar with the live action sequences. The music is lovely, and there is a wonderful script that the toons and the actors do a great job with. While it is a tad predictable, the story works wonderfully as a Hollywood satire, and the references to Greta Garbo and Errol Flynn, all to name a few, were well done. As well as voicing Daffy and Porky, Mel Blanc plays a stagehand and a security guard, and these are roles he excels in.

My favourite bit? I don't know. Daffy murdering Largo Al Factotum in an attempt to gain Porky's former position with Schlesinger growing visibly irritated was one, and the part with Porky's confrontation with Schlesinger was quite poignant. All in all, as a cartoon You Ought To Be in Pictures is hilarious and unique. 10/10 Bethany Cox