Pilgrim Porky

From the time of Porky Pig's debut until about the time that we entered WWII, Warner Bros. mostly cast him roles that they figured represented every aspect of life. One of these was the captain of the Mayflower. Bob Clampett's "Pilgrim Porky" is basically a series of spot gags, the sort of stuff that one would expect in a Tex Avery cartoon (except that Avery's stuff was cleverer). Also, there are some racial stereotypes.

To this cartoon's credit, I like it's portrayal of the Mayflower and everything relating thereto better than the story that we've usually been taught. I find it cool to see a mangling of our national myth. Both "The Addams Family Values" and "The Ice Storm" talked about the true significance of the first Thanksgiving. Overall, this one's OK for some brief entertainment. I should admit that some of the gags made me laugh. Clampett directed better stuff over the next few years.

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.

Have a good deal of respect and appreciation for Bob Clampett, more often that than not, and while not quite one of my favourite Looney Tunes characters (prefer those with consistently stronger, funnier and interesting personalities) Porky has always been very easy to like. There are other cartoons of theirs that do justice to them much better. Not a bad cartoon by all means, just that it never really rises above average.

Porky is a likeable enough character and plays it straight well enough, at least also he is treated as a lead and used pretty well, but he has been funnier before and his personality stronger. Clampett is on reasonably tame form here, there are signs of his distinctive style, parts are suitably wild, but there is not much imaginative or zany.

Apart from a few nice moments, namely a few of the blackout gags, the gags and humour are not particularly inventive or funny, too much of it is corny and very of the time, especially with the group of singers. The running gag does run thin too early.

The story is basic and predictable, while the supporting characters are not particularly memorable outside of the not-to-be-taken-kindly racial stereotypes.

Didn't care for the narration here. Like Robert C. Bruce as a voice actor and he has done some great cartoon narration in the "How To..." Goofy series. The narration here was not particularly entertaining or educational, instead it added little and was pretty annoying.

However, Mel Blanc is outstanding as always. He always was the infinitely more preferable voice for Porky, Joe Dougherty never clicked with me, and he proves it here. Blanc shows an unequalled versatility and ability to bring an individual personality to every one of his multiple characters in a vast majority of his work, there is no wonder why he was in such high demand as a voice actor.

'Pilgrim Porky's' animation is very good. it's fluid in movement, crisp in shading and very meticulous in detail. There are a few amusing moments, some nice energy and there are signs of Clampett's style. 'Pilgrim Porky' at least does nothing to diminish Porky's likeability as a character.

Ever the master, Carl Stalling's music is typically superb. It is as always lushly orchestrated, full of lively energy and characterful in rhythm, not only adding to the action but also enhancing it.

In summary, has its moments but underwhelming. 5/10 Bethany Cox

After watching hundreds and hundreds of classic-era cartoons in the past year, I find the 1930s to be wild and totally unpredictable and the mid '40s through the '50s to be wacky and very inventive. It's the period in between - 1940-44 - where they aren't as good, as a whole. This cartoon is a good example. The music is very dated and the humor too corny but most people to laugh at much, at least in 2007. You also get narration, which is great in feature films but doesn't come off well most of the times in a 7-minute animated short. A man would say something very serious and then, as to break things up, you'd see a quick sight gag on the serious subject. Most of the time it comes across kind of lame, unless that's what the audiences laughed at 70 years ago.

Here, we get, as the graphics tell us: "The time: 1620 "The place: Plymouth, Eng. A quaint little seaport town of a thousand souls.....and a few heels."

We see the Mayflower and the narrator, as they liked to do in a number of classic-era cartoons, explains what is going on in dramatic terms. For example: "Here we see the good ship Mayflower, ready to carry to the New World its cargo of hopeful pilgrims, each anxious to carve a great empire out of the wilderness across the sea."

From that point, Porky Pig emerges from the ship and the cartoon begins. Shortly thereafter we get a dated song about sailing on a ship and throughout the cartoon the narrator explains what "Captain Porky Pig" is doing and how the voyage goes. The humor in here is strictly 1940, very dated and very corny, like the narration. That's not to say all was bad; there were some laughs, but not many.