Prehistoric Porky

Porky Pig in prehistoric times? Yup. To be exact, it's "One Billion, Trillion B.C." (a long time ago - their corny, not mine).

One thing that is recognizable right from the start: Mel Blanc's voice. We are the dinosaur age and along comes a Tyannosarus Rex growling and screeching - and there is no mistaking that voice! Blanc does everything in here, from Porky to a vulture, to several types of dinosaurs. He a singing prehistoric bird who does some barbershop quartet song with three others! That was a pretty weird sight - and funny!

Porky wears a loincloth, has a welcome mat outside his cave and a pet dinosaur named "Rover." When the dog is happy and wags his tale, the whole shakes because he's really a 10-ton beast. You gotta love it.

As you can tell, there are a lot of really good sight gags in here. What makes this particular animated short a humorous one is the mixture of prehistoric times with modern-day things, such as mailboxes, magazines, wrist watches, etc., all done to provoke a joke - and it works! Sometimes these 1940 Looney Tunes cartoons are too dated but this one will still make you laugh a lot, almost 70 years later. It's part of the new Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Five DVD package.

With the success of the film, ONE MILLION B.C., it is no wonder that Looney Tunes finds this movie fresh meat for it to lampoon. Boy and how! Pop-culture nut Bob Clampett takes on the movie with Porky Pig and his pet brontosaurus named Rover. (Do you think he was inspired by Chuck Jones' DAFFY AND THE DINOSAUR? Or was it a coincidence?) In this cartoon, we see Porky Pig trying to find a fur coat he got from a magazine, but it won't be easy. We see some jokes and gags that are highly dated with a capital D! Reference to Ned Sparks, an Irish vocal quartet, "Esquire" (spoofed as "Expire"), the NBC chimes (back when it was a radio station), and famous boxer Tony Galento. The gags are good, the dinosaurs are fun to look at, and it is in black and white, so all in all it is a good cartoon.

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.

As was said with 'The Chewin Bruin', have more often than not had a lot of respect and appreciation for Bob Clampett, 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. 'Prehistoric Porky' is another example of being a good representation of them both, if not among the best efforts of either.

Clampett's distinctive style, even if not as outrageous or anarchic as other cartoons of his, is very obvious here. Porky is endearing as ever very effectively plays it straight, is used well and is actually treated like a lead, after having cartoons where he feels more like underutilised support. Even funnier and more interesting, and just as likeable, is Rover.

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.

Animation is excellent, it's fluid in movement, crisp in shading and very meticulous in detail. 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.

'Prehistoric Porky' is very well paced, very funny and well-engineered, with an inventive and beautifully balanced mix of prehistoric and modern day. It may not be laugh a minute or consistently hilarious and the story is not much of one, but actually there is very little wrong here. Clampett and Porky may not be at their best but they are both represented well.

Overall, well made and enjoyable. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This Porky Pig cartoon is unusual because it's set in cartoon caveman days. Most of the story involves Porky out looking for an animal to kill in order to make himself a new suit. This part of the story is fine....but I more just enjoyed the odd setting and characters.

Some of the jokes in this cartoon would be lost on most everyone today--such as the character welcoming everyone to the cartoon with the phrase "Hello everybody"...Kate Smith's signature radio phrase. There are also vultures that are clearly modeled after Jerry Colonna and Nick Sparks....comics who are pretty much forgotten today by everyone except oddballs like me! Overall, enjoyable and cute.

One of the relics from the days when Warner Bros. usually confined Porky Pig and Daffy Duck to the black and white Looney Tunes*, Bob Clampett's "Prehistoric Porky" portrays cinema's most famous swine in the Stone Age - one billion, trillion years BC, apparently - doing the sorts of things that most people in 1940 probably did in their everyday lives (with a caveman twist). It's got a fairly similar feel to Chuck Jones's "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur" from the previous year, what with the sight gags relating to the popular culture of the cartoon's era. True, some of the stuff we in the 21st century might not understand, but it's funny enough just to see the characters do these things.

So, this is one of the many classic cartoons that I fortunately only saw nowadays, when I'm old enough to understand what it portrays. We could of course be cynical and say that this was one of the many cartoons in which they stuck Porky in a common situation or role; others included fireman, pilgrim and bullfighter. Even so, Clampett keeps the action moving so that nearly every scene is a hoot. I recommend it. Just became available on Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 5.

*When Leon Schlesinger Studios began releasing cartoons in 1930, all the cartoons carried the Looney Tunes label (and all were filmed in B&W). Before too long, they created the Merrie Melodies label. In 1934, the studio started filming its Merrie Melodies cartoons in color while still filming its Looney Tunes cartoons in B&W. In the late 1930s, Porky and Daffy - the studio's only major stars - starred mostly in Looney Tunes cartoons, while the Merrie Melodies cartoons mostly featured one-shot character (there were of course a few exceptions). Elmer Fudd's prototype Egghead was the first character to appear regularly in Merrie Melodies cartoons, followed by Sniffles, Inki, and finally Bugs Bunny. The studio released its final B&W cartoon in 1943, and so LT and MM thus became indistinguishable.