Vous devriez faire du cinéma

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.

Friz Freleng's 'You Ought to be in Pictures' is a brilliant, atypical Warner Bros. cartoon. Beautifully combining animation and live action film (only Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Porky's car are animated), it stars many of the Warner staff, including Leon Schlesinger who, despite playing himself, manages to be hammier than the pig he's acting opposite! While the animators at the Warner Bros. studio are out at lunch, the newly drawn Daffy Duck convinces the newly drawn Porky Pig that he deserves better than a career in animation and sets him on his way to seeking a starring role in the movies. His motives, of course, are to get rid of Porky so that he can take his place as Warner's big star. An early glimpse of the greedy, narcissistic version of Daffy (as opposed to the crazy version of Daffy more commonly seen in these early black and white shorts), this is also another clear case of Daffy stealing the cartoon, something that would lead to life imitating art as Daffy really did replace Porky as Warner's most popular star. Porky's trip to a movie studio and his high speed chase through the streets to get his job back make 'You Ought to be in Pictures' seem more epically expansive than the average short of this era and the interaction between real life and animation is surprisingly smooth for such an early example of the two mediums coexisting. All in all, 'You Ought to be in Pictures' is a fascinating, entertaining short which is extremely easy to love. Ironically, having achieved his aim of replacing Porky as a comedy star, Daffy would be complaining of being typecast as a comedy player just ten years later in Chuck Jones's 'The Scarlet Pumpernickel'. There's just no pleasing some ducks!

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.

Wow, this is different, and way ahead of its time, that's for sure. You have a 1940 cartoon that mixes live characters with cartoon ones, such as Porky Pig. This is almost a half-century before "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" came out!

We are at the artist's studio where Porky Pig and Daffy Duck are drawn and when everyone goes to lunch, Daffy comes alive and asks Porky, "Say, you want a good job?"

"I know where you can get a good job in features as Bette Davis' leading man," says the duckster. Porky is reluctant, saying he already as a good job and a contract but Daffy, sounding the Devil pouring bad advice into Porky's ear, advises him to go up and tell the boss that "I quit." Unfortunately for Porky, Daffy's advice wasn't very good.

I loved Porky's line to the boss: "What's Errol Flynn got that I haven't?"

Notes: It was interesting to see Looney Tunes producer Leon Schlesinger, although he wasn't much of an actor, and the voice behind all these famous characters, Mel Blanc, who plays both a security guard and a stagehand......This cartoon runs almost 10 minutes, which is several minutes longer than normal.

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