Dough for the Do-Do

Years before Gus Van Sant's scene-by-scene remake of "Psycho", Friz Freleng made a color remake of Bob Clampett's b/w classic "Porky in Wackyland". For the most part, Freleng took the original soundtrack and animation and added color, thus retaining the looney charm of the original. He did make several changes, cutting some scenes and adding a couple of new ones, including an alternate ending. The best addition is the background styling, a clever pastiche of Salvador Dali paintings. (The original backgrounds were inspired by 1930s comics, particularly Smokey Stover.)As remakes go, it's better than most. Best to see the original, but if you can't, "Dough" will do-do just fine.

Porky goes in search of the elusive dodo bird in Friz Freleng's excellent remake of "Porky in Wackyland." Much of this is a scene-for-scene remake of the earlier cartoon, which was directed by Bob Clampett. This one's in color, though, which will make a world of difference for many viewers. Remakes are always controversial, even among classic animation fans, but I think there are merits to both versions. Liking the remake doesn't mean you disrespect the original. In this case, I prefer watching the remake because of the rich colors and the fluid animation. The Salvador Dali-inspired visuals are terrific and they really pop more in color than black & white. It's a very fun extension of Bob Clampett's wildly creative and unique classic.

The headline reads, "Porky Hunts Rare Do-Do Bird Worth $4,000,000,000,000. The subhead reads: p.s.-000,000,000.

He flies his plane into "darkest Africa" and lands in "Wackyland." Wacky is right: wild characters that look like something out of Star Wars movies and a background that is strictly Salvador Dali-esquire. One of the "monsters" is a three-headed guy with Curly, Larry and Moe's head and they take turns slapping each other. That's just one of hundreds of bizarre sights in this strange cartoon.

The quick-as-lightning and magical green do-do bird is no exception....but is he really the last do-do?

This is one of those cartoons you'd have to watch many times to catch all the crazy and clever visuals.

In his search for the priceless Do-Do bird, Porky Pig flies over Africa, into deepest Africa and further into Even Darker Africa. There he finds some strange and crazy things - but nothing prepares him for his meeting with the insane Do-Do bird itself.

The set up for this film is very basic and it doesn't really do anything other than the basic plot summary says; however - it is very, very funny. Set in a world that is half Warner Brothers and half Salvador Dali, the action basically revolves around the fact that everything in this world is totally, totally insane! All sorts of mad characters exist in this world - I really wondered how on earth they managed to think them all up!

Porky is really good here and has more meat (in terms of character) on him than he has had in other films, however, despite his top billing, he is not the star of this film. No - that honour belongs to the wonderfully insane Do-Do bird himself. He is manic and crazy to the point that he out-Daffy's Daffy himself! The film builds to him and I was amazed just how funny and imaginative the character was - especially coming after such a host of crazy characters.

Overall, if you are a fan of Daffy Duck when he was in his crazy period then you will simply love this cartoon. Visually it is impressive and imaginative but it is the Do-Do bird that makes it all work. Join me! Do-do-do-do-do-do-do!

I want to see the original. Are the two versions different? The dodo looks a little chunky in this one. A general comment now has become the awareness that all the voices are from one man. Yes, I'm actually suggesting that other people could have participated in the dubbing. How did he get such a monopoly on the job? Was he always there or were there times when other people's voices were used? This is a Mel Blanc comment. MR. Barney Flintstone!