Pigs Is Pigs

This cartoon features a very greedy pig who looks and acts nothing like Porky. He steals his mother's pies, steals from his siblings and is an all-around jerk. As a result of his greediness, he's punished by a mad scientist who offers him more...though the pig is no longer interested in eating!

This cartoon annoyed me because it was so moralistic...sort of like indoctrinating the audience with a less than subtle message.

This was an early animated prototype of Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" (which, btw, was released not in the late '60s, but in the early70s, and coincidentally it was the first of his pernament Warner Bros.Studio association!)

Other toons used this gimmick too. MGM's "Pipe Dreams" Warner's own "Wholly Smoke" Art Clokey's "Grub Grabber Gumby!"

Billy Bletcher was the villain, the very obscure Bernice Hansen, the little pig. The title was the only thing from that 1905 E.P.Butlerbook,"Pigs is Pigs", with a very different storyline than the WB cartoon, but Disney made a film twenty years later of the Butler book. WB was indeed the most cynical of the studios till Jay Ward,Hanna Barbera, then Spumco in the 90s.

Soundtrack includes "Fella with a Fiddle" and "When My Dreaboat Comes Home", also much used in WB shorts of the time-"Fella" in "The Cat Came Back", "The Blow-Out",the title short "Fella", and "Little Beau Porky",and "Dreamboat" in "Porky's Badtime Story", and its remake "Tick Tock Tuckered",and "The Birth of a Notion".

When the mother pig (talking in a Jewish accent--VERY sneaky WB type joke even for that un-PC period!) (as we see the outside shot of the piggie house!) warns her sonny-boy of indigestion, WE know he might have some nightmare, especially when he finds himself in a different place all of a sudden, especially when a Billy Bletcher-voiced mad doctor appears! But is it a dream, reality, or is it Memorex?

(Compare this with PORKY's shorts, or more recent live action comedies about fatness--"Big Momma's House 1 and 2", and this year's smashes "Norbit" and "Hairspray"! (and that last was set back in the sixties..)

The ending, like the "A Clockwork Orange" gimmick,is like "Wholly Smoke" (same director,Frank Tash), which DID have Porky.

Despite what the title may imply, "Pigs Is Pigs" does not star Porky Pig. Rather, it features a young swine with an appetite more insatiable than John Belushi's character in "Animal House". His mother repeatedly scolds him, but it does no good. So much so that he goes to another house where a deranged scientist force-feeds him more than any mere mortal can handle (but there's a surprise at the end).

I would mostly say that this cartoon seemed like a place holder in between the really great cartoons (Daffy Duck debuted three months after this came out). But make no mistake about it, they do some neat things here. The whole force-feeding sequence looks more relevant today, given the obesity epidemic overtaking our country.

Anyway, not the greatest cartoon, but worth seeing.

This is Freleng's worst cartoon ever. Even worse than Jungle Jitters and Sunday Go To Meetin' Time. Which are also Abysmal

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.

'Pigs is Pigs' is not one of Friz Freleng's best cartoons by any stretch, in an uneven "still evolving" period of his long career, and he was yet to be in his full prime and not yet found his style properly. For a relatively early effort, 'Pigs is Pigs' has some interest but it's a bit bland too. It is never what one would call hilarious, Freleng's later efforts show more evenness and confidence in directing and the story is flimsy and occasionally loses momentum, taking too long to get going.

It is also rather disjointed. Things become significantly more interesting in the truly nightmarish and sometimes second second half than the overly-cutesy and sugary sweet first act. Sadly, the two halves do feel like two different cartoons that don't gel properly with each other.

However, the characters are fun, especially the antagonist the scientist while the pig is a decent protagonist. The conflict between them carries 'Pigs is Pigs' and does so very well.

The cartoon is amusing at times when it becomes more interesting and entertaining in the nightmarish second half.

Animation is excellent, it's fluid in movement, crisp in shading, vibrant in colour 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.

Voice acting from particularly Billy Bletcher is terrific.

All in all, interesting but not great. Freleng did much better since. 6/10 Bethany Cox