Porky's Pooch

This was a great short from Warner Bros. The dog Rover was very funny trying to get Porky Pig to be his master. Very original and fresh. There would be other shorts similar to this one, but this would be the best of any of those shorts.

Bob Clampett's cartoons often were high in energy and fun and displayed a uniquely wacky visual style that one can recognise immediately. At his best, he was responsible for some of the best and most unique cartoons around.

Porky Pig is always watchable and is a very likable character, even though there are funnier and more interesting Looney Tunes characters around and he can get outshone when partnered with a stronger personality (Daffy Duck being a primary example).

'Porky's Pooch' doesn't see either at their best, due to them having cartoons with more laughs and ones where the laughs are funnier and sharper, but even lesser efforts or cartoons that are around the middle of their output (the latter applies here) by both are still worth the look. 'Porky's Pooch' is one of those cartoons.

It is more amusing than it is hilarious, and the laughs could have been more frequent. Rover is an acquired taste, and admittedly there are times where he is a little annoying and even obnoxious though also a couple of the cartoon's best moments are with him, and the ending is rather abrupt and paced a bit too hastily.

However, the animation is deliciously wacky, eye-popping, rich in detail and high in imagination, with the black and white colours being beautifully shaded and crisp. Porky's reaction shots are very imaginative here and provide some of the cartoon's best moments. Carl Stalling still proves himself to be a compositional genius with his energetically high-voltage, luscious, rousing, dynamic and action-enhancing music score.

Witty and sometimes suitably wild scripting helps too, while there are some highly amusing moments, especially the reaction shots, Rover's mumbled praying and Rover's Carmen Miranda impression. There's nothing bland about Porky here, Rover does have his fun moments though he is a marmite character and for me he didn't always work and Sandy is a memorable if underused character. Mel Blanc's vocals once again shows an unparalleled ingenious talent, the Scottish accent for example is exaggerated but for comic effect and actually enhances the humour, though he shines in all his roles in what is essentially a one-man show.

All in all, good fun if not the best of Clampett or Porky. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Basically, this is a tale in flashback of one dog, who now is well-fed and happy, telling a hungry, lonesome dog how he got a master to take care of him.

I wish we had more of him (the hungry dog) in this cartoon. Mel Blanc is just awesome with his different voices in this one: First, he's that lonesome mutt: a Scottish dog "Rover," who Mel exaggerates the way Scot's roll their "r's." Then he's another dog: "Sandy," the now-fed dog who tells the story. He has a strong NYC accent which is right up Mel's alley. And, of course, he's Porky Pig. I laughed at the Scot more than anything and wish his role had been bigger.

The artwork with the New York city buildings, inside and out, the sidewalks and streets is fantastic. Note: Porky's residence is "Termite Terrace," the place the Looney Tunes creators called their place of work.

One of the better Porky cartoons, this one centres on Rover, a smart dog from the street who decides to find himself a master and fixes on our favourite pig, disturbing his bathtime and making himself a general nuisance.

Porky of course is eventually taken in after some riotous behaviour and manipulation by Rover, as the dog explains to down on his luck Scots dog Andy - Andy has just been hypnotised by the sight of fresh meat being cooked before his eyes but not offered as food.

Like Mickey Mouse with Pluto, it seems preposterous that a pig would own a dog, but that's animation for you! This Looney Tune is fun, snappy, and clever.

If the average person thinks of a pesky dog trying to get Porky Pig to adopt him, s/he will probably think of Charlie, who invaded Porky's life in "Little Orphan Airedale" (which I interpreted as having the same gist as the Alan Bates movie "King of Hearts"*), "Often an Orphan" and "Awful Orphan". Well, a few years before all those, there was "Porky's Pooch", featuring Rover. As always, the wise guy mutt stops at nothing to try and become Porky's pet.

I noticed an in-joke: Porky's building is called Termite Terrace. Hard-core Looney Tunes fans probably know that Termite Terrace is the building where the Chuck Jones/Friz Freleng/Bob Clampett crowd created the cartoons.

Overall, I preferred the Charlie cartoons better, as this one had sort of an abrupt ending. But it still worked as brief entertainment. Worth seeing.

*"King of Hearts" shows that the people in the insane asylum weren't as crazy as the people behind WWI; "Little Orphan Airedale" portrays Charlie's friend deciding...well, I won't spoil it. As it is, I may have been the only person who interpreted a link between the two.