By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Just watched this Looney Tune Porky Pig cartoon on YouTube as linked from the Saturday Morning Blog. It has the child-pig going to church but on the way he encounters a bully his size who challenges him on his toughness by smoking on his cigar. Needless to say, some nightmares result..."Supervised" by Frank Tashlin, Wholly Smoke is quite entertaining when it goes on a delirium as Porky dreams of various smoking products singing and dancing about the dangers of smoke. Quite a bit of caricatures of famous celebrities like The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly), Bing Crosby, Rudy Vallee, and Cab Calloway abound and while some might be offended by the blackface matches, you might not notice right away since no stereotypical dialect comes out of them. Almost like a Max Fleischer cartoon yet with the Warner Bros. attitude that was just emerging from these Termite Terrace products. So on that note, Wholly Smoke is well worth seeing.

Directed by Frank Tashlin, "Wholly Smoke" is a very good black-and-white Porky Pig cartoon dealing with the avoidance of smoking. On his way to Sunday school, Porky is diverted by a cigar-chomping gangster. This leads him directly into a smoke shop, where many horrors await Porky.My favorite moments from "Wholly Smoke": The gangster does various flashy tricks with his cigar, but when Porky tries the same tricks, he fails. (Helping this scene along is, of course, Carl Stalling's music score.) At the smoke shop, I recognize caricatures of the Three Stooges (Larry, Curly, and Moe), Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby, and Rudy Vallee."Wholly Smoke" features a very early version of Porky Pig that I especially admire - an adorable little child, determined to do what is right. Indeed, by the end of this cartoon, Porky learns his lesson - NO SMOKING.

just a reminder that this was made back when smoking was still a common thing for the public. And didn't know that smoking was not healthy to do.Porky was given 5 cents to give at church and was told not to spend it.On his way to the chapel, he find a kid smoking a cigar. He tells him little kids shouldn't smoke. The kid doesn't think Porky is man enough to smoke. So Porky bet on his nickel that he can smoke.After getting dizzy and coughing a lot he winds up at a smoke shop. And is greeted by Nick O'Teen the smoke cloud dude. He was pleased to see that Porky is interested in smoking so Nick tests if Porky really does like to smoke. But getting his pipe, cigar, cigarette and tobacco friends to sing and remind that little kids shouldn't smoke.For a cartoon this old it does have a good message in letting kids know that you shouldn't smoke at a young age.But if this was made decades later it be "Smoking is bad for you". But can't blame the way people thought of smoking back in the olden days.Sad thing is this is one of the many Looney Tunes that's been censored a few times. I never seen an uncut version or uncensored version of this fine cartoon.I hope one day it'll be part of a collection of uncut Looney Tunes DVD.

'Wholly Smoke' is a first-rate Looney Toon from the Warner studio's peak period. 'Wholly Smoke' has a good story, is cleverly animated, delivers a socially constructive message without lecturing, and (oh, yeah) it's extremely funny. This cartoon stands as a tribute to the sadly underrated Frank Tashlin ... and should be required viewing for all those misguided people who think that Chuck Jones was the be-all and end-all of Warners animation.In this cartoon, Porky is cast as a boy-pig rather than an adult. His mother sends him off to Sunday school with a nickel for the collection plate. On the way, Porky encounters a standard Warner Bros bully: a bowler-hatted Dead End Kid pig-boy. This kid is smoking a cigar, and there's some funny animation (with good music cues) as the cigar smoke takes various shapes. When the punk learns that Porky has a nickel, he bullies Porky into giving it up. Porky feels some peer pressure: to prove he can be tough too, Porky takes a drag on the cigar ... and collapses into a sickening jag in which he is confronted by a smoke-man named Nick O'Teen.Now comes the brilliant setpiece of this cartoon. To the tune of 'Old Man Mose' (a standby of the Warners music department), Nick O'Teen drags Porky into a nightmare reverie of anti-smoking images. Cigars resembling the Three Stooges poke Porky in the eyes. A squadron of cigarettes start marching in Busby Berkeley manoeuvres, spelling out the words 'NO SMOKING'. There's an extremely well-animated montage sequence, as the nightmare picks up speed. Eventually Porky reclaims his nickel, besting the bully and getting to Sunday school, vowing never again to smoke.'Wholly Smoke' (made during the Schlesinger unit's black-and-white period) is a visual delight, as well as funny. Even the opening credits are better-looking than usual. There is only one unpleasant (vaguely racist) gag, when Nick O'Teen's face becomes temporarily covered with soot, making him look like a blackface minstrel and prompting him to do an imitation of Cab Calloway. I heartily recommend 'Wholly Smoke' for kids and adults, and I rate it 10 out of 10. All fans of Warners animation should pay more attention to Frank Tashlin and Robert McKimson, and MUCH less attention to the monstrously overrated Schmuck Jones.