Wonderful Movie

I wanted to but couldn't!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Bob Clampett's 'Porky's Party' is a classic piece of inspired lunacy which was one of the director's earliest cartoons. Based on the innocent premise of Porky Pig having a party for his birthday, 'Porky's Party' goes off the rails the moment the guests arrive. As was often the case in these early cartoons, Porky is given star billing but does very little compared to the bonkers antics of a drunken dog, a goofy goose and a gluttonous penguin. Essentially plot less, 'Porky's Party' relies on great set pieces and the wild energy that is so unmistakably Clampett. There's a really strange and inspired bit in which the penguin tries to rid himself of a top hat that keeps popping up inside his body! The whole thing culminates in a wild chase and a hilarious climax in which Clampett stuffs tons of gags into literally a couple of seconds. An unforgettable cartoon that helped push forward the increasingly loony agenda of the Warner studio, 'Porky's Party' is one of the greatest of the early Porky Pig shorts and a personal favourite of my own which deserves a wider audience.

If you've seen Porky Pig's cartoons during the first few years after he debuted, you may have noticed that they mostly cast him in various roles and situations: bullfighter, pilgrim, blacksmith. As far as I can tell, his only three cartoons during this era that had truly lasting significance were 1935's "I Haven't Got a Hat" (his debut), 1937's "Porky's Duck Hunt" (Daffy Duck's debut) and 1938's "Porky in Wackyland" (the ultimate exercise in zany surrealism). "Porky's Party" was one of the shorts where the Termite Terrace crowd came up with a routine situation and milked it, with rather childish results.There certainly are some funny scenes. I couldn't have predicted the stuff with the hat in the guy's body. But seriously, the whole thing looks better on the storyboard (the DVD includes the original designs as an special feature). If they'd continued casting Porky in these kinds of roles, that would have quickly been all for him, folks. Fortunately, when we entered WWII, his really clever roles took off. During and immediately after the war, there were "My Favorite Duck", "Porky Pig's Feat", "Brother Brat", "Baby Bottleneck", "Kitty Kornered" and "Little Orphan Airedale". In the post-war years, he often was the foil to Daffy Duck's craziness.

Wow, what an unusual birthday present. While Porky is set to blow out the candles on his birthday cake, singing "Happy Birthday to me," he hears a knock on the door. It's a delivery man with a package, and a note which reads, "I'm sending you a genuine Oriental Silk Worm as a present. Lovingly yours, Uncle Pinkus Pig. P.S. When you want him to do his stuff, just say 'sew.'"Porky tries saying that to the devilish-looking worm and the little thing instants sews a sock. The scene changes though Porky has to get ready for his supper guests. For some reason, he splashes hair tonic on himself. The dog tries it, slurps up the excess and then finds he loves the 99-percent alcohol liquid. In seconds, the dog is hammered. There are no segways in this cartoon, just one totally different scene after another, apparently. Porky mentions the word "so" a few times and the silkworm goes crazy knitting things everywhere. He gets in the birthday cake and a guest is suddenly finding clothing in the cake.That premise sounded like this might be a fun cartoon, but it turned out to be very silly and geared more for little kids in the audience. The humor wasn't much more than third-grade mentality. Most of it involves the dog, "Black Fury," who re-enters the picture.Recommended for little kids, but not adults.

There's not much logic or plot in this gem of a cartoon, but it is side-splittingly funny from start to finish. Bob Clampett was on top form here, squeezing the most absurd slapstick comedy out of every tiny detail. Porky Pig has a birthday party with his dog, a penguin and a goose (reminding me of the Dodo from "Porky in Wackyland") as the guests. He gets a silkworm as a gift from his uncle in Hong Kong. The greedy penguin accidentally swallows the silkworm, so top hats keep popping up inside the penguin, which the goose then tries to flatten with a mallet. Meanwhile the dog gets drunk on hair tonic. My favorite moment comes near the end where the penguin, running away from the dog, disguises himself as a hat-stand. It cracks me up every time I see it! Despite all the cartoon violence, all the guests keep smiling and have a great time -- with the exception of poor old Porky, of course.This cartoon is included in The Looney Tunes Golden Collection volume 3.