145. Milk and Money (1936)

Warner cartoon no. 144.
Release date: October 3, 1936.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Supervision: Tex Avery.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Joe Dougherty (Porky Pig, Porky's Father) and Billy Bletcher (Mr. Vipor).
Musical Score: Carl W. Stalling.
Animation: Charles "Chuck" Jones and Virgil Ross.
Sound: Treg Brown.
Synopsis: Porky and his son have until 3 o'clock to pay the rent; as Porky and his horse try to earn money by becoming a milkman and later a horse jockey. Only a horsefly can give them hope.

The first cartoon to use the new title card of only Porky Pig featured since it definitely tells us that Porky Pig is the new star to the Looney Tunes; while in the previous title cards with Porky remaining in the last cartoons were likely to be from the 1935/1936 season. So; it's safe to say that this is the beginning of the 1936/1937 season.

Our cartoon begins with a beautiful background view of a house with a beautiful front yawn that shows flowers which also has a farm. We pan to Porky's father who is busy digging the ground for Harvest as he is going to build crops. Porky's father then points on the right after hearing  Porky's whistling; "That's my son, Porky!".

We PAN to the right as we see Porky Pig who is using a plough horse but is far too useless and lazy do be ploughing the fields. Porky is taking his time which I imagine is meant to be a funny gag since it shows that Porky Pig is not hard at work at all.

We start to PAN forward to the barn where it is very dark inside. I like how the camera shot would zoom in carefully into the dark barn and then quickly inside as we see some horseshoes lying around. We then move to a desk with a home made out of a small box that has a saddle on top disguised as a roof.

Yes; the sign on the door of the resident says it all - it's Hank Horsefly. Let's say "hello" to him. This is a really awesome looking horsefly as he has the small tail and the face of a horse that shows it a great caricature.

Hank Horsefly notices a plough horse's behind (a good point of view shot of the horse plough's behind). Hank Horsefly grabs out a bib as he ties it around his neck. As Hank the horsefly flies out of his house we zoom in to the horse's plough (good speedup) and then Hank bites in the horse plough's behind.

The horse starts to whinny as he reacts to the horsefly's biting episode on his behind. There's an awesome reaction of the horse to that which is pretty funny. What we get is a neat aerial view shot of the crop field that Porky's working on as the horse manages to plow very quickly. The timing is perfect of the horse digging up with the plough. I wonder HOW did Avery do that since it's just a drawing of the plough. I imagine is that very had an overlay (or something) on top of the dug up crops and Avery came up with a technique to remove it with the ploughed crops showing. The plough horse then breaks open a gate as Porky flies out and the horse is sitting on a bucket of water as he managed to get rid of Hank the horsefly.

Porky has his suspenders hanging on top of the plough and Porky's father walks into the scene to place him on the ground safely. Porky's father makes a worried take as he shouts "Uh-oh".

The man who is approaching his farm in a carriage is Mr. Viper - the snake (also the taxman) who is wearing a suit and is just one of those typical caricatured villains that have curly moustaches; black suits and hats (often top hats). Mr. Viper approaches to the farm as he steadies the horse with a "Whoa!" sound. We dissolve into later as there had been probably a lengthy talk about how Porky's father and Porky are way behind the rent.

Mr. Viper: ...and if you don't have the money tomorrow by 3 o'clock. I'll take the farm (breaks the forth wall) He'll never make it".

Mr. Viper then lowers his hat as he leaves them "Fare you well", as he walks off with that slithering snake walk. Don't forget - he's also a "snake". He slithers back onto the carriage and it's very good timing and movement of the snake slither. (Devon Baxter in the comments mentioned that the Mr. Vipor scenes were animation by Chuck Jones; this is pretty damn good animation of Mr. Viper).

Porky's father then starts to speak rather grimly to Porky about the truth "Things look pretty dark, son" as they have no hope in having enough money to pay the rent. There is a great use of mood and atmosphere since the backgrounds and screen starts to fade darker to demonstrate Porky's father's mood. Porky then replies with his hand gestures rising upwards "Brighten up, Pa. Brighten up". That is a very good pun in terms of it's visual look to it (like the color volume of the background) and it's so true as Porky said so. It's very typical of what Avery would do.

Porky continues to talk as he has proposed on what he will do "Me and the horse will go to the city and get some money". In the next scene Porky is seen sitting down in the park trying to find a job for him and the horse to work on order to save Pa and the farm.Porky has finally found the perfect job for him to save money which is to be a milkman and the horse can be the one that drives the milk cart.

The advertisement on the paper reads; "WANTED - MILKMAN WITH HORSE. APPLY - FULLER - WATER MILK CO." 

The next scene Porky marches right into the company's headquarters and speaks to the manager for the job.

Manager: Okay son, you get the job. But if you break one bottle, you're fired.

Porky is rather afraid of his actions and warnings about breaking a bottle. In the next scene; Porky is now seen as a milkman with his horse driving the milk wagon with it's cycle animation (including Porky turning to his head to the audience). Hank Horsefly is outside ready for his napkin but reads a notice on the horse's plough as it reads; "Gone to the city - Dobbin". Hank the horsefly starts to buzz angrily as he starts to make his journey travelling all the way to the city. He grabs out his suitcase and then flies out of the scene.

Porky is outside his van as he places a bottle of milk by the front doorsteps of the houses. There are random black cats around the pavement that go around drinking the milk which is rather amusing as it shows that the people will think Porky did a bad job and no-one will even think it was a black cat.

Porky approaches at the footsteps of a couple named "Mr. and Mrs. D. Onne and Family". The pun is meant to be from the famous quintuplets raised by Mr. and Mrs. Dionne. Porky grabs out the bottles and places them on the doorstep as he drops the bottles of milk for each family as he stutters; "Mister, missus, and, uh, family" as he drops out a bottle that has five teats in one bid so the five kids can drink from it; heh heh - looks like they don't need breastfeeding anymore. Porky continues to do his job as the milkman while the other black cats drink the milk without his acknowledgement of that.

Meanwhile up in the sky Hank the horsefly is on an expedition trip to the city as he needs a map to follow it; ha ha - he REALLY wants to chew that horse's ass desperately.

While Porky Pig is still delivering milk bottles on people's doorsteps. In his milk basket all of the bottles are gone. Porky then grabs out a basket of empty bottles as he places them all inside the milk canteen. Porky places his tray in position as he turns on the spigot where the milk bottles are filled and plop out of the spigot and into the tray. That has very good timing and I love the "plop" sounds that go with it. Mike Barrier mentioned those type of gags Avery was using in 'Hollywood Cartoons' and it's certainly a typical Avery gag but I just love the timing of that. It was done so well; it's a shame that I can't get around identifying the animators of this period since their styles are not easy to identify.

Meanwhile Porky hears the sound of a woman at the very top of an apartment as she shouts "Yoo-hoo. Yoo-hoo. I want one bottle of milk please". Porky delivers his milk through a downspout as he places it inside and blows so the milk bottle can travel all the way up the top for the woman who has a house on top of the roof - oddly enough. Wait - Porky hasn't received payment.

Meanwhile Hank the horsefly has finally arrived at the city as he drops his luggage and map as he finds Dobbie the horse ploughing the milk wagon. Look at that beautiful horse walk in that point of view shot. Hank the horsefly then starts to speed up to grab Dobbie in the butt but stops because of traffic lights. Hank Horsefly buzzes angrily. That is pretty funny since he had to stop of traffic lights but he could've just went through since it's not as though there are lots of flies about. I guess maybe he just felt the need.

Porky and his horse Dobbie are still riding around the streets but very slowly. Hank then starts to speed up as he seems to have a nibble on him coming any time soon and SHAZAAM! The horse neighs and spins around reacting in a 360 degree angle and starts to run very fast much because of the reaction to the bite. The speed becomes very fast that it starts to form into speedlines and then into a shooting arrow - the wagon does. Now that is probably Avery's best time speed in terms of action so far; which is better than what he did at 'Gold Diggers' which is great speed effects but in this one it forms into an arrow which makes it even more impressive and sharper.

The "arrow" continues to shoot very fast until it crashes into a lamp post as Dobbie the horse is very weary but that's not the worst part. THE MILK BOTTLES HAVE CRASHED. Porky wakes up and finds the bottles smashed much to his horror.

A blurry cloud with an image of his boss recites Porky's memory as he recalls his warning; "But if you break one bottle, you're fired". This becomes a horror look on Porky's face. As we move on; Porky is seen on his horse Dobbie looking rather glum as he's been given the sack. Porky then starts to walk past a race track which would be good news for Porky and his horse since they could win some cold hard cash and enough for Porky's father to pay the rent on time. Dobbie then spots a bucket of oats in one of the stables as he runs off to eat it which confuses Porky.

As the racecourses start to open; Porky's horse is dragged open by a black person who could be in what John Steinbeck has described it as "stable buck". Porky is rather confused on how he got into the race. You can hear 'Sabre and Spurs' in the background - which Carl Stalling seemed to use whenever races are about to begin.

All of the other horse racers are very competitive and jumpy to race but not Porky's dog since it's too sleepy and lazy. Porky will never win and earn none at this rate. The announcer on the tower then pulls the trigger and shouts "They're off". There is another aerial shot that Avery loved to use to show action - and of course other cartoon directors. I just love how it's showing that the number of horse in a long shot are already completing their laps but Porky's horse hasn't even begun or even Porky isn't ready. Porky reads the notice; "Fourth Place - $10'000 Handicap". Porky starts to try and get his horse running shouting "Get up. Let's go. This is a race. Get up, log" but the horse won't even start moving as Porky is bound to lose and walk away with nothing - not a bean.

Meanwhile Hank the horsefly is flying around looking for Dobbie the horse. Boy; it must be his companion. A ray of hope suddenly turns up as Hank horsefly is about to bite him which becomes an advantage of Dobbie since he starts to neigh and spin like crazy. Dobbie is on the run with those thick use of speedlines.

The aerial shot shows us that Dobbie the horse is overtaking many of the players who haven't even completed one lap while Dobbie is managing to run many laps in like a second. Now THAT'S definitely a world record - ;-). A typical Avery gag then pops up that shows Porky and his overtaking the jockeys on the horse as one jockey is found on the other horse with two jockeys racing on one horse and the other horse is empty.

More overtaking continues as Porky and Dobbie run very fast past a jockey and horse in which tornado speedlines cover up the racers and it turns out that the horse is the jockey; and the jockey being the horse. An audience then woo on the leading horse that even Dobbie's speed causes the audience to move sideways by force.

They continue to run to such speed as they are reaching the finishing line. The horse's brakes then start to squeal as Porky and his horse win the race by luck. The announcer shouts "The winner!". Porky is rather confused but once the prizes are being awarded he's very satisfied with the results.

 Meanwhile back at home Porky's father is walking up and down worrying if Porky will return home on time with the money. Hmm; his father isn't saying "Worry, worry, worry" like he did on 'Porky the Rainmaker''. Mr. Viper the taxman a.k.a. the snake has his watch out as he announces; "Hmm. It is now one minute to three. (Breaks the forth wall) I got him going".

The sounds of a car horn arrives at the house as Porky's father stutters with joy "Well, I'll be jiggered" since Porky has arrived in a very fancy roofless limo; suit and the money. We're in the Money is heard in the background of the limo. This is another popular song that Stalling often used like whenever the characters have stroked rich and especially when it evolves around money. So there are early Stalling music traits in this cartoon that's featured here. At the very back of the limo shows Hank the horsefly who's returned sitting down on a sun lounge.

Mr. Viper is thunderstruck and completely surprised as it's bad luck for him at the very last minute. "Curses. I'm sunk!" Porky Pig then jumps up to his father's arms embracing each other with the bag of money as Porky hands Mr. Viper some of the cash.

Porky Pig: Here's your money, Mr. Viper.
Mr. Viper: Thaaank youuu.

As Mr. Viper positions himself where he lowers his hat for his thanks; Hank then buzzes in the air and bites Mr. Viper in the anus as he starts to fly with his holler. He hits the ground as Porky lowers the black screen where Mr. Viper is the only character on the screen as the "That's all, Folks" titles appear with him sitting down rather weary. Now that is very clever of Avery to use since it's he's making him sit down during the That's all, Folks credits; and Avery seemed to like using iris in jokes of the characters only left on the screen - a trait of his - as it's another example shown here.

Overall comments: This cartoon certainly was a big improvement of the techniques Avery was using for animation as though some of it was inspired by Frank Tashlin. I liked the use of gags here and Avery's timing was certainly an improvement. It had a good story here even though it starts off with those typical parts of a taxman saying "You've got 'til (... o'clock) to have your money or else" but here Avery and the writers have found a clever situation to make it work. Since being a milkman failed; being a horse jockey helped but only to Hank the horsefly was only a minor character but supported the story and was the key symbol of hope for Porky, his horse and his father. The speed sequence of the milk wagon moving was definitely an improvement of speedlines - which you must admit as it forms into an arrow which shows Avery experimenting with timing in this cartoon. The gags that amazed me in this short were the empty bottles/spigot gag as well as Dobbie the horse ploughing the field after his first bite from Hank. Avery even showed some gags with the colour volume changing that gathered emotions (dark to bright) and even to puns. It feels as though Avery used some experiments with animation and gags that all fit together nicely.

144. Toytown Hall (1936)

Warner cartoon no. 143.
Release date: September 19, 1936.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Supervision: Friz Freleng.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Bernice Hansell (child).
Musical Score: Carl W. Stalling.
Animation: Bob McKimson and Sandy Walker.
Sound: Treg Brown (uncredited).
Synopsis: A baby child wants to listen to radio but during his sleep the toys come to life as they use radio entertainment all through the night to entertain the child.

Carl Stalling's first Merry Melody that he has composed. This is the last cartoon to use the regular theme to the Merrie Melodies I Think You're Ducky which was used since 1933 after Harman-Ising left until the very famous theme Merrily We Roll Along would be the regular theme - sort of the anthem to the 'Looney Tunes' franchise. Merrily We Roll Along is sung in this cartoon, too.

Remember folks, following Yowp's great discovery about voice actress (who we used to call her as Bernice Hansen) was in fact called Bernice Hansell; which I will use for future reviews when her voice is heard. I don't make changes from "Hansen" to "Hansell" in previous reviews as it takes too much of my time and to show that this was written before Yowp's post.

The cartoon begins with what looks like a real-life radio set and on the radio is Ben Bernie speaking. There is a baby child who is lying on the carpet listening to the glorious of radio as Bernie says his "Yowsa" phrases which he often used to say.

The mother then turns off the radio as it's bedtime for her child. "Come on, Sonny - it's way past your bedtime" the mother tells her son. The baby then starts to wail in a Bernice Hansell voice "I wanna hear the radio!" The animation of the baby is very good and solid drawings and I'm quite sure this is Bob McKimson who could draw very realistically; and I can't imagine this scene was done by anyone else apart from McKimson. Meanwhile in the bedroom; the child is still wailing about wanting to listen to radio; but the mother replies "No radio tonight. Now close your eyes and go to sleep. Goodnight." The mother tucks her child to bed as he goes to sleep. Notice how the weather outside the window starts snowing as he sleeps.

As time flies by very fast as it shows on the cuckoo clock. We see a group of toy soldiers that walk into the centre as they blow with their trumpets using up their breath to play it as their pumped up bodies but as they play their bodies get thinner and thinner and they use too much energy. All of the toys then start to clap after the

This animation is exactly the same from the 1934 cartoon Those Beautiful Dames. Yes; I am aware that this is still the Great Depression (or least coming to the end of it when this cartoon was made) but this cartoon had a lot of reuses from earlier Freleng productions that I'll post to show the similarities.

Here is the similarities here. (Those Beautiful Dames frame on the right) and the only difference shown here is the backgrounds, obviously as the backgrounds in 'Toytown Hall' are much more detailed and interesting to look at. The scene in Toytown Hall of the soldier's face turning red was just repainted from the Inking and Painting department. No new animation was submitted for this cartoon whatsoever but you'll see it a lot in this cartoon. I'm not saying it as though I'm against it but it just seems painful to look at reuses that I've reviewed in the past that are clearly visible (only to Warner Bros. fans).

A jack-in-a-box then pops out as it turns out to be a caricature of Fred Allen who was a host of his radio at the time called Toytown Tonight as he is holding onto the ABC station microphone as he is telling us about what is going on at 'Toytown Hall'.

The next sequence then turns up as it is a scene of soldiers marching and dancing. The soldiers are leading a parade of caricatures riding on toy horses with wheels that include Eddie Cantor and Rudy Vallee that are celebrity toys in this short. Now; as for the soldiers marching; have we seen this animation before? Yes we have:

The soldier marching animation was reused from an earlier cartoon Beauty and the Beast. Despite the heavy reuses in the short; at least it shows some advantages. The layouts shown here in the cartoon I'm reviewing has better backgrounds and better colour since
'Beauty and the Beast' was filmed in Cinecolor.
The Fred Allen jack-in-the-box is about to announce the next act to perform but a doll interrupts the Fred Allen jack in the box character when she admires him.

Doll: "Oh, Mr. Allen, Hello".
Mr. Allen: I'll be switched. You here again?
Doll: Tally-ho.

The doll then leaves in which Fred Allen jack-in-the-box then shouts "and now, introducing". There is an elephant toy that jumps on an armchair that turns on the light. This is also reused animation from the same cartoon; Those Beautiful Dames. Which I've pictured down of course. I'm not going to analyse any more of the reuses - I'll only show the pictures to show you to see what I mean.

The next sequence that is being sung is not at all reused animation as it's new animation but it's the same concept and song - there is a Bing Crosby bird (after the curtains open) that sings to Let it Be Me with the microphone. It's the exact same singing from that cartoon released earlier; if you listen to both of them carefully.

It appears to be that Friz Freleng definitely had Bing Crosby in his mind for cartoon ideas when he was directing the 'Merrie Melodies' since now he's used him three times. Nothing against the idea but you can tell that he's been influenced by the crooner and the swoons he's used in that year. The next act to be out of the curtains is a mini version of Eddie Cantor singing 'Merrily We Roll Along' it's the same animation and same singing from 'Billboard Frolics'. Here's the comparisons:

The Fred Allen character then announces the next act; "The Rubinoffs - and their violins", a reference to David Rubinoff the violinist also referenced in 'Billboard Frolics'. It turns out the "Rubinoff" are these three jester people inside a 'Mother Goose Book' and it's the same characters from 'The Merry Old Soul'. I won't make a print-screen they're simiar from that cartoon but I think it's new animation. They're definitely not singing silly songs but playing violin.

There is now a Rudy Vallee toy that walks into the scene who has his speaker out (that Vallee used in performances) as he sings his Ballard. Rudy Vallee was pretty popular when it comes to being caricatured and used a couple of times in Warner Bros. cartoons. After the song has finished; the Fred Allen jack in the box character then responds, "Wait a minute; that's not all. I want you to meet that little Lady in Red".

The next sequence is reuse animation of 'The Lady in Red' as it's also the same songs and the same dance routines with these Mexican cockroaches. It just feels very badly placed in this cartoon since what would cockroaches want to be doing in a little baby's bedroom. Come to think of it; the baby isn't shown much at all in this cartoon.

Once again it does look better in this cartoon  since it's in 3-strip Technicolor compared to in 'The Lady in Red' as it's in 2-strip. The lady girl cockroach dancing her way to the stage is also reused animation. Although the dress that the ladybug is wearing is more of an orange dress than a red dress. Anyway the re-used Lady girl is dancing her way on the spotlight as she delights the toy audience. The baby is joining in the audience shaking the rattles like maracas.

There is a balloon that is a member of the toy audience that puts some helium on a spout on the woodwork part of the floor. As the balloon is full of helium; he is able to play the flute with it on top. Is it me or is the balloon's grin kinda creepy.

It continues to play the flute until the balloon starts to get less helium from playing. The lady bug in an orange dress then walks up to the balloon is flirting with him. The balloon is flattered by her looks, beauty and flirtation that he lets all of the helium go out which is some pretty good timing there.

The toy characters then start to clap as they enjoyed the show (not me; as I've seen them - not once but twice). There is a present in the middle of the child's bed as it crashes around. It opens as it reveals to be a stuffed rabbit doing a Joe Penner impression, sung by Tommy Bond and singing 'My Green Fedora'. Oh yeah; I've seen that before.

Since it's the same audio; I think the animation is different. The definite difference here is the colours of the stuffed rabbit is different. The skin of the rabbit is polka-dot blue with a different coloured derby fedora and jacket from the other cartoon 'My Green Fedora'. The baby child even does the Joe Penner chuckle which was what the baby brother Elmer did the 'Fedora' cartoon. The rabbit then finishes off singing the rest of the cartoon. I have to say but this is very hard for me to review this damn cartoon because of the re-uses and I really don't know what to say about them since I'm afraid that I'm disrespecting the crew on this short and probably the reasons why it was reused. This is just my opinion at the end of the day.

There is a group of toy band bugs that are also playing music to some clink music. At least the animation is pretty good of those music boxes that it makes me feel slightly better.

All of the toys are dancing to the music box playing band music here. I notice a little bit of perspective animation of the toy ducks dancing with good motion. The clock then starts to move forward very quickly as the night goes past since all of the toys and even the baby child have had a blast. The clock starts to fast-forward to 8 in the morning where the child would have to be woken up by that point.


All of the toys have then gone back to their stuffed positions as stuffed toys. The boy is still snoozing as he would've hardly gotten much sleep. The sun rises after a dark and snowy night there was. The child is interrupted as he hears the sounds of his mother shout "Wake up, Sonny, wake up Sonny. It's time for breakfast".


 The baby was probably influenced by radio talk or entertainment as he talks rather rudely to mother as he impatiently shouts "Al right, all right" as he whacks the hammer. If I wouldn't be mistaken; did Bob McKimson animate all of the scenes with the baby child? I wouldn't be surprised if he did.

Overall comments: This cartoon runs at roughly 6 minutes and 30 seconds; and I have to say that I didn't enjoy reviewing it at all. Of course; a member of the audience isn't going to notice any reuses from old productions since hardly anyone ever saw them or cared to notice. Also the fact that this is still the great Depression - I'm aware of THAT. But I just don't find it rather healthy that it's just reuses all over this entire cartoon throughout the entire toy party sequence. I would only notice them since I've seen a number of the early WB cartoons and it's painful to look at if you're a fan wathcing them and analyzing them. What I find rather strange is that in 1936 was the improvement era; Friz Freleng, Tex Avery and Jack King were making better shorts and Freleng wasn't reusing much at all but it makes he think - why is he doing it again in this short? Did his last shorts lose money or something and had to cut a lot of budget? The story to me was rather pointless as it was just a bunch of toys doing entertainment stuff adding celebrities with recycled animation to make the short add to 6 and a half minutes. I imagine the backgrounds were done from photography traced to drawings. Overall; I have to say that I didn't find this short enjoyable and it's tedious to look at; although I liked the baby animation but that's about it. I'm just entitled to my opinion; and I admit I found it hard to review since I didn't want to say reusing is all a bad thing (even though it's not always that bad).

1960s Kool Aid Commercials

I've been feeling a little uninspired with what to write as an extra post so I decided to find through my Facebook chat archives on what Greg Duffell has sent me previously and personally I find them interesting and even giving me animator identifications on some of them.

In the early 1960s' Warner Bros. cartoons began to create commercials featuring Looney Tunes characters as well as the addition to their television projects (like the Bugs Bunny Show). It was also the first time (at least according to Toonheads) to feature classic cartoon characters in commercials. A lot of the veterans worked on these commercials including veterans such as Tex Avery, Rod Scribner, etc. They created many brands for commercials but most notably Kool-Aid or Tang.

In case you don't know; Kool-Aid was a pretty popular drink back then where they had their own Kool-Aid mascot.Who was known as the Kool-Aid Man.

The Kool-Aid mascot had the catchphrase for shouting "Oh yeah" that was featured a lot in later commercials after the 1960s (I think it started in the 1980s the catchphrase although I don't know the origin of the Kool-Aid mascot) - which has been spoofed in 'Family Guy' quite a number of times. So it is pretty well-known over at the U.S. while in the UK it's very unfamilar since it's not sold over here.

Anyway; enough of the Kool-Aid talk; here is some of the commercials that I'll show here and will make some comments on:

The first one I'm going to show is a 1960's commercial with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd directed by Tex Avery with Ben Washam animation. Tex Avery went downhill in his career in the 1950s' as he was laid-off from MGM in 1953 and briefly went to work for Walter Lantz. He spent most of his career in the 1960s as he directed most of the Kool-Aid "Looney Tunes" commercials. His comic timing which we all know is very sharp and exaggerated is much more toned down when working here. The timing of Elmer rolling around the floor with the Kool-Aid still on the table is rather sloppy since it doesn't fall off but this was animation television quality back then. The Ben Washam animation is not bad at all and the shot of Bugs slurping the drink at the 0:39 mark is pretty neat timing. It's pretty easy to tell this is Ben Washam as it has his fancy ears and the pointy front teeth - a definite trait of Washam when drawing Bugs.

 Elmer's voice here is rather grating and the voice actor is actually Hal Smith - who was well known for the voice of Owl in the 'Winnie the Pooh' animated films made int he 1960s and 1970s - and also was in The Andy Griffith Show. Of course; Arthur Q. Bryan died in 1959; and Smith was his replacement - but his voice is just wrong for Elmer. I mean Elmer's voice isn't gruff at all. All of these commercials of course would've been very low-budget. Of course; animation in the 1960s was dark times in Hollywood but the animators were kept very busy.

This commercial was made in 1966 and this one has animation by Manuel Perez - who was a longtime animator at Warner Bros. from the 1940's to the mid-1950s. He is probably best known by historians and animation buffs as "Friz's whipping boy" since Friz apparently used to rant at him - at least according to Greg Dufell, too since he went on to hate Friz. Bugs here shows bugs round eyes that are drawn by Manny Perez who seem to have a trait of drawing dark pupils. This commercial is shot in live-action with animation combined it as it focuses on a little boy with freckles (not very appealing child; don't you think?) named Jimmy who complains of having "no-one to play with" as Bugs sings a pointless song about making friends with Kool-Aid and suddenly Jimmy becomes the most popular kid in the neighbourhood.

I don't like this commercial very much at all since the song is pretty cheap and poor; the animation quality isn't very good - and is it me or are those kids in the advert are very unappealing in terms of the personality here; and it doesn't seem very convincing that Kool-Aid raises friends; it's just making him popular because the children want to have a drink - that's why it's attracting a lot of people. I do not know who the director of that commercial was but it certainly didn't appeal to me. Did Friz Freleng direct Kool-Aid commercials along with Tex Avery who directed most of them. I don't even know if Avery directed this one but it probably seems a little unlikely since it's a different style to his directing.

 

Here is another commercial that features some funny animation by Rod Scribner and Tex Avery's timng isn't bad here. Although I imagine animating on commercials for the old timers was the downer part; but Scribner's quality here is still pretty good. Scribner was probably already a nervous wreck by that point since he suffered from depression from his first wife and was sent to clinics. This is Hal Smith doing Fudd again; and Mel Blanc doing Bugs (well; I didn't need to say that) but Blanc did a lot of work on commercials around that time.

The timing on that cartoon is pretty good as it's shown here even though this is  definitely not top-notch Avery but animation was already declining in the 1960s in terms of quality. The facial expressions of Bugs shouting "Why I'll be a rabbit's uncle" is Scribner all over with the funny looks on Bugs. From the examples I've seen already (even from the first two commercials) Scribner's animation is more loose than the animation; notice he moves Bugs' ears up and down when he wins 1st prize. The TV quality is APPALLING but at least I like the animation and commercial more than the first two.

This is another commercial directed by Tex Avery and also animation by Rod Scribner. That wasn't a commercial Duffell sent me but I could tell this was Scribner and Avery since it looks like Scribner's Bugs with the angular ears he draws on Bugs and also Avery's timing can sum that up. It also has Scribner's funny drawings here. I'm not going to go into much detail since I already mentioned Avery and Scribner at the top but I like how loose the animation is since Scribner makes his characters move lively even on low-budget commercials which he worked on for most of the remainder of his life.Look at 0:32 on the YouTube when Elmer shouts "Oh no"; Elmer has the wrinkles that Scribner loved to use when working for Bob Clampett in the 1940s.

That is all I'll post about the Kool-Aid commercials that I will talk about. I don't know about you but I find these commercials rather fascinating in terms of animation historic views.

143. Porky's Moving Day (1936)

Title card courtesy of Dave Mackey.

Warner cartoon no. 142.
Release date: September 12, 1936.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Supervision: Jack King.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Series: Joe Dougherty (Porky Pig) and Elvia Allman (House owner).
Musical Score: Carl W. Stalling.
Animation: Paul Smith and Joe D'Igalo.
Sound: Treg Brown (uncredited).
Synopsis: Porky and his assistant move items out of a house at peril as they work at Porky's moving service. They get nowhere with moving all of the items out on time before danger arrives.

This is the final cartoon to be directed (supervised) by Jack King who would leave Leon Schlesinger's to return to Disney to direct the new Donald Duck series; and was probably the best Donald director. Now the Schlesinger studios consists of three directors: Tashlin, Avery and Freleng - which is good since they're talented directors.

Our cartoon begins with Porky Pig's cart outside his service station that simply reads Porky's Moving Van. The musical score at the beginning is definitely Stalling as it's an improvement to what Spencer would do - make it a musical piece.

Porky is seen inside the service station having a snooze as he is sleeping on top of a cot resting on a pillow. There is a snoring gag that pops up as it shows Porky snoring in (the lamp and chest of draw) is forced forwards by Porky's snoring in; and as he snores out; the force of the snore pushes the chest of draw back as well as the oil lamp. This sequence is repeated quite a few times. An assistant to Porky -who appears to be a black person or even a chimp is sleeping on the cot as well; as he appears to be snoring in and snoring out pushing the bed down  the ground as his snoring causes the amount of weight into it.

Meanwhile at the edge of a cliff there is a very stormy sea  going on down there with very choppy waves as there is a house is built on the edge of the cliff. The owner of the house is a Clarabelle Cow type - Damn; why did Jack King like to use that type of character - and if that's weird - it's even more weird since Elvia Allman does the voice.

The waves then start to crash upwards as it forces the house to jump and crash back to the ground which is very dangerous for the cow owner. She shouts "Help!" as she's calling for help. Well; THAT won't help as she's going to need to phone for help. The house suddenly starts to rock as all the objects inside the house start to slide down one side. The cow house owner tries to push a table upwards to stop it from falling down. She does the same as she tries to push the stove away but it's proving to be useless. As the house is rocking sideways; the stove lands back to position as the house owner falls while holding onto it but slides back into the centre. The cow then picks up the phone shouting "Operator, operator - I want Bunyan" and I'm assuming she means American legend Paul Bunyan. The wire of the phone snaps and how can she still get access to who she's calling with no wire?!

The assistant to Porky Pig in the moving company service is still fast asleep but listens to the telephone wringing. He wakes up thinking somebody is going to pick a fight on him as he starts to aim his fighting positions. The animation is terrible as it's just poses (no full animation) and the movement is so unrealistic; it reminds me of 1970's Hanna-Barbera animation when they draw real humans.

Porky walks into the scene as he whacks his assistant in the head to control himself. He replies, "Okay, boss". Don't worry; he'll be repeating this all through the cartoon and that's all he says - which I guess is part of the joke since he's a lazy character but gets annoying of hearing it all the time. Huh? I don't mean to be mean but as it appears he's caricatured as a black person but also looks more like a chimp. Some might deny that it's a black stereotype - but I'm inclined to believe it's a chimp and I don't want to start confusing people or turn it controversial.

Porky picks up the phone as they speak to each other on the phone with Porky starting off with "Porky the mover [speaking]" and the cow replies as she is going chaotic and talking too fast with words acting very panicky. Porky ends the call with "We'll be right over".

Porky then calls his assistant, "C'mon Dopey; we got a job". So it turns out his assistant is called Dopey. Not the Dopey that we see in 'Snow White'. Dopey replies to him "Okay; boss". Lulu the ostrich makes her second appearance as she is parked outside with the moving van as Porky calls her to get ready. Porky gets Lulu to "giddy up" and before that the chimp Dopey says it's clear to go; "Okay; boss" - Man, King can make up many ways to make the repeated quotes work. Porky's moving van then starts to speed up very quickly as the animation of the moving van is pretty forceful as it moves in good speed. Perspective animation pops up again as the can spins around 360 degrees.

The lady houseowner then finally finds Porky and his assistant Dopey as she fastly nags at them to get everything out of the house. A funny scene sort of pops up but it involves repetition since Dopey hits the door and it appears to be everything he gets smacked or hit by an object he wants to pick a fight.

He rings the doorbell but accidentally whacks the cow house owner. The cow then whacks Dopey on the head with a mallet as he replies; - "Okay boss" and enters the door. Yep; we saw that comin!". The animation on that sequence is very rough and not fluid at all. Porky is throwing everything out of the windows of the house and into his moving van. The seas are still very choppy - but from the window angle I'm seeing - it looks like as though he's tossing all the items either on the boat with the choppy sea - or it appears to be a layout error.

Porky handles the difficult task to try and push the piano out of the way and I think he says to us audience; "Boy; this slow we'll never get out of here!" Porky then drops out a mattress out the window for the piano to land safely but at least realism is shown since the piano falls lower to the ground with piano marks around it. Oh, it turns out Porky is throwing the objects out the window just at the edge of the cliff not in the winter - Duh?! Who'd have thought of that?

 A bike then falls down the sloped living room as Porky bumps into it and is in position of the ride. As the house rocks again; the bike then starts to fall down and hits Dopey onto the floor. Porky stands back up ordering; "Hurry up Dopey, and snap out of it!" as Dopey replies - do I REALLY NEED TO SAY THIS?! We all what he is going to say - "Okay, boss" - my goodness it does annoy me everytime it's heard.

Dopey is up as he is trying to grab some items to take away into the moving van. Dopey being very slow-witted tries to tug the fireplace out but it is impossible since the fireplace is part of the house and not a property to the house owner.

Dopey continues on a couple of attempts to try and pull the fireplace out and luckily; to my astonishment he managed to pull it out 0_0. Attached to the fireplace is of course the chimney which he managed to bring out as well which I guess is a pretty funny gag since fireplaces are long as they reach the roof and Dopey being dim-witted is REALLY going to need to take that not knowing that it's part of the roof. The house is starting to collapse as a huge wave covers the entire screen as a piece of wood used to hold the house is finally removed and it's starting to collapse. Looks like Porky and Dopey need to hurry; and quick!

Porky starts to unroll the rug as he uses his feet to unroll most of it which reminds me of a circus act. The funny part is that the rug appears to be split in some parts as it travels door to door via corridor with not all of it rolled up. It's crazy I know but it works as it reminds me of what Avery would want to do.

While Porky is still rolling the rug up; Lulu the ostrich walks into the scene not knowing about the rug until she is caught rolled up inside the rug making these funny squawking noises as the rug rolls down the stairs. Porky rolls the rest of the rug at the bottom floor and boy it SURE is a long rug. Porky slams into the wall while the carpet rolls up and the ostrich is rolling all the way upstairs. The carpet continues to keep on rolling all the way back as it's very disastrous since it means Porky would have to go all the way back up again. The animation is very simplistic of Lulu the ostrich that I'd be willing to think it could be Paul Smith animation as Jerry Beck confirmed his trait in Warner Bros. cartoons.

Dopey is carrying out a group of tables in size stacked up (smallest to largest) and he is not careful as he drops them  one at a time as they form steps but as he tries to toss them out the window he spins around and doesn't bother to stack it up. Dopey is therefore standing around plucking his lip with his finger like a useless twat.

Dopey then starts to stack up a group of dishes as he tosses them inside a barrel where it he thinks the barrel has a end part to it at the bottom. But it turns out that the barrel has two holes on it as he it just going to do the difficult job of stacking the huge part of it as he walks out of the door.

 Meanwhile Lulu the ostrich is in the next room as she swallows an alarm clock as it brings inside her neck where it's visible. As soon as Dopey hears the alarm clock (just as he heard it earlier in the cartoon) he drops the entire dishes and cups as he prepares to fight another person. Boy so far; about about 5 minutes of watching this cartoon; I've come to hate that character.

A huge plate lands on his head as he shouts "Okay, boss" - thinking it was either Porky who whacked him on the head like he often does to him. Porky runs through the hallway trying to toss a table out the window but spins around numerous times as the table is caught on the door. Dopey is then starts to walk down holding what appears to be some type of harp; but the harp is also caught on the door as he is holding onto the strings that stretches pretty far as we are expected to see a gag pop up.

The gag does pop up since it shows that Dopey is pulled back by the strings in which Porky is whacked out of the door while attemping to pull a table off. Porky flies out of the window as he is holding onto the legs of the table that shows that the stools have stretched and it's exaggeration.

The funnel of the tugboat by the edge of the cliff them starts to produce smoke coming out as the smoke touches Porky's rear end although I would imagine it would be very hot if it touched Porky's ass but it doesn't appear to be that way which makes the gag not funny at all. Porky then flies back into the house as the stools of the table legs then start to go back into normal size and he bumps while landing back into the house.

The waves then start to rise very high again and this time it starts to go through the window which soaks Porky as he tries to swim to the window but he cannot make it.

While Porky is attempting to swim far off. All of the items that did belong to the Cow house owner then start to go inside the moving van as the job is done for Porky since throughout the entire cartoon it was just gags showing us their failures of dumping stuff out of the house.

After the water is all gone from the waves; Lulu the ostrich pops up with an alarm clock still in her neck as that damn Dopey character starts to try and pick a fight but Porky whacks him on the head in time by Porky. Dopey then says smoothly "Okay, boss" as he's done this all through the picture. Everytime Dopey gets hit by Porky or the cow - he gets what he deserves since he's such a lazy cow.

 Overall comments: That Porky Pig assistant character Dopey sure is an asshole and nothing but a chimp. That "Okay boss" line that is repeated over and over again is only probably funny once; or maybe twice but it just isn't funny to me. I know that King was using it for a joke to make him funny and dim-witted but he can't make funny dim-witted characters unlike in later cartoons directed by later directors who could make funny dim-witted voices. The animation was rather rough at times but I imagine this was the same animator assigned on that cartoon; but of course animation was crude back in the 1930s so this is no surprise but the animation here is cruder than what King did before.

This is Jack King's last cartoon for Warner Bros. as this will be a difference since Avery and Tashlin will be turning in with more great cartoons whilst Friz Freleng is showing signs of improvement with good cartoons but they're not great. Jack King's last short for Warner Bros. was probably a disappointing end to it as this is certainly not the best he's turned out. His best cartoon he directed in my opinion was A Cartoonist's Nightmare as it was just a good concept of a studio animator getting revenge from former villains. King also directed his best Buddy cartoon Buddy Lost's World where he goes on an expedition to a lost world. Don't be discouraged if King left without making great cartoons in that era - he would join Disney in 1936 become the best Donald Duck director there was. So it interests me on how his WB cartoons weren't great but his Disney productions were. I guess Warner Bros. was his experimental studio where he was still learning on being a director for cartoons.