The Spotlight: November 2002:
"Pilgrim Porky" (1940, Looney Tune)
Director: Bob Clampett
Animation: Norman McCabe
Story: Warren Foster
Music: Carl Stalling
A Looney retelling of the voyage of the Mayflower in 1620, with Captain Porky Pig as a sort of stuttering Mile Standish/William Bradford type. On the voyage, the crew encounter flying fish (carrying "Eat at Joe's" banners) a storm, an iceberg, and finally passes the Statue of Liberty (a little girl at the time.) A running joke has the ship's cook continually trying to catch a fresh fish at the narrator's (Robert C. Bruce) request...coming out of the water and saying, ala Eddie "Rochester" Anderson of Jack Benny fame: "How's dis boss?!" When the ship lands the crew is greeted by goofy Bob Clampett Indians, and the rest is history. Oh, yeah, and so is the cook...a fat fish comes out of the water to ask: "How's DIS, boss?!" One of the Warner director's favorite gags beginning in the late 30's and early 40's and continuing onward to the end of the series in 1969: lampooning history. Porky, Daffy, Bugs, and others all starred in cartoons set, with no particular explanation, in past time periods, taking familiar historical stories and getting all the humor out of them they can. Even more interesting, this concept predates even Jay Ward's 1960's "Sherman and Peabody" Bullwinkle Show cartoons.
-images courtesy of Pietro Shakarian