"Porky's Last Stand"(1940, Looney Tune)
Director: Bob Clampett
Animation: I. Ellis
Story: Warren Foster
Music: Carl Stalling
This cartoon is significant in several ways. It is the first cartoon release of 1940, and is a rather symbolic introduction to the wackiness that Bob Clampett would make a part of the Warner cartoon legacy throughout the decade. One of his long-running series of black and white Porky Pig Looney Tunes, Clampett relies less here on Porky than he does Daffy Duck, who had previously appeared in only about a half-dozen cartoons directed by Tex Avery, one by Chuck Jones, and the rest by Clampett himself. This is not quite the hyperactive, obnoxious, wild Daffy Clampett used in later color cartoons, but a cross-eyed, goony, almost frighteningly insane little guy with a silly, open-mouthed grin. Unlike Avery and Jones' original color cartoon concept, Clampett makes Daffy taller, more angular, and more rubbery in his animation. This cartoon is also significant because, unlike the Merrie Melodies series, the Looney Tunes did not begin using the familiar concentric circle title cards until further into the forties, and these b/w Porky cartoons had their own titles, featuring Porky on a background of musical notes. Clampett toys with the idea here of keeping the current Porky opening but using the circles for the title and credits. Whether it was a conscious effort or not (as it could be just a "bullseye", since the cartoon deals with a bull) it is the first appearance of the circles on a Looney Tune. Anyway, the plot begins with Porky and Daffy manning a hamburger stand in the country, as an annoyingly cute female choir sings "start the day right", with Daffy washing dishes to the music (using his rear end to dry them)! Everything's fine until they realize they are out of hamburger meat (a sign in the fridge indicates that the mice got there first!). Daffy eyes a calf in the pasture and, smiling evilly, takes a huge mallet and goes outside to kill it. (He sings "Plenty of Money and You", with the word "gravy" replacing "money"). He follows the calf into a barn, but when he grabs its tail to drag it outside, he's grabbed a huge bull instead. The bull chases Daffy and Porky around, and after a few bullfight jokes, the bull wrecks the stand! We end with Porky's chickens playing "carousel" in the rubble, with the bull's nosering as the prize.
