Porky in Wackyland

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Porky in Wackyland
Merrie Melodies series
Screenshot of Title
Directed by	Robert Clampett
Animation by	Izzy Ellis Norman McCabe
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Carl Stalling
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger Ray Katz
Distributed by
Release date	1938 (USA)
Format	Black & White, 7 min, 19 sec
Language	English

Porky in Wackyland is a 1938 animated short film in which Porky Pig goes hunting through a surreal Salvador Dalí-esque landscape to find the Do-Do Bird.

1 Credits
2 Humor
3 Notes
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Credits

The voices are by Mel Blanc. The short was directed by Robert "Bob" Clampett. Izzy Ellis and Norman McCabe were the credited animators. Carl Stalling directed the music. Leon Schlesinger and an uncredited Ray Katz produced the cartoon.

[edit] Humor

Similar shots from the two films

The film is celebrated for its surreal humor, such as when Porky is chasing the bird, it disappears and suddenly the Warner Brothers shield emerges from the horizon's vanishing point, as it typically did at every cartoon's beginning, and complete with the standard stretched "boing" of the violin string. The Do-Do comes from behind the shield to bop Porky on the head and we see the shield immediately turn to return to the horizon with the bird riding it there (and consequently speaking, the boing sound is played in reverse).

Among the crazy characters Porky encounters is a creature with three heads arguing amongst themselves. From the haircuts on the three heads, it is clear that this is a parody of The Three Stooges. The character then faces the camera and leans into it in such a way that their round heads form a triangle, and a small character explains to the audience that, "He says his mother was frightened by a pawnbroker's sign!"

The long pan through Wackyland was remade in color by Clampett for inclusion in his 1943 short Tin Pan Alley Cats. A Technicolor (and partially Cinecolor) remake of Porky in Wackyland was supervised by Friz Freleng in 1949, and re-titled Dough for the Do-Do. The films were nearly identical, in many cases appearing to match frame-by-frame in certain details, albeit with Porky's appearance updated and the voices having evolved, and many of the backgrounds being different. The Do-Do character was much like the very early Daffy Duck in voice and mannerisms.

[edit] Notes

There was a TerryToons plagarization of the "Porky in Wackyland" films done at least twice in the 1940's or 50's. One was called "Dingbat land" (1949) [1] featuring Sourpuss and Gandy Goose. The roll of the Do-Do being played by a minor Terry character, Dingbat. [2] The other film was more direct plagarization of the Porky Pig/Do-Do cartoons featuring a british hunter and a Do-Do stand-in. The creature didn't talk but made strange hooting noises, and flung flames from a tuft of hair on top of its head. ^{[citation needed]}

In 2000 the United States Library of Congress deemed the short "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

The Do-Do Bird is (according to writer Paul Dini) the father of Gogo Dodo, a character seen on the Tiny Toon Adventures animated series.

A small clip from the film was used in a Slappy Squirrel sketch, "Critical Condition", as part of a fake Laserdisc release of the Best of Warner Brothers Animation.

[edit] References

Beck, Jerry and Friedwald, Will (1989): Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Company.