Porky's Romance

Porky's Romance is a 1937 Merrie Melodies cartoon that stars Porky Pig and for the first time, Petunia Pig. It is also siginficant in that it is the last cartoon that had Joe Dougherty as the voice of Porky Pig before Mel Blanc got the job and exclusive voice credit contract. The cartoon deals with Porky trying to propose to Petunia and him getting rejected by Petunia. He proceeds to try to commit suicide, but ends up in a bizarre dream showing what would happen if he married Petunia.

Plot

The cartoon opens with Petunia Pig suffering a nervous breakdown on a stage and being unable to pronounce her lines correctly, leading a man to try to interfere. This causes her to go into a rant and eventually the curtain closes on her and the main part of the cartoon starts. Porky is shown buying some flowers, candy, and then eventually a diamond ring. He proceeds to go over to Petunia's house and knock on the door, Petunia proceeds to respond and is disgusted to see Porky so she tells him to goaway. This causes him to leave crying out of sadness and he then walks away, but Petunia's dog sees the candy Porky has and alerts Petunia to this fact. She proceeds to grab Porky and take him into her house, where she rips open the candy container and starts eating it. Porky tries to touch her several times but is constantly harassed by the dog. He eventually tries to propose to Petunia, but as he is starting to do so, the dog pulls the rug out from under him and Petunia laughs at him, causing Porky to walk off in shame. He proceeds to write a suicide note and tries to hang himself from a tree, but the branch the rope is on snaps, knocking him out and causing him to go into a dreamlike state. He dreams that he is at a church and getting married to Petunia, after the ceremony, they head off on their honeymoon and the couple get together there and then a the message Time... munches on! is displayed on screen, and sounds of Petunia eating candy can be heard. The screen then shows Porky having to do all the housework while Petunia is essentially a couch potato; she has become fat and lazy, her dog has done the same thing. Eventually, Porky accidentally makes too much noise and wakes his kids up. He tries to put them back to sleep but fails and eventually Petunia proceeds to yell at him and hits him with a rolling pin while the kids cheer her on. Porky is fortunately awakened out of the dream by Petunia gently brushing him and saying yes to his proposal. He proceeds to take his gifts and runs off, he comes back once to kick Petunia's dog, who starts yelping in pain while Porky runs off, leaving a dazed and confused Petunia behind as the cartoon irises out.

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