Awful Orphan
| Awful Orphan | |
|---|---|
| Merrie Melodies (Porky Pig/ Charlie Dog) series | |
| Directed by | Charles M. Jones |
| Produced by |
Edward Selzer (uncredited) |
| Story by | Michael Maltese |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Carl Stalling |
| Animation by |
Phil Monroe Ben Washam Lloyd Vaughan Ken Harris |
| Layouts by | Robert Gribbroek |
| Backgrounds by | Peter Alvarado |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Cartoons |
| Distributed by |
Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date(s) | January 29, 1949 (USA) |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7 minutes |
| Language | English |
Awful Orphan is a 1949 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. A sequel to the 1947 Looney Tunes short Little Orphan Airedale, The Awful Orphan stars Charlie Dog, who goes to great lengths to convince Porky Pig that he is an ideal pet. Porky tries a number of methods to rid himself of the annoying animal, but Charlie easily defies him every time.
Plot
Charlie is showing various thing in the form of a dramatic presentation that ends with him as the major thing and this causes the people present to walk away in disgust. Charlie then hitches a ride a pet shop truck. He arrives in Porky's hotel room who kicks him out. Porky calls the pet shop owner saying: "I ordered a canary not a monster!".
Porky proceeds to try throwing the dog out several times but fails, including an incident in which Charlie pretends to be a baby and fails causing Charlie to drive him out disguised as an old lady and Charlie succeeds; he is driven out after Porky closes the window after Charlie jumps outside as part of a fake suicide gag.
Charlie begs in for Porky to keep him after he infiltrates in a lunch platter, he manages to coax Porky into adopting him after promising to do several chores. Porky pretends to have Charlie as his pet but, with an evil cackle, wraps Charlie and sends him to Siberia, but he ends up coming back kicking Porky in the rear while doing the Cossack Dance. Porky's noise awakens the upstairs neighbor, who then proceeds to call Charlie and threatens him by saying he will come down to stop the noise if it doesn't stop. Charlie responds by counter-threatening the man. Charlie tricks Porky into going upstairs and the man then proceeds to beat him up.
The man then returns with a beaten up Porky who finally submits to make Charlie his pet. However, Charlie decides otherwise and wants to leave due to Porky's place being uncomfortable to live in; as he tries to walk out the door, Porky proceeds to approach him with an evil look in his eyes as he forces Charlie to stay. The screen fades to black and then the cartoon ends with a scene from earlier with the roles of dog and master from an earlier but reversed; with Charlie trying to leave but being forced back into the chair when Porky growls at him.