Porky's Super Service (1937)

Wonderful character development!

Simply A Masterpiece

Memorable, crazy movie

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.Directed by Ub Iwerks, with animation by Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones, 'Porky's Super Service' is very good and a lot of fun. It is always interesting to see Porky in his early years, but that is not usually the only reason to see his early cartoons, even if he went on to do much better things. It is not the most inventive of concepts (not a problem really) and the kid's brattiness is taken a little too far at times (is a problem).Mel Blanc is outstanding as always however. He always was the infinitely more preferable voice for Porky, Joe Dougherty never clicked with me, and he proves it in 'Porky's Super Service'. Blanc shows an unequalled versatility and ability to bring an individual personality to every one of his multiple characters in a vast majority of his work, there is no wonder why he was in such high demand as a voice actor.The animation is excellent, it's fluid in movement, crisp in shading and very meticulous in detail. Clampett and Jones bring characteristic visual imagination and wit. The story may be predictable, but it's beautifully paced with never a dull moment and strongly structured.Writing is witty and never less than amusing. Likewise with the sight gags, which are peppered throughout with little sense of unsettlement. Porky is a likeable and amusing lead and his chemistry with the kid is a large part of the kid's appeal. Despite the kid's brattiness, many of the laughs do revolve around being ahead of Porky for much of the time and Porky struggling to keep upCarl Stalling's music is typically superb. It is as always lushly orchestrated, full of lively energy and characterful in rhythm, not only adding to the action but also enhancing it.In summation, not an animated masterpiece but with a lot of very good things. 8/10 Bethany Cox

. . . under a White House Resident-Elect Rump Administration, PORKY'S SUPER SERVICE warns us. Warner Bros. Looney Tuners Early Warning System always had the uncanny knack of alerting 21st Century America to its upcoming Calamities, Cataclysms, Catastrophes, and Apocalypti, and this animated short is no exception. About 47 seconds into this cartoon we see that the ACTUAL price of gas, factoring in production, refining, distribution, overhead, and marketing costs--as well as a profit margin--is 3 cents per gallon. However, as was the case in 2001 when two Texas oilmen used the Racist Electoral College Loophole to barge into the White House, gas prices are fated to sky-rocket as a devious device to transfer the remaining 10% of American Financial Resources owned by we 99% into the over-stuffed pockets of the Corrupt Corporate Capitalist Fat Cat Class of One Per Centers. So Porky must charge his gasoline customers a 1333% government mark-up--or 43 cents per gallon--including a 6 cents state tax, 4 cents city tax, 7 cents county tax, 3 cents unemployment tax, a nickel social security tax, tuppence for farm relief, an 8 cents "luxury" tax, and a nickel for "carpet tacks!" MSNBC reported last night about Mr. Exxon Valdez Tillerson's life-long collusion with America's enemies, and how Mr. T. destroyed the country of Chad on the side to make a quick buck in defiance of a carefully-crafted United Nations plan to save the failed state with the poorest neighborhood on Earth (which happens to surround what Exxon's current Annual Report highlights as its Number One Profit Center). Though Mr. T. clearly is America's Public Enemy #1 who should be shot for High Treason (he facilitated the murder of many brave U.S. troops during the Iraq War to make a few Shekels more, for Gosh Sake!), he's our Secretary-of-State-Elect. In a World gone Looney Tunes, PORKY'S SUPER SERVICE shows how the Little Guy--Porky--is in for at least four years, if not permanent, Bedevilment at the hands of Rump, Tillerson, and their Cabinet of Deplorable Scoundrels, personified by the Terror Toddler here (to denote this Coming Time of Troubles in its infancy). The retail price of gas has been ticking up all this week, inflation is rising faster than a hot air balloon, but all the Rumps are smirking contentedly on their Golden Thrones in Rump Tower like so many clams at High Tide. PORKY'S SUPER SERVICE ends with small businessman Porky wounded amid the shambles of his American Dream--a once-thriving gas station--done in by a female limousine owner who happens to be a Dead Ringer for incoming Third Lady Melancholia Rump, and her Terror Tot.

Porky's Super Service (1937) *** (out of 4) Black and white Looney Tunes short has Porky running a gas station and doing a great job at taking care of everyone. This all changes when an obnoxious kid is left in a car and decides to drive Porky crazy. Director Iwerks, best known for his early Disney cartoons, does a great job keeping this film moving and gives it a certain attitude that only his films have. There are many jokes from start to finish but the highlight has to be the sequence where Porky knows the kid is up to no good and keeps trying to catch him but the kid is always one step ahead. The work by Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones is beautifully done as is the voice work by Mel Blanc.