Today we take a look at a recent DVD release from Warner Archive looking back at a particular stuttering pig. This cartoon collection brings together all 99 Porky Pig black and white cartoons plus 2 color cartoons making this Porky Pig 101.
Looney Tunes got started in 1930, but the Looney Tunes then was much different compared to what we know today. To compete with Mickey Mouse, Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising, who worked under Walt Disney, created this character named Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid and was the star of the earliest Looney Tunes cartoons. Other characters like Foxy and Piggy appeared, but Harman and Ising were given a better contract with MGM, and when they left, they took Bosko with them leaving Looney Tunes without a character. Now, with Leon Schlesinger as full producer of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, they had to come up with a character and fast. Buddy was the replacement character, but was a failure. In 1935, Friz Freleng directed I Haven't Got a Hat which introduced a new line of characters such as Beans the Cat and Kitty, Ham and Ex, and a pig named Porky. Beans was thought to be the star of the series, but folks in the studio like Tex Avery were having too much fun with "this pig character". Audiences agreed, and Porky became the star, even bigger than the characters previously created for Looney Tunes.
Porky had some changes over the past 8 years covered on this collection. They gave Porky a diet and made his head much more rounder. Co-stars changed over the years including Gabby Goat and Daffy Duck. New directors came in like Bob Clampett who made some of the best Porky cartoons on here. But the biggest change was the voice. Originally voiced by Joe Daughtry, he actually stuttered. Since recording was much complicated back then, they had a hard time working with him. An up incoming actor named Mel Blanc just got his break voicing some incidental characters, but he immediately got the lead role as Porky. This would be followed by the many voices of Warner Bros. cartoons. As you go through this collection, you'll see the progressive changes done to the cartoons. Once you hit the 40's, that's when things start to change. A new character named Bugs Bunny appeared and would quickly become the star of Looney Tunes. The collection ends with Porky Pig's Feat, and the very last scene has Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and the only black and white appearance of Bugs Bunny (save for Porky's Hare Hunt which marked the first appearance of the prototype version of this character). It pretty much shows the end of the old and the beginning of the future of Looney Tunes. One year after that cartoon was released, Bugs Bunny was voted the best cartoon character surpassing even Disney's Mickey and Donald. The rest....well...you know the rest....Bugs starred in the rest of the Looney Tunes cartoons and characters such as Tweety and Sylvester, Daffy Duck, Taz, Marvin the Martian, Road Runner and Coyote, and many others became his co-horts. Even Porky Pig was reduced to a co-star, but I wouldn't say fully abandoned as Porky still makes appearances in cartoons with some help of current voice of Porky, Bob Bergen, and not to mention his signature phrase at the end of the cartoons, "T-T-That's all Folks!!!"
DVD sales have not been what they've used to, so collections like this aimed for the collectors' market are hard to find. To this day, cartoons are considered kids filler, which has been the norm for recent Looney Tunes DVD releases. Porky Pig 101 is not meant for Mom and Kids. This is intended for the adult collector who appreciates these cartoons what they are: ALL TIME CLASSICS IN CINEMA HISTORY! These were originally released in the theaters usually tagged with the biggest feature films like Casablanca. Over the years starting with Warner Brothers Golden Jubilee in the 80's, followed by Cartoon Moviestars, The Golden Age of the Looney Tunes, Looney Tunes the Collector's Edition, Looney Tunes Golden Collection, and finally Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, they were aimed for the animation fan and not just kids and families, and from Golden Collection up, restored from the original master negatives. But, as DVD sales decreased, restoration costs increased. HD, Blu-ray, and even 4K had pressured all major studios to make great HD versions of their library of films, but with 1001 Looney Tunes, there was no way they could afford to restore every single Looney Tune. And if you think Warner Bros. has that rough, its smaller operation, Warner Archive, hardly has a budget to restore the cartoons in such a pristine condition. If the cartoon has appeared in the Golden or Platinum Collections (with one exception), they had access to those restored materials.
As for the other cartoons, they don't look as pristine. However, George Feltenstein, the man in charge at Warner Archive, has a standard in quality. Some of these cartoons may be taken just off the shleves, but for the most part, these are brand new superior transfers. You may notice quality changes here and there, but they look great. No TV titles, all original titles, no duppy 16mm prints and EVERYTHING as it should be in terms of black and white (kiss those redrawn and computer colorized versions of these cartoons good-bye). This is a well curated set that is almost perfect.
I say almost perfect because some issues are apparent. A few cartoons on here are taken from safety prints perhaps made for Sunset Productions in the 50's so that they can easily make a new copy and chop off the WB logo easy without the sound of the shield zooming in. As a result, the shield zooming in seems to have been snipped off those prints. After that, however, the cartoons themselves look fresh and beautiful. No master negatives were used, so some of the prints taken had music issues. The original music on some of the opening titles were replaced by ones used in other cartoons. It remains a mystery why that was done on these prints, but it can be irritating to the die hard fans. One in particular slammed this DVD set to the ground because of that. This set is more so a testing ground to see if there is a market for these old cartoons, and if so, Warner Archive will do more. It hasn't made a profit yet, but we're close. So go out and by this online at Warner Archive. Because, who knows, That may NOT be All, Folks if this set does really well for us collectors (and if possible, a Blu-ray version of this may come as a result and have these issues fixed, but not now....we have to see if folks are still willing to buy cartoons like these on physical home media). Highly Recommended.
