''Porky in Wackyland'' is a 1938

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...

'' animated

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

, directed by

Bob Clampett Robert Emerson Clampett Sr. (May 8, 1913 – May 2, 1984) was an American animator, film director, director, film producer, producer and puppeteer best known for his work on the ''Looney Tunes'' animated series from Warner Bros. as well as the te ...

. The short was released on September 24, 1938, and stars

Porky Pig Porky Pig is a cartoon character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his celebrity, star power, and the animators created man ...

venturing out to find the last do-do bird, which he finds in Wackyland, a land that makes no sense located in Darkest

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. In 1994, ''Porky in Wackyland'' was voted No. 8 of

The 50 Greatest Cartoons ''The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals'' is a 1994 book by animation historian Jerry Beck, with a foreword written by Chuck Jones. The book features the fifty greatest cartoons of all time, selected by a group ...

of all time by members of the animation field. In 2000, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

, which selected the short for preservation in the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

. The short's copyright was renewed in 1966.

Plot

A newspaper shows Porky Pig traveling to Africa to hunt for the last do-do bird. Upon landing his airplane in Darkest Africa, Porky sees a sign telling him that he is in Wackyland, where anything can happen. He tiptoes along the ground in his airplane and is greeted by a roaring beast, who suddenly becomes effeminate and dances away into the forest. A musical interlude introduces several more bizarre creatures that inhabit Wackyland's impossible landscape. These include a

one-man band A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical or electronic contraptions. One-man bands also often sing while they perform. The simplest type of "one-man ban ...

that plays its nose like a flute, a rabbit swinging in midair, a duck caricature of

Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson, ; May 26, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-born American singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. Self-billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer," Jolson was one of the United States' most famous and ...

, and a beast with the heads of the

Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short-subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical, farce, and slapstick comedy. Six total ...

. One creature wears a

sandwich board A sandwich board is a type of advertisement tool composed of two boards with a message or graphic on it and being either carried by a person, with one board in front and one behind in a triangle shape, hinged along the top, creating a " sandwic ...

advertising information about the do-do. The creature beckons Porky into a dark passage, where he falls down a chute and watches the do-do's big entrance. The do-do introduces itself and then tramples Porky while

scat singing Originating in vocal jazz, scat singing or scatting is vocal Musical improvisation, improvisation with Non-lexical vocables in music, wordless vocables, Pseudoword#Nonsense syllables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. In scat singing, t ...

. Porky gives chase, but the do-do repeatedly uses surreal tricks to escape and humiliate him. Some time later, the do-do encounters a

newspaper hawker A newspaper hawker, newsboy or newsie is a street vendor of newspapers without a fixed newsstand. Related jobs included paperboy, delivering newspapers to subscribers, and news butcher, selling papers on trains. Adults who sold newspapers from fi ...

announcing that Porky's hunt has been a success. Confused by the news, the do-do drops its guard long enough for the hawker (Porky in disguise) to grab it. Porky briefly celebrates catching the last do-do, but is bested again when the bird calls for its other do-do friends.

Voice cast

Information is taken from the website ''Likely Looney, Mostly Merrie''. *

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for come ...

as various characters, including

and

Dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinction, extinct flightless bird that was endemism, endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest relative was the also-extinct and flightles ...

Billy Bletcher William Bletcher (September 24, 1894 – January 5, 1979) was an American actor. He was known for voice roles for various classic animated characters, most notably Pete in Walt Disney's ''Mickey Mouse'' short films and the Big Bad Wolf in Di ...

as the Roaring Goon *

Tedd Pierce Edward Stacey "Tedd" Pierce III (August 12, 1906 – February 19, 1972) was an American screenwriter and voice actor of animated cartoons, principally from the mid-1930s to the late 1950s. Biography Pierce was the son of a stockbroker, Samuel ...

as mysterious voice * Danny Webb as the Prisoner *

as vocal effects

Reception

Steve Schneider's 1998 ''That's All Folks! The Art of Warner Bros. Animation'' writes that with this short, "the lord of cartoon misrule, Clampett established conclusively that in animation, realism is irrelevant". In the 2001 ''Masters of Animation'', John Grant writes that "this short, in its cumulative effect, is more wildly inventive than anything even exAvery had produced for Warners". Animation historian Steve Schneider writes, "No mere Looney Tune, ''Porky in Wackyland'' was Warner Bros.

Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. The Proclamation had the eff ...

. Building on the creaky liberties inaugurated by director

Tex Avery Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (; February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, animation director, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of America ...

, here Bob Clampett scoffs and shreds the conventions — realism, literalism, infantilism, cutesiness, and worse — that, with the ascendancy of

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

, had come to caramelize cartooning. By reminding us of animations' horizons — namely, none at all — this anything-goes film illustrates

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...

's notion that humor arises from breaking taboos. And breaking taboos is something that animation, with its limitless freedom, is uniquely gifted to do".

Follow-ups and derivative works

Much of the Wackyland sequence was adapted and reused by Clampett for inclusion in his 1943 short ''

Tin Pan Alley Cats ''Tin Pan Alley Cats'' is a 1943 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' directed by Bob Clampett. A follow-up to Clampett's successful ''Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs'', released earlier in 1943, ''Tin Pan Alley Cats'' focuses upon contemporary theme ...

''. A color remake of ''Porky in Wackyland'' was supervised by

Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (; August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, Film director, director, Film producer, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons ...

in 1948. Re-titled as ''

Dough for the Do-Do ''Dough for the Do-Do'' is a 1949 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on September 2, 1949, and stars Porky Pig. The short is a remake of Bob Clampett's 1938 cartoon '' Porky in Wackyland'', a ...

'', the remake was released in 1949. The films were nearly identical, in many cases appearing to match frame-by-frame in certain details, albeit with Porky's appearance updated (by redoing most of the animation of the character), the voices having evolved (with less use of speeding-up) and the backgrounds being changed to a surreal, Daliesque landscape. ''Dough for the Do-Do'' was produced in

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

, but was originally released in

Cinecolor Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two-color motion picture process that was based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and the 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel an ...

due to a dispute with the Technicolor corporation. Later reissues were printed by Technicolor. There were at least two

Terrytoons Terrytoons, Inc. was an American animation studio headquartered in New Rochelle, New York, which was active from 1929 until its closure in December 1972 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in-name only). Founded by Paul Te ...

plagiarizations of ''Porky in Wackyland'' in the 1940s or 1950s. ''

Dingbat Land ''Dingbat Land'' is a 1949 short animated film produced by Terrytoons and distributed by 20th Century Fox starring Gandy Goose and Sourpuss. Plot Gandy Goose and Sourpuss go on a safari jungle hunt in search for a rare Dingbat bird. Production ...

'' (1949) starred

Gandy Goose Gandy Goose is a Terrytoons cartoon character who first appeared in the 1938 short ''Gandy the Goose''. He is frequently paired with Sourpuss, a cat, beginning in the 1939 short ''Hook Line and Sinker''. Sourpuss' first appearance was in the 193 ...

and Sourpuss. The role of the Do-Do was taken by a minor Terrytoons character, Dingbat.

, for whom Clampett worked as an animator in the mid-1930s, borrowed strongly from this cartoon for his 1948 MGM cartoons ''Half-Pint Pygmy'' (in which the characters,

George and Junior ''George and Junior'' are cartoon characters, two anthropomorphic bears created by Tex Avery for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. All of the George and Junior shorts were directed by Tex Avery in the 1940s. They appeared in four cartoons: ''Henpecked Hoboes'' ...

, travel to Africa in search of the world's smallest pygmy, only to discover that he has an uncle who's even smaller) and '' The Cat That Hated People'' (where the cat travels to the moon and encounters an array of characters similar to those in Clampett's Wackyland, e.g., a pair of gloves and lips that keep saying "Mammy, mammy", just like the Al Jolson duck in ''Porky in Wackyland''). Clampett would again use the Three Stooges parody when a later creation of his,

Beany and Cecil ''Beany and Cecil'' is an American animated television series created by Bob Clampett for the American Broadcasting Company. The cartoon was based on the television puppet show '' Time for Beany'', which Clampett produced for Paramount Pictures c ...

, faced the "Dreaded Three-Headed Threep". According to writer

Paul Dini Paul McClaran Dini (; born August 7, 1957) is an American writer, animator, and comic book artist. He has served as a producer and writer for several Warner Bros. Animation/DC Comics animated series, most notably ''Batman: The Animated Series' ...

, the Do-Do Bird is the father of Gogo Dodo, a character on the 1990s animated TV series ''

Tiny Toon Adventures ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Warner Bros. Animation. It originally aired from September 14, 1990 to December 6, 1992, airing in syndication before eventually settling a ...

'', and a second Wackyland is drawn into Acme Acres by Babs and Buster Bunny. A small clip from the film was used in a Slappy Squirrel segment on another Warners animated TV series of the 1990s, ''

Animaniacs ''Animaniacs'' is an American Animated series, animated Comedy television, comedy Musical film, musical television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Warner Bros. Television Animation. It originally aired on Fox Broadcasting Company ...

''. The segment, titled "Critical Condition", featured ''Porky in Wackyland'' as part of a fake

LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

release. The Do-Do Bird has made occasional guest spots in the

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

''Looney Tunes'' comic book, being colored in

grayscale In digital photography, computer-generated imagery, and colorimetry, a greyscale (more common in Commonwealth English) or grayscale (more common in American English) image is one in which the value of each pixel is a single sample (signal), s ...

as opposed to the rest of the art being in color. The character makes an appearance in the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

game '' Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal'' as an unplayable character. He is given a first name, Yoyo Dodo. Yoyo can also be seen at Maroon Cartoon Studios as a brief cameo in the beginning of the 1988 film ''

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. It is loosely based on the 1981 novel ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'' by Gary K. Wol ...

''. Yoyo also made a cameo in the 2020 ''

Looney Tunes Cartoons ''Looney Tunes Cartoons'' is an American animated television series developed by Pete Browngardt and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, based on the characters from ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies''. The series made its worldwide de ...

'' short "Happy Birthday, Bugs Bunny!" and plays a large role in the

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

episode "Daffy in Wackyland".

References

External links