Looney Tunes (Part 3): Beans and Pork

So, this next era of shorts focuses on two characters, a cat named Beans (that absolutely everybody and their mom has heard of, most obviously) and a pig named Porky who won't ever show up in another cartoon after this group of shorts. Obviously.

Both characters were in a previous short entitled "I Haven't Got a Hat" which didn't really focus on either one of them. To be real for a second, the studio had really wanted Beans to be their next big "star" (for whatever reason) so they pushed him into the spotlight, apparently ignoring that the PIG was the most popular part of "I Haven't Got a Hat." So, for now Beans will be the main character until the pig is brought back and proves to be the most popular character the studio had created up to that point.

As before, I will now continue with the regular reviews. As before, I watched and reviewed the first 153 these prior to starting this, so this part will continue to be "archival" reviews (or just general thoughts) with possible expansions with additional thoughts. I will make sure to mark titles that I found of particular interest for Better or for Worse (and a third Pink color that denotes shorts that I liked a lot, that have a particular quality that makes them worth while.) Merry Melody shorts (which are shorts that don't feature a recurring character) will be denoted by an "MM" after the title.

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#112. The Lady in Red (1935) MM I can say that this cartoon made me feel more uncomfortable than any previous one. It’s about cockroaches in a cafe after closing (the titular Lady in Red is a cockroach). Then at the end a crazed parrot burns to death. Yep. (5/10)

#113. A Cartoonists Nightmare (1935) Wow! Pretty great. I mean, not really funny or anything, but the 7 minutes this took up flew by! Obviously, it’s a little meta story about a cartoonist getting trapped in his own cartoon and I like meta. Definitely a sign of a new era. This is the second short to star "Beans the Cat" so here he is: (7.5/10)

Sure to be-an all-time classic character!

#114. Little Dutch Plate (1935) MM The evil vinegar bottle needs his mortgage payment or the Dutch Plate Girl and the saltshaker boy will get evicted! Anyways, I thought it was boring, until the twist ending. Honestly, I can recommend it solely based on the ending, which is quite unexpected. Awesome! (7/10)

#115. Hollywood Capers (1935) Beans the Cat breaks into Warner Bros. and does stuff. It’s kinda dull. Kinda the first "Beans" short that shows that no...they aren't trying something new with the character and they are just gonna rehash the same boring nonsense...yet again. Not as bad as Buddy though! (6/10)

#116. Billboard Frolics (1935) MM A bunch of billboard ad characters dance to...the Looney Tunes theme? Hell yeah! I like these ones that seem to show the origin of how things would work out. There’s a B-plot with a chick and a cat, that’s boring, but the rest is great! (8/10)

#117. Flowers for Madame (1935) MM Flowers dance to a song I don’t know and a living cactus hillbilly saves everyone from a fire. The titular ‘Madame’ does not make an appearance, as expected. (4.5/10)

#118. Gold Diggers of ‘49 (1935) I can say this is the first genuinely “funny” short I’ve watched, outside of novelty. Very entertaining. Beans finds a slot machine imbedded in the mountains and wins gold out of it, so there’s a gold rush! Porky is here too! What joyous fun!

I should mention that while I'm intending to go too much into detail of the creation of these shorts, I do feel obligated to mention that this is the first short directed by Tex Avery, whom is probably one of few recognizable names, these days.

(I think I'm going to start being more liberal with the "Blue" text shorts. I'm starting to look like the beginning of the shorts you see on TV now, with the "Blue Ribbon" openings.) (7.5/10)

I've a feeling we're gonna start seeing less shit soon.

#119. The Fire Alarm (1935) Beans the Cat’s Nephews (2 Dogs?) come to stay at the Fire Department. God are they miserable little sh*ts! The absurdity of their actions can be funny though. But, not really laugh out loud funny. (6/10)

#120. I Wanna Play House (1936) MM ‘36! 2 cute (genuinely) bear cubs play hide and seek in the woods. Nothing special here, except one of the cubs sings “I’m Singing Because I’m Gay.” and that along with the title is bound to raise some eyebrows. Darn colloquialisms! (7/10)

#121. The Phantom Ship (1936) Beans and his nephews have a (somehow) quite boring adventure to Iceland where they search for pirate treasure. His nephews are less obnoxious in this one, so almost all their redeeming qualities are gone. NUTS! (5.5/10)

#122. The Cat Came Back (1936) MM Sort of like Romeo and Juliet with a cat and a mouse. And they are friends instead of lowers. Okay, maybe the comparison is a stretch, but! I really enjoyed this one. It was very cute.

And no, this isn't that other short. (7/10)

It's not this. This is leagues ahead.

#123. Boom Boom (1936) It’s WW1, I guess...and Porky and Beans (Porky is pretty much the main character now) are at War. It’s mostly just bullet jokes and grenade jokes. I mean, it’s really nothing special. Meh. (5/10)

#124. Page Miss Glory (1936) MM A bellhop at a small hotel fantasizes doing his job at a big club while he waits for “Miss Glory” to arrive. I gotta say, this is probably the first short that tried to LOOK different. It did well. Also, the Miss Glory reveal was great. This is a great short that I very highly recommend as being worth the watch. AMAZING! (9/10)

#125. Alpine Antics (1936) Beans is skiing for a $2 prize. It’s eh. Anywho, almost all the side characters except Porky seem to be lifted from Disney cartoons. And, of course Porky has the funniest bit (the fool is so excited to be riding a rocking horse down the mountain!) (5/10)

#126. The Blow Out (1936) Porky Pig wants an ice cream soda, so in his quest to earn 3¢ more to get it, he literally foils a terrorist bombing. See, that’s actually entertaining to watch. It only took 126 of these. Sheesh. (7.5/10)

#127. I’m a Big Shot Now (1936) MM A “sleazy back alley punk bird flipping a coin” robs the Birdville bank of thousands of worms. It wasn’t anything special. My biggest complaint? During the shootout at the end, the bird police did no flying whatsoever. Why? They forgot they could? (6/10)

#128. Westward Whoa (1936) The final Beans cartoon! It’s just Bean’s bratty nephews in a “boy who cried wolf” situation with “Indians.” Then it turns into a pretty racist dipiction of “Indians” and just sort of ends without the story being resolved. Oh well. (6/10)

BYE BYE YOU STUPID CAT, YOU BARELY LASTED FIVE SECONDS!

#129. Plane Dippy (1936) Porky joins the Air Force and tests a robotic plane. Has a few clever moments, and a moment with a dog at the end that of course I laughed at. Overall, a pretty decent cartoon. I’m sure the remaining 900~ of these will breeze by! (5.5/10)

#130. Let It Be Me (1936) MM A hen leaves her rooster for a celebrity COCK, who inevitably leaves her for another girl. Eventually the original couple gets back together. Besides it maybe being a little sad, this one wasn’t anything special. (6/10)

#131. I’d Love to Take Orders from You (1936) MM Wasn’t sure what to make of the title, then I found out it’s about scarecrows and...I’m still scratching my head. I thought it looked nice, with some really smooth animation. A little better than middle of the road. (7/10)

#132. Fish Tales (1936) This one was weird. Porky Pig goes fishing, and a bunch of bizarre things happen to him. 2/3s of it are “just a dream” but, even the parts that aren’t are super weird. Not super funny weird, just sort of surreal, and possibly scary for kids? (5.5/10)

#133. Bingo Crosbyana (1936) MM More gross bugs like in #110, it’s just flies this time. Also, it’s Bing Crosby as a fly, which the celebrity COCK in #129 was also a parody of, and also named Bingo. Regardless, I enjoyed this one and laughed a couple times. But, it’s not great. (6.5/10)

#134. Shanghaied Shipmates (1936) So, I only found this online in color, but it was originally in b&w so, I naturally I turned my iPad into greyscale mode. I also think the plot might be a reference to a 1920’s Soviet propaganda film (Battleship Potemkin?)! Oh, and the short itself was just ok. (6/10)

#135. When I Yoo Hoo (1936) MM It’s just a standard Hatfield-McCoy parody (Retrospective aside: Haha, soooo standard!) that ends in a tie after a failed cock fight. Not much to say here. I just didn’t see anything in here worth writing about. (5/10)

#136. Porky’s Pet (1936) Porky and his pet...Ostrich...are given the chance to hit the big time in New York for...no discernible reason. Do they make it? It ends far before they possibly can. There’s only a 3rd of a story here, and it doesn’t continue in other shorts. Boo! (4.5/10)

#137. I Love to Singa (1936) MM Yes! I’ve seen this one before! Multiple times in fact. It’s quite a classic. Not exactly funny, but definitely a well told memorable short. Owl Jolson is a great Jazz Singer! (8.5/10)

Didja know? South Park did a parody in the first episode.

#138. Porky the Rain-Maker (1936) Basically “Jack and the Bean Stalk” with pills that effect the weather rather than beans. Probably one of the first shorts I’ve watched that has a concept for actual jokes, and runs with it. Vaguely progressive but, overall middle of the road. (6/10)

#139. Sunday Go to Meetin’ Time (1936) MM Another “censored 11” cartoon that was banned for being racist, and yeeahh. It dots the i and crosses the t. Watermelon, chicken, and poorly drawn African Americans really make this one cringey to watch. Ew. (1/10)

#140. Porky’s Poultry Plant (1936) Uh, so Porky has to defend his friends(?) the hens...from an evil hawk, at his...poultry plant? Like, does Porky even know what poultry is and why he’s running the plant? This was so stupid. Almost funny in that way. ALMOST! (6/10)

#141. At Your Service Madame (1936) MM A bunch of piglets (not Porky) work to keep a fat idiot from stealing their mother’s fortune. I had a chuckle at a random joke, but not enough to make this anything memorable. (5.5/10)

#142. Toy Town Hall (1936) MM Just a bunch of toys singing songs. BUT, almost all these songs appeared in earlier shorts! Plus, the animation and recordings seem quite similar, as if some tracing was going on! Hmm...also dated references to 30’s movie stars makes this kinda trash. (3/10)

#143. Milk and Money (1936) Porky sells milk to pay off the mortgage. Mediocre, except for the evil mortgage collector! He’s hilariously evil, and the best part of this short. Probably the funniest thing in all of these that I watched yet! (7/10)

#144. Porky’s Moving Day (1936) Another hilarious character! Porky’s sidekick who does nothing except say “Okay, Boss.” over and over...pretty funny. I think the idea is he was a former boxer so he suffered head trauma? IDK. But, he while he was the best, the rest was just ok. Retroactively, I can say that this is supposed to be a stereotype. A lot of black stereotypes in these shorts say “Okay, Boss!” For some reason. Shame on me for finding him funny. (5/10)

#145. Boulevardier from the Bronx (1936) MM One of the main theme songs is used at the beginning for the credits for the first time. Other than that, this is nothing other than a reverse “Casey at Bat” with a pitcher rather than a batter. Very forgettable. (4.5/10)

#146. Don’t Look Now (1936) MM Cupid, and...uh...Satan(?!) foil each other on Valentine’s Day. Of course, Satan marries a skunk at the end. This one was just weird as hell. Pretty literally. (6.5/10)

#147. Little Beau Porky (1936) Porky is a camel washer in the legion in Arabia. I mean, it’s just kinda mediocre. But, I was impressed by how badass Porky abruptly became towards the end. Shooting machine guns and knocking out baddies left and right. (5/10)

#148. The CooCoo Nut Grove (1936) MM Another short full of 1930’s celebrity caricatures I (mostly) didn’t recognize. Most of the time I was either thinking “I don’t know who that is so I don’t get it.” Or “Hey, I know him!” The real puzzler was Clark Gable’s ears...he has big ears? (6/10)

Welp, I guess he does!

#149. The Village Smithy (1936) MM At first there was a narrator, and I was like “Oh, cool something new!” then he went away and I was sad. It was about a Village Smithy, in case you were wondering. More to the point, this probably more resembles a “Looney Tune” than anything that came before it, so there’s that. (6.5/10)

#150. Porky in the North Woods (1936) Porky has a wildlife refuge, and some evil possibly Russian dude decides he can still hunt and trap and stuff. Of course the animals get revenge. Nothing too special here. Even the villain was lacking. #150! (5/10)

#151. He Was Her Man (1937) MM Uh, so this one was extremely unpleasant to watch. It was just emotional and physical abuse between two mice in a relationship. They play it for laughs, but it’s not funny. I was agape when the girl shot the guy. Nothing “Looney” here. Jesus. (3/10)

#152. Porky the Wrestler (1937) Porky is...a boxer! Haha. Jk. He’s a wrestler. I don’t have much to say except that most of the jokes made very little sense. I mean, I’m cool with randomness. But, I never quite got what was going on half the time. Just confusing. (5/10)

#153. Pigs Is Pigs (1937) MM Hey, this one was pretty good. There was no songs (every Merry Melody short, the ones without recurring characters Bosko, Buddy, Beans, Porky...prior to this had one) and it was fun. No, the Pig wasn’t Porky. But he looks like him! (7.5/10)

Another fun fact: This moment from The Simpsons is a reference to this short!

ALSO!

From this point forward, all of the reviews are exclusive to this blog. I had written 153 of these prior to starting this Blog, and those were it.

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So...I'll guess I'll stop there.

I think that this era of shorts was the first and biggest step towards getting into Looney Tunes as most people know them. In fact, this is really where it all began. Porky Pig isn't quite the character you remember him as YET, but he is getting there.

The problem, thus far, is that the creators of the shorts don't seem to know what to do with Porky. Sure, he's the most popular character they've ever had...but, he was an accident!! How can they add more characters to bounce off him if nothing else they've ever done has stuck? Well, how about more happy little accidents?

In the mean time, the Merry Melodies are also improving, and getting away from music at the same time. (Thank God.) They are mostly enjoyable this time around, with a few stinkers here and there. "Sunday Go To Meetin' Time" being the worst of the bunch.

As for the best, I would point to "Page Miss Glory" and "I Love To Singa" as the best one's here. And, hey! Those are somewhat well known cartoons today, pretty much the first of the "classic" cartoons that a lot of people recognize (maybe...)

Overall, this was a big step in the right direction. I can't wait to see what the rest of 1937 holds! Woo-Hoo!

'Til Next Time!

- Alavem (All of 'Em!)