Good concept, poorly executed.

Dreadfully Boring

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Porky Chops (1949) *** (out of 4) A squirrel from Brooklyn goes to the great Northwoods to get some rest but then comes across lumberjack Porky Pig trying to cut down his tree. The two start battling one another but soon a third party is going to enter the picture. This is a pleasant short that manages to have quite a few smiles and it's certainly cute enough. The one problem I have with the short is the actual squirrel who just doesn't sit too well with me. I've seen this film several times over the years and each time I can't help but think it would have been different with a better character. As far as Porky goes he's at the top of his game and the poor guy takes a nice beating like he always does. The third party that shows up only appears for a matter of seconds but he clearly steals the film. I won't ruin the gag as it's one of the best in the film.

Cult director Arthur Davis has made some hysterically funny cartoons in his time but 'Porky Chops' sure ain't one of 'em! One of the ugliest, most unfunny Warner shorts I have ever seen, 'Porky Chops' is something of an oddity. Its problems are numerous. For a start, it is very poorly paced and full of misfiring gags. The animation is clunky and the character designs are unattractive. This is especially true of the one-shot squirrel character who spends the cartoon trying to prevent Porky from cutting down his tree. Aside from looking lousy, this squirrel is a thinly veiled re-imagining of Bugs Bunny. Come to mention it, Porky's role in this film could just as easily have been played by Elmer Fudd and there are even moments when, if you squint, Porky looks just like Elmer in his hunting hat and brandishing his gun. As he was replaced by more interesting characters, Porky's starring roles became rarer and even in his earlier cartoons he frequently played second fiddle to crazier characters (see 'Porky's Party', in which Porky barely gets a look in). Chuck Jones brilliantly injected new life into him by casting him opposite Daffy in several inspired genre spoofs but Davis's attempt to throw the spotlight on the fame-starved pig falls completely flat. 'Porky Chops' is as pitiful as its dreadful title would suggest.

Arthur Davis, who directed "Porky Chops", was most famous as an animator; maybe he just didn't have exactly what it takes to be a director. This cartoon is pretty funny - hell, it looks like "Citizen Kane" compared to some of the cartoons coming out today - but it mostly seems to be a one-joke premise, as Porky Pig tries to chop down a tree but the wise-guy squirrel using it as his vacation home keeps interfering.So, it's not a great cartoon, but still good for a few laughs...particularly with what happens after the dynamite gag (the Termite Terrace crowd sure had a way with dynamite, didn't they?).PS: The name "The squirrels of Central Park" originally came from Gary Larson's cartoon "The Far Side". The squirrel here reminded me of that.

Even if you were not to know who the director and the writers were before watching this cartoon, it's almost certain that you would start suspecting none of the usual gang at the Warner Brothers animation studio were behind this entry. What we have here are writers who worked at the studio only for a brief time, and a director who was more successful as an animator. The end result is very strange, feeling like it was done by people who had only seen a handful of Looney Tunes cartoons before being assigned to make this cartoon. They have the words, but not the music - the timing is very off, and they don't seem to understand how the characters (both the protagonist and antagonist) need to act. I agree with the previous poster that this was an odd choice for Warner Brothers first box set of Looney Tunes cartoons - it certainly is no classic. Still, I must admit it shines when placed next to some of the cartoons that came out of the cartoon studio during its dying days.