A Masterpiece!

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

"The Blow Out" is an American black-and-white cartoon from 1936, so this one is already over 80 years old and to put it into perspective, this one is from the year that Hitler held the Olympic Games in Berlin. This shows better how old it is than just there mere numbers. It runs for 7.5 minutes, is a Schlesinger Studios production and the director here is the young Tex Avery early in his career before his 30th birthday. And while I was pretty underwhelmed today by the man's perhaps career-defining propaganda cartoon Blitz Wolf, I really enjoyed this one we have here. The Porky you see here has nothing really to do with the Warner Bros' Porky that played second fiddle all the time, but instead it is a cartoon from the era where Porky is still lead character material. The introduction to him as well as the main antagonist was as good and funny as these scenes from when their paths cross. The constant "helping hand" joke reference never gets old at all and stays hilarious from start to finish as Porky's need for money keeps resulting in the bomb guy constantly getting his explosive back against his will. Maybe it is not a title with relevant references about its time, but it doesn't need to be to be really funny and witty. It's a story and approach that really feels all by the books, but this doesn't take away any quality here in my opinion. Even without color, this is among the very best cartoons the year 1936 has to offer and it really was a great year for cartoons, so that means quite something. I highly recommend the watch here, go check it out.

Tex Avery's early directorial shorts barely resemble the zany MGM shorts he's known for, but a lot of the gags and ideas are present in his earliest shorts but in embryonic form. Porky chasing the bomber foreshadows Droopy's ubiquity with the wolf in the short Dumb Hounded (1943) right down to the staging.I've always held the Technicolor Merrie Melodies in higher regard than the black and white Looney Tunes in the 1930's. Yet, in Avery's black and white shorts, he was able to inject more comedy than in his Merrie Melodies. This was due to the Merrie Melodies having to plug a popular song, which hindered gags. This short has held up pretty well over time. The WB cartoons didn't really get their edge until the 1936-37 season. Considering, this is one of the first cartoons Avery directed for Schlesinger, this would have been a strong indicator that the studio was heading in a great direction.

Osama bin Laden, you may consider yourself the cleverest terrorist on earth, but you've got nothing on the bomber portrayed in the early Porky Pig cartoon "The Blow Out". The thug here goes around town planting bombs, and no one can catch him. But when Porky - doing good deeds so as to get enough money to buy a milkshake - gives back the bomb, the bomber isn't a bit happy.Still listening, Osama? You've got nothing to worry about in the real world. While George W. Bush doesn't know jack about how to catch you, Porky catches the bomber without even trying.OK, I'll stop pretending that I'm talking to Osama bin Laden. But the point is that while this is a very early Porky cartoon (at this time, he looked like a walking heart attack and Mel Blanc wasn't yet providing his voice), it's still fairly entertaining. I presume that at this this point, the Termite Terrace crowd was still trying to figure out exactly what path their work would take, so we needn't expect the sorts out completely wacky gags that characterized the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons in the '40s and '50s. Worth seeing. As it's not available on video or DVD - that I know of, at least - you can find it on YouTube.

Don't expect to see this one on TV. It is a perfect example that animators, especially at Warner Brothers, in the 1930's weren't afraid to use any topical subject for humor. No wonder Chris Rock cites Bugs Bunny as a major influence. It features Porky Pig before they slimmed him down. It was directed by Tex (as Fred in this case) Avery, his second directorial effort for WB. The Ha Ha subject? A terrorist bomber. It opens with a character looking like radio's The Shadow placing a bomb in front of a building and blowing it up. Next, newspaper front pages report on the further carnage and reward offered for the capture of the mad man. Porky enters the picture by trying to buy an ice cream soda. He comes up five cents short. He hits on the idea of picking up things people drop and returning them in hopes of a small reward. He sees the bomber deposit a bomb. The cartoon then kicks into high gear with Porky dogging the tale of the bomber trying to return the bomb. Now the hunter is the hunted, trying to escape his own murderous device. Porky finally chases him right into the welcoming arms of the police, earning the reward. He immediately goes back to the soda fountain and spends every penny on a mountain of ice cream sodas. If you think Tex Avery was the only animator who would make fun of terrorism, see Ali Baba Bound (Bob Clampett), oh yes, that one isn't shown any more either. Suppressing the past, doesn't it make you feel safe?