Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

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

Now that's a cartoon all wacky and stuff. Is this a great cartoon or what? Eh! Could be. A cat goes a hunting instead of a dog. The bird in the cage looks like a canary so is this Tweety's origins. Is Tweety suicidal? They kept it simple and changed a few cliche's that other cartoons of that era had. The gags were all similar yet somewhat unique. So why only 7 out of 10. I cannot explain it. Maybe it started just a little slow but by the end of the short it made me wish there was more. Overall though really good. I'm watching loony toons in chronological order so I hope that they used this cartoon as a base to measure how the other shorts are.

Bob Clampett's 'The Sour Puss' is at its best when its being surprisingly gentle and leisurely. It takes a good few minutes to build up to the main plot of a fishing trip and Clampett restrains his usual frantic pace for some very nicely executed gags. Porky's impersonation of a fish has to be seen to be believed! In these opening scenes we are introduced to Porky and his fish-loving cat as they decide to go fishing. We then share a partially sleepless night with the characters before finally arriving at the lake. At this point, however, 'The Sour Puss' takes a turn for the worse. The character of a nutty flying fish is introduced and with this comes the recognisably crazy pacing of a Clampett cartoon. Unfortunately, the fish character is an immensely annoying carbon copy of very early Daffy Duck and we get another run through of the formula from Tex Avery's 'Porky's Duck Hunt'. This scenario had already been replayed and perfected with Avery's masterful 'Daffy Duck and Egghead' and 'The Sour Puss' feels like the studio is treading water, recycling scenarios with inevitably diminishing returns. The flying fish is not only annoying and occasionally poorly animated, he also completely takes the focus away from Porky and his cat who had previously been carrying the film very nicely. 'The Sour Puss' ends up being a cartoon that falls apart when its main plot rears its ugly head, the character that was meant to be its trump card proving to be its downfall.

"The Sour Puss" is a great black-and-white Porky Pig cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. Porky and his pet cat Pussy are thrilled about the opening of fishing season. The one fish that they try to catch, however, might prompt them to reconsider their excitement; this flying fish is such a screwball that he bears almost the exact disposition of a very early Daffy Duck!My favorite scenes from this cartoon include the following. The musical accompaniment becomes a bright jazzy tempo as Porky gets up from his rocking chair to strap on his fishing gear; when he informs Pussy that fish is on the menu for tomorrow evening's dinner, the cat is absolutely hilarious as he joyfully somersaults all over the house! As Porky amusingly counts sheep while sleeping, he only gives half credit to a tiny sheep. The lunatic flying fish becomes a yo-yo for Porky and plunks away at Pussy's tail like an upright jazz bass."The Sour Puss" is a very good example of the energy that director Bob Clampett brought to the Warner Bros. cartoons. Notice especially the flexibility of both Pussy and the fish in their respective moments of wild animation. Also notable is Porky's elasticity as he imitates a fish. Even Porky's rocking chair in the opening scene has a flexibility all its own!

This is a black and white Porky cartoon where Porky is basically an extra, with the dominant characters being a lazy cat and a demented fish. Because I want to discuss some of the details, this is a spoiler warning: The first couple of minutes of this is great, with Porky deciding to go fishing and then asking his sleepy and lazy cat to guess what they will be having for dinner. The cat then imitates several animals, including a very funny chicken, only to have Porky top him by pantomiming a fish! Imagine, if you will, a cartoon pig pantomiming a fish. To say that the cat greets this news with enthusiasm would be an understatement. He's bouncing around the room and ends up kissing a mouse, who doesn't take it very well (to say the least). Unfortunately, the next bit kind of stops the momentum by having a "counting fish" gag that isn't all that funny.Out fishing the next morning, they meet a fish who is the lunatic prince of all fishdom. He basically dominates most of the rest of the short, giving both Porky and Sour Puss no end of heckling and abuse and periodically looking directly at the screen as if addressing the audience and making some hilarious remark, as the more manic versions of Bugs and Daffy would do, early on in their existence.The ending is very funny and I won't really spoil it except to note that the very end finishes with a parody of Lew Lehr, a comic who would have been very familiar to audiences at the time, but isn't a household name at this point.This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 4 and is well worth watching. Recommended.