Porky's Spring Planting (1938) User Reviews

Garden planting time with Porky Pig

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 22 January 2018]

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

'Porky's Spring Planting' is not one of Porky's very finest and not quite in the better half of his late 30s cartoons. Frank Tashlin does a nice job directing, with some nice visual characterisation and engagement with the material. The whole of 'Porky's Spring Planting' is very well made and never less than amusing, though not all of the gags have the freshness they should.

Porky himself is likeable, but in terms of personality and material he plays second fiddle to the chickens and especially Streamline, who has all the best lines.

Mel Blanc is outstanding as always. He always was the infinitely more preferable voice for Porky, Joe Dougherty never clicked with me, and he proves it in 'Porky's Building'. Blanc shows an unequalled versatility and ability to bring an individual personality to every one of his multiple characters in a vast majority of his work, there is no wonder why he was in such high demand as a voice actor.

The animation is very good. It's fluid in movement, crisp in shading and very meticulous in detail. The story may be predictable but it's nicely paced.

Carl Stalling's music is typically outstanding. It is as always lushly orchestrated, full of lively energy and characterful in rhythm, not only adding to the action but also enhancing it.

Overall, good but not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox

One of the Weaker Tashlins

[boblipton · 5/10 · 29 January 2008]

Until the rise of Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny at the very end of the 1930s, Porky Pig was Termite Terrace's biggest star, but he was largely a straight man. In this one he is a farmer doing his spring planting, beset by a lazy watch dog ("I must be a watch dog -- I'm full of ticks") and raiding chickens. Part of my lack of enjoyment may be due to the poor coloring imposed on the print I saw.

Tashlin tries his best, using some of his interesting compositions. In the beginning scenes, while Porky is harrowing the ground before planting, he is shown in a tight shot from a very low angle -- almost a worm's-eye view. Tash would go from directing cartoons with very live-action compositions to live-action movies with very cartoonish set-ups. but this is not, alas, one of his better efforts.

The dog has all the best lines here . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 20 March 2017]

. . . as Porky's mutt "Streamline" turns out to be a cornucopia of Trivial Pursuit-type tidbits of info from the 1900s, when this Looney Tune was first released. As Porky is chiding his pooch for not being enough of a Yard Nazi to keep the neighboring flock of chickens from gobbling down the garden vegetables that they've planted, Streamline mutters "Sure, I'm a watch dog - - I'm full of ticks." In the Old Timey Days of Yesteryear's 20th Century, many folks wore time-telling gadgets on their wrists called "wristwatches" or "watches" for short, and these Beta versions of a smart device included an infinite number of gears and gizmos that actually made them go "tick-tick-tick." In fact, the advertising slogan for one company's "watches" was "It takes a licking, and keeps on ticking." That's because the company knew that ALL watches of the 1900s usually broke during their first week of usage, from "over-winding," being dropped, or liquid submersion. Earlier, Streamline had protested his work assignment by growling that "I'll be able to sleep all day when I get my social security," since this cartoon was released at a time when getting monthly money just for surviving until old age was a cutting-edge new concept. Finally, when Porky gives Streamline a bone to bury, the pet digs up his heavy metal safe, stating "None of this share-the-wealth business for me," which pretty much contradicts his willingness to accept an Old Folks Allowance from Uncle Sam.

Farmer Porky

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 26 December 2021]

In this black & white cartoon, Porky is planting a new garden with his dog, Streamline...and it's a very magical one. This is because right after plowing and irrigating, the garden is filled with fully grown veggies and flowers! Unfortunately, the nearby chickens discover this and help themselves to Porky's produce. Is there any prayer for Porky to keep the chickens off his veggies?

This is a fair cartoon...well animated but also not particularly funny or clever. Not a bad cartoon but one that could have easily been funnier and more enjoyable.

A Masterpiece for Its Time!

[Dagurasu · 10/10 · 1 August 2009]

Unlike the other reviewer I saw this cartoon in beautiful black and white, not the colorized version. I can understand that a poorly realized color version of this cartoon would have affected one's opinions of it. I was most impressed by the wonderfully cinematic shots done from a ground level in a simulated three dimensional perspective. The rows of corn being planted by Porky and then harvested by the chickens had an immediacy and an impact that few other cartoons had at the time. I only saw this cartoon once but it made a much bigger impression on me than the earlier Porky cartoon dealing with a similar subject, "Porky's Garden." From a historical perspective movie cameras at the time were big and bulky so doing something similar to this in live action would have been impossible.