Porky's Railroad

Porky's Railroad is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin.[1] The short was released on August 7, 1937, and stars Porky Pig.[2]

Porky's Railroad
Directed byFrank Tashlin
Produced byLeon Schlesinger
Starring
Music byCarl W. Stalling
Animation byJoe D'Igalo, Robert Bentley
Color processColor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
August 7, 1937
Running time
7 minutes
LanguageEnglish

Plot

The short begins with many views of the #515 4-4-2 Atlantic type steam engine, Alfred, after the title card appears to be showing the front of the train and the engine. A message appears reading: "The 30th century limited, the railroad's crack train." Alfred blows his whistle 4 times and rings the bell 2 times. The song "California, Here I Come" plays in the background until Porky's scene comes along (The same 4-4-2 engine later appeared on the Merrie Melodies short "Steamlined Greta Green"). After many scenes of the 4-4-2 engine (which will show later in the short), it fades black to Porky and his 2-2-2 typed engine (#131⁄2 "Toots" ), because Porky immediately enjoys riding his "15th century unlimited (also a crack train, even more cracker including the engineer, Porky)." Many single-chime toots are heard while the train jumps for power. The train then manages to climb up the Piker's Peak, a steep hill. The train manages to stop in the middle, while going up the hill. Porky then manages to open its firebox, which is a candle. Porky then looks to the left, opening its second seat-box to find a can of pepper. Porky then starts to spray pepper all over the candle. Toots starts to sneeze multiple times as the train starts to move faster as he rockets up the hill. The train later runs out of control, going up and down the hill like a rocket. Porky then manages to go through tunnels, scenery, etc. Porky then speeds up to the switchers, in which his 10 boxcars and a caboose scrambles into man forms of tracks, then connecting them all together back. Alfred later makes the appearance again, blowing his whistle again 3 more times. But Porky sees throughout the window after looking some scenery. Porky then tries to find another switcher. Porky parks his engine, 10 boxcars and caboose near the Portis station. He notices that he has no room. He tries to look at the caboose, but fails when it is too late, then succeeds in other shots. The caboose is snapped off by Alfred, who bumps into it, but is moved by Porky in other shots, who moves his train. Porky feels in relief that Alfred continues to roll down the tracks. The caboose however does appear later. The same scene where Porky looks through the scenery before Alfred plays until he blows 4 toots of his single-chime whistle. Porky stops the train when he sees a cow, who is eating grass on the tracks as Porky blows the whistle four times and stops the train. Porky asks the cow to move out of the tracks in a polite manner, but is so annoyed when the cow ignores him, so instead Porky tries to tell her again. The cow ignores him again, so instead of reminding the third time, he tries to push the cows legs, but ends up falling on the tracks after the cow gets up and leaves. The cow finally gets off the track. Porky then angrily tries to get back on the train by scooping more coal into his firebox (candle). A bull later arrives marching, crossing the tracks and started to sit nearby a bush. Porky then tries to start up his engine, but sees the bull's tail (thinking it is still the cow). Porky then angrily gets off the train, and tries to teach the bull a lesson. He calls the bull a 4 legged piece of hamburger. He pulls the tail angrily while saying a reversed line (which apparently recognizes about not to explode Toot's unrecognizable wording, more information is at the next section below). The bull yells while Porky starts to jump and spin. He immediately gets back on the train by hopping into the engine's cab and continues his faster journey, speeding more than 400 miles per hour (the bull later appeared minutes later).[3]

The Silver Fish

Meanwhile, at the dispatch center, The call is waiting, forcing Porky to stop his train. After a moment of riding his "Toots", Porky stops at the dispatch center, waiting for the message. He reads it after a clothes line with a piece of paper clipped came to Porky. It reads that the "Silver Fish" is waiting, from the President "I. FULLER CINDERS". Porky is informed that his beloved train engine, the 131⁄2 named 'Toots', is to be replaced by a streamline train by the name of 'The Silver Fish'. The engineer, a dog, later greeted the audiences by riding on the fish, blasting his single chimed horn. The fish then arrives in a flash after Porky starts to tear down to say goodbye to his engine, Toots. Porky tries to greet the driver, who violent shakes Porky hand forcing the pig to stunt and fall down in sight. After the driver of 'The Silver Fish' insults 'Toots' by calling his a "brickulator on a roller skate", and much to the harsh words of the dog engineer, who hurts his feelings, Toots starts to faintly dying on air, because he thinks that the engineer is rude to him. Porky mutters that his train can easily take on the streamline train against the driver. The driver agrees to a race after the driver pokes Porky's nose between his eyes twice, which the camera fades black into the race, and the starting mark.[4]

The race

An anthropomorphized dog character waits with his stopwatch. And then, "bang" goes the pistol, and the race starts as the dog character puts away his stopwatch. The "Silver Fish" leads in a flash while Porky's boxcars are all tied up, shocking the dog who is watching Porky's engine. Further sequences show the "Silver Fish" leading in a very fast movement, forcing a pile of logs to break free while a man hides inside, looking at the camera, shocked. The "Silver Fish", however, then immediately blasts through a tunnel, forcing the tunnel to show its broken interior. The "Silver Fish" then stops at the liftbridge. A slow boat then goes underneath the bridge halfway. A caricature fish reminiscent of Mae West then pops up out of the water and admires the "Silver Fish", speaking in West's customary way. "Toots" then immediately catches up with Porky blowing his whistle a couple of times. As the boat "S.S. Leon" (for Leon Schlesinger) starts to pass under the liftbridge with the bascules partway up, Porky makes it across with no damage, nor even derailment. Some equipment is left on the train from the boat, including a lifeboat with a sailor singing a song while rowing, which is hanging by davits on one boxcar's left side. The bull, who appeared earlier, remembers the train and how Porky pulled his tail, thinking to himself that Porky "can't get away with a thing like that," and begins charging Porky's train from the rear. The bull rushes while yelling, and smashes through the caboose and the boxcars. The bull then butts the locomotive, sending "Toots" upwards and over the "Silver Fish", much to its driver's astonishment. Another anthropomorphized dog character raises the checkered flag as Porky wins the race with a crash back to the ground after his unexpected flight. In the end, Porky (who is shown blowing the horn) becomes the new engineer of the "Silver Fish", whilst a battered, irreparably damaged "Toots" is on a trailer behind with "Headin' for the last roundhouse" (a play on a well known song by Billy Hill) written on a sign attached to it as the cartoon ends.[5]

Sequence with reversed audio

In the scene in which Porky pulls the bull's tail, some of his speech is garbled. When played backwards, however, Porky's words here are "...Toots old gal, d-d-don't pop your b-b-b-b...".[6]

In-jokes

When a woodpile is knocked over there is a brief view of a black man, a derogatory visual reference from the cartoonists to the then commonly used term "a nigger in the woodpile". During the race, Porky runs his train over the top of a boat called the 'S.S Leon', a gag dedicated to the cartoon's producer Leon Schlesinger. Also, the Morse Code heard is a message to write "QST QSL Leon Schlesinger Hollywood picture of Porky"[7]

See also


Reissued As Merrie Melodies Dec 9th 1943



The USA Dubbed Print Uses 1947-1948 Dubbed Ending Card Sourced From Bugs Bunny Rides Again 1948 While The EU Dubbed Print Uses 1937-1938 Dubbed Ending Card

US Print Uses 1941-1955 MWRA While EU Print Uses 1938-1941 MWRA

References
  1. Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 60. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 124–126. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  3. The Looney Tunes Show - Season 3 Episode 4: Porky Pig's Feat/Porky's Railroad - Metacritic
  4. Looney Tunes 1936-37: We've Got Ourselves a Star... Let's Get Another|Cartoon Research
  5. WorldCat.org
  6. Porky's Railroad (1937) - Hidden Audio by CCCartoons on YouTube
  7. Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America - Google Books (pg.43)
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