You Ought to Be in Pictures

Film Review by Dean Duncan Jul 13, 2015

Those are the actual WB animators, filmed in live action, going to lunch. They leave Porky and Daffy to fight among themselves. Daffy is trying to convince Porky to leave WB for greener cinematic pastures, but it’s mostly so he can take over Porky’s place. Allowing for a slight shift in cast, this is the scenario that would be very successfully resurrected for Joe Dante’s Looney Tunes: Back in Action. It’s quite well executed here. There sure is a subtext!

It is that that guy reading the paper behind the desk, Leon Schlesinger, really is the boss of/at WB animation. It is also that he pretty well hated cartons. Wasn’t too respectful of or to the people who laboured over them either, apparently. The animation/live action mix is capable, unfussy, pleasing. The security guard (Mike Maltese!), idea and execution, is very nice. There’s a really good Western section, and a really fine shot of Porky tearing through that sheet. But the animators never actually come back from lunch—the subtextual story left incomplete, to be continued.