Porky and Gabby
Porky and Gabby is a 1937 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon short directed by Ub Iwerks, the co-creator of Mickey Mouse.[1] The short was released on May 15, 1937, and stars Porky Pig along with the first appearance of Gabby Goat.[2]
| Porky and Gabby | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Ub Iwerks |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Starring | Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Musical direction: Carl W. Stalling Orchestra: Milt Franklyn (uncredited) |
| Animation by | Character animation: Robert Clampett Chuck Jones |
| Color process | Black and white |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
Release date | May 15, 1937 |
| Language | English |
Summary
The short begins with a view of the woods while Porky drives in a 1920s vehicle filled with camping equipment, with Gabby sitting in the front passenger row. Porky looks around the woods while Gabby looks forward, telling him it is a very swell day. Gabby can't handle the drive, so he stares off being angry while looking rightward. The car later ran over a rock, forcing all items to fly up high and fall back to the trunk, except for the pan, which the pan hits Gabby on the head with a lump on him, responding to Porky "YEAH!" Later on, Porky and Gabby were in front of a truck named "Star Van" which is driven by a dog. The car starts to move right and then left. The truck covers the whole entire road with gates surrounding it. Gabby then gets his revenge by honking Porky's horn. The goat tells him to get out of the way angrily and telling him from a faraway distance if he is deaf. The car then moves to the left. Gabby then does a bit of fighting positions, and calling the dog (or truck) a "big sheep" until the dog pulls up with a left-edge of a connector. The car then moves a bit faster as Gabby spins around the connector. A couple of more fighting positions and gibberish sentences from Gabby were also shown. The dog told nicely to don't get excited, then a reused audio clip from the beginning (before the title card) of Porky's Romance came along yelling at him in a bit more high pitched voice "EXCITED?! WHO'S EXCITED, I'M NOT EXCITED!" (In the 1968 colorized version, the animation of Gabby and the dog stops for a moment). A couple of more fighting positions were later continued in the next frames as the dog's connector throws the poor goat down to a puddle of mud on the road, then Gabby who is covered with mud started looking at the other direction in a hyper move while mud splashed throughout the frame. Porky then looks at the back of the vehicle, and stops his vehicle right when he notices Gabby is on the road. He then starts to back up, but the Star Van's gate literally hits Porky forcing Porky to fly to the front of the vehicle, on top of the hood. Then Gabby, who appeared to do the same positions except he is not completely muddy, got run over by Porky's reversing car. The car stopped and Gabby was stuck, almost completely filled with mud. Porky tries to find Gabby, until he finds Gabby stuck in mud. Porky moves his vehicle a little bit forward, but Gabby then starts throwing a fit while jumping up and down and pulling his ears. The next scene shows the car moving up a hill. His hood ornament starts to act like a volcano flowing water, moving a bit faster until it slows down more. The car's engine then starts to fade out, by doing its last pumps, until it quickly dies. The car immediately stopped on top of the hill, nearly close though. Porky thinks that both characters should push the vehicle, but ends up Gabby pushing the car up, forcing the car to move downwards, and Porky pulling the car but accidentally snapped off its front bumpers. Gabby later rams the car while Porky lying down, forcing the car to move downward and running over Porky. The car left without both the pig and the goat. So both of them chase the car downhill. The car however later moved up another hill after it went down the first hill. It then moved in reverse. Both Porky and Gabby tried not to get run over as they ran back up the first hill. The car continues to move from the first to the second hill until both Porky and Gabby got run over by the car, forcing to go up the second hill (which the scene image is the same as the first hill, but with the car going a bit faster). Meanwhile after finishing a couple of hills, Porky and Gabby traveled a bit more until they reached its destination. They both made it. Gabby tries to unload the car while Porky tries to set up the tent. Gabby however tries to take off the strap from Porky's vehicle but ends up making the car to flip, dumping all material out of the car and landing all over Gabby. Porky tries to set up the tent until a fly interrupts Porky. Porky looks at the fly around until Porky tries to shoo the fly, but ends up getting stung by the fly. Porky and the fly were then all covered up by the tent cover. He managed Gabby to find a flyswatter. He looked for the flyswatter but ended up getting a shovel instead. He runs back to Porky to literally hit Porky in the head instead of the fly. He stared down the tent cover for a moment until he found Porky. And the fly immediately stuns Gabby, and Gabby chased the fly until the fly landed on the back of Porky's car. Gabby then aims at the fly, aiming close to Porky's spare tire. He tries to hit the fly with the shovel but ends up showing Porky's engine in front. Smoke then comes out of the vehicle. Porky then tries to connect the rope to the nail he hammered (which is not seen). Porky then reminds Gabby to bring a piece of rope. He finds a piece of rope while climbing up some other material, looking downward. He climbs back down, looking curious until he finds the piece of rope next to a black box. He pulls the rope but the rope unfortunately starts up a different type of engine, which is a runoff outboard motor sending all other material including the black box flying off-screen, with the motor (acting like an airplane) flying near Gabby. Then the motor, however, starts drilling the ground downwards. Gabby then walked over the hole the motor drilled, but unfortunately continues to drill upwards, nearly hitting Gabby forcing the goat to fall down the hole. Later, Gabby managed to get up (not seen), but Gabby then found a rifle on the ground. He grabs the rifle and tries to shoot at the motor. He shoots sending him flying backwards 3 times, landing on Porky's car horn, honking. After another shot sending Gabby flying, it managed to land on a bed filled with springs twice (one while bouncing on it). Many springs shot up in the air with one attached to Gabby who is also sending up to the air, Gabby shoots the gun again in managed to fall, and lands on a tree branch. The motor passed by, and he wants help from Porky because he got caught in a limb. The motor then runs over Gabby, sending him spinning and flying down, bit dazed. Porky spotted the motor as he grabs a piece of rope, swinging it and Porky thought he might've been caught. But the rope connects Porky's leg, sending him flying. Gabby then runs from the running car engine as he managed to climb up tree branches, which went loose by the motor. Gabby then acts like a walking stickman until the engine comes by. The motor with Porky connected tries to tie up the branches, but ends up Gabby falling from sight and the branches snapped off by the motor fly off-screen. Porky and Gabby managed to get up and walk different directions until they all looked around for the sound of the engine coming by, forcing both to crash into each other just on time for the engine to fly over Porky and Gabby. They all rushed after looking leftwards for a couple of seconds. They all rushed back to the car. The car engine that was accidentally opened by Gabby from earlier later tired back up from the car, and starts to speed up as fast as they can, with nothing completely attached. They chased by the same speed as the motor. However, the returning appearance of the "Star Van" with the dog driving from sight continues its journey. But the car needs to get through so Gabby does the same anger to before until the engine comes along. Both Porky and Gabby tried to take cover until the motor both destroyed Porky's car and the "Star Van", sending pieces from Porky's car to fly closely on-screen. Porky, Gabby and the dog all woke up from the crash. Gabby then surprisingly turns to the right (in the 1968 colorized version, Gabby's animation froze for a second) to see the dog all covered up with a tire on his neck. Gabby started to laugh at the dog, as Porky turns to the right (with a bit of frozen animation from Porky in the 1968 colorized version). The dog however angrily a bit grabs the rope from the connector from the beginning of the short, and hits Gabby on the neck, dazing Gabby while Porky and the dog all happily looked at Gabby as the cartoon ends.
References
- Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 56. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
- Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 124–126. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.