Porky in the North Woods (1936) User Reviews

how far north, I wonder

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 25 July 2007]

When animal refuge owner Porky Pig sets up signs prohibiting hunting, trapping, fishing - in fact, pretty much everything - a hunter naturally decides to engage in all these illegal activities. So, Porky has to free his animal friends, and thereby incurs the hunter's wrath. But when the animals see the hunter abusing Porky...well, were Bugs Bunny present, he would affirm just one thing: Of course you realize this means war! And brother, let me tell you: not even in any of the grade-Z horror movies about nature's vengeance do you get to see any of what you see here! They don't identify where specifically "Porky in the North Woods" takes place, although I presume that it's in northern Canada. If so, then it corroborates every good thing that Michael Moore says about our northern neighbor.

But anyway, this is a pretty neat cartoon. Obviously, it was an early one, so we shouldn't expect any of the really crazy stuff that became the cornerstone of the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons of the '40s and '50s. But it's still an OK one.

A solid Frank Tashlin Porky cartoon

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 24 October 2013]

Not among his best though, Porky the Fireman was a real standout. The beavers are on the annoying side, though admittedly they do work alright with Porky, the ending is rather mawkish and somehow it does feel odd not having Mel Blanc voice Porky, Joe Dougherty from personal taste overdoes the stutter too much. The animation is beautifully shaded and drawn though, and Tashlin's directing style really comes through in his camera angles and the quick cuts technique. The music has always been a strength with Looney Tunes, Porky in the North Woods is not an exception. The character, lushness in orchestration and energetic rhythms can be heard and very effectively. The writing is witty and warm-hearted, the story may be on the unexceptional side but the slick pacing and energy still makes it entertaining. Porky is not the strongest of lead character, though he acquits himself quite well still. Jean-Baptiste is the best character in Porky in the North Woods however and whoever cast Billy Bletcher as the character deserved a medal, Bletcher's voice work was spot on. Overall, solid if not great cartoon. Recommended but not an absolute must. 7/10 Bethany Cox

A lovely, fast-paced cartoon with a moral

[phantom_tollbooth · 8/10 · 9 January 2009]

Many of the great Warner Bros. cartoons seemed to suggest a humane, anti-hunting message. Elmer Fudd, the greatest dupe of them all, was frequently a hunter and in almost every hunting picture, regardless of who played the hunter, the prey came out on top. Frank Tashlin's 'Porky in the North Woods' makes this anti-hunting angle explicit, casting Porky as the owner of a stretch of forest in which animal cruelty of any kind is forbidden. Enter Jean Batiste, a hunter who is determined to ignore this. In a typically brilliant, cinematic approach, Tashlin only shows Batiste is shadow for the first half of the cartoon, making him all the more threatening. When he finally puts in a proper appearance, he brutalises Porky in quite an extreme way, all of which makes his inevitable comeuppance all the more satisfying.

A beautiful, strongly ethical cartoon, 'Porky in the North Woods' occasionally suffers from overly cute characters, chiefly the irritating beavers. I've loved beavers all my life, they've always been one of my favourite animals, yet 'Porky in the North Woods' occasionally makes me want to kill beavers! It's a shame because, when they're not talking in their grating childlike voices, the beaver characters have some fantastic moments such as their war over an apple. Another element which is often cited as a flaw in 'Porky in the North Woods' is Tashlin's very quick cuts between scenes but I actually find this technique exhilarating. Probably used mainly because Tashlin had too many ideas for a mere seven minutes, these cuts increase the already occasionally frantic pace, making 'Porky in the North Woods' a thrillingly hectic cartoon. Unfortunately, the ending is extraordinarily cloying but it's nowhere near bad enough to significantly taint this great cartoon.

Porky Saves the Day

[Michael_Elliott · 21 September 2017]

Porky in the North Woods (1936)

*** (out of 4)

Porky is working in the North Woods as an animal protector. He owns some land where all animals are safe and he demands no fishing, no hunting and no trapping. Of course, there's one hunter who decides to set some traps and he's not too happy when Porky lets the animals out.

PORKY IN THE NORTH WOODS is another fun entry for the animated series. The series was still quite young here but this was certainly one of the better shorts up to this time. There are all sorts of good moments in the film but the highlight has to be the sequence where Porky must save various animals stuck in the traps. Seeing what the animals look like when they're removed was quite funny. Overall this film has a very fast-pace, there's some nice animation and of course some good action.

That Jean Baptiste is quite the jerk!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 21 November 2021]

Porky Pig has created a sanctuary for woodland animals. However, the jerk French-Canadian trapper, Jean Baptiste doesn't care and soon invades Porky's property to kill animals! Porky tries to stop him and gets beaten up. Is there no one left to stop the evil Baptiste?

This is a well drawn and reasonably entertaining cartoon. While the stuff Looney Tunes made in the 1940s was a lot better, for 1936 this is awfully good and worth seeing even today.

Even before they shamed Humanity with their sadistic orgies . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 22 June 2016]

. . . of clubbing baby Seals to death in an annual fur-stealing ritual, the Canadian penchant for Environmental Terrorism was well known to Warner Bros. Clearly, PORKY IN THE NORTH WOODS is intended to sound the alarm about America's not-so-friendly neighbor to the North. The crazed Canadian Nature Rapist wreaking havoc South of the border at Porky's Place is introduced through his maniacal cackling as he goes out of this way to violate every Common Sense Conservation Rule thoughtfully enacted by Porky on behalf of Sustainability for the American Everyman. By the time NORTH WOODS hit the screen, Canadian Tourists (a.k.a., slob hunters) already had partially destroyed Nature's Legacy for 21st Century Generations of Americans by slaughtering our carrier pigeon, woolly mammoth, and dodo bird populations into extinction. Not deterred by Warner's warning, these Northern Villains even today are pumping billions of gallons of explosive tar sands oil throughout our Homeland, as they plot to contaminate most our our drinking water reserves by shipping ALL of their nuclear waste for burial on the shores of our Great Lakes. Rather than having these Canadian thugs clubbing our brave S.E.A.L.s to death if we invade that renegade country at this late date, America's next President MUST force Canada to wall itself off from us. This wall will be paid for entirely by Canada itself.

The trapper becomes the trapped!

[llltdesq · 9/10 · 18 November 2006]

This is a very well done short which was directed by Frank Tashlin, who had the distinction of directing both animated shorts and live-action features. He did quite a bit, yet, to the general public, his name probably isn't as familiar as Chuck Jones's is, or perhaps Friz Freleng or Bob Clampett. His work was very good. As I will be commenting somewhat on this short, this is a spoiler warning:

Porky Pig is the guardian of the animals in the woods and he puts up sign after sign, making trapping, fishing, hunting, fires (and just about anything else) illegal. So, of course, a trapper comes along, finds all the signs incredibly funny and does everything he isn't supposed to do.

Here come two beavers (probably brothers-they fight too much with each other to be friends) who both try and get some fruit off a string placed above a trap. One of them gets caught and the other rushes off to find Porky. Porky frees the little beaver and quite a few other animals from various traps. There's a scene where the various animals go in one door of Porky's cabin with obvious injuries, only to come out another door with their injuries healed.

The trapper discovers that all his traps have been sprung, but are empty and goes looking for whoever emptied his traps. He finds Porky and starts beating on him something fierce. An animal spots this and sends out a distress signal. Animals pour out of every corner of the woods to return the favor and rescue Porky.

This is not a good time to be the trapper. He gets attacked from all sides by all kinds of animals and winds up trying to flee them on skis, with no luck (he's even attacked by turtles-in snow, no less!). He finally winds up buried upside down in the snow and there is much rejoicing. The final gag is cute.

This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 4, which is a very good set, just like the three earlier releases. Recommendations for both this short and the whole collection.

Jean-Baptiste, you are a nasty man!

[slymusic · 27 August 2009]

Directed by Frank Tashlin, "Porky in the North Woods" is a very good Warner Bros. cartoon featuring Porky Pig, although he is not yet the Porky that we've all come to know, and he is not given much to do. In this film, he is a Canadian game warden serving and protecting his various animal friends. Along comes an evil fur trapper named Jean-Baptiste, and the trouble begins!

There are a few scenes from this cartoon that I especially like. When a beaver's tail gets caught in a trap, his friend dashes toward Porky and circles a tree again and again and again and again and again and again as he screams at Porky for help; pretty soon Porky and the beaver BOTH circle the tree! I also highly admire the one shot of the skunks rushing towards the camera, as well as the stinky skunk snowballs.

"Porky in the North Woods" can be found on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 Disc 2. Billy Bletcher was the perfect choice to supply the voice of the dastardly Jean-Baptiste. The climactic battle scenes, as all of Porky's friends rescue him from Jean-Baptiste's clutches, feature some very rapid camera cutting (almost too rapid), characteristic of director Frank Tashlin. AND I remember almost wanting to cry when seeing all of Porky's sad little friends who have been caught in Jean-Baptiste's traps standing in line waiting for Porky to heal them (a rare touch of sentimentality in a Warner Bros. cartoon).