Edgar Allan Pooh
. . . in this Great Depression Era Looney Tune, PORKY AND TEABISCUIT. Every American is born with an equal ownership stake in the First Necessity of Life, Air. When you divide the current U.S. Population of around 333.3 million into the 2016 estimated cumulative value of all OTHER American Assets (now $997 trillion), it makes each citizen's air share worth about $3 million. Since the Greedy Trumpsters have diminished the quality of each normal citizen's birthright by about 97% with their money-grubbing pollution smokestacks, their lucrative fuming freight trucks, their natural gas vented burn-offs, their reeking chemical plants, their tankers full of liquefied manure fertilizers, and the full spectrum of Death Rays radiating out from their monopolies on poorly-insulated power lines, cell phone towers, and satellite TV broadcasts, every Genuine American needs to be presented with a $2.91 million compensation check on their 18th birthday. Otherwise, TEABISCUIT tells us, our $10,000 (before adjusting upwards for inflation) Life Race Prize will be reduced by $9,989 (or 99.9%) by the time the Trumpster Cheats deduct "their cut," simply because they're second, third or tenth generation Robber Barons and they own the U.S. Government.
phantom_tollbooth
Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton's 'Porky and Teabiscuit' is an utterly pedestrian cartoon which, after Bob Clampett's barrage of amazing Porky Pig cartoons the previous year, seems like a step backwards. Casting Porky in his original role as a child, the clichéd plot unfolds slowly and uninterestingly as we follow Porky on an errand for his father which results in him being conned out of eleven dollars in exchange for a dishevelled old nag of a racehorse. Porky must enter a steeple chase to win back the money. The cartoon only picks up pace when the race begins and by then the cartoon is nearly over. It's far too little, too late and 'Porky and Teabiscuit' emerges as a misfire that seems unsure whether to go for cuteness or gags and ends up skimping on both. Unlike the majority of the Warner Bros. catalogue which is noticeably adult orientated, 'Porky and Teabiscuit' feels like a short made specifically for children and easily entertained children at that!
ccthemovieman-1
Little did these animators know how famous "Seabiscuit" would become almost 70 years later, thanks to a best-selling book and feature movie about the great horse of the '30s.Anyway, we see a fairly young Porky Pig in this cartoon, a kid who works for his dad Phineas (who stutters the same as Porky). The "kid" loves horse racing and races his little toy horse - yet he's old enough to drive a car! Oh, well.He goes into town to deliver feed to the stables at the track and collect $11 for it. Then, he accidentally winds up purchasing an old, broken-down horse, "Teabuscuit" for the 11 bucks. Oh, man, his pop is going to kill him when he finds out.However, you just know something will work out, that the old beat-up but face-liking likable horse will do something good to bail out Porky.This winds up being a "cute" cartoon, more than it is funny. The actual race was wild and insane, but not really anything that would provoke a big laugh. It's a passable animated short, decent but nothing great.
Robert Reynolds
This short is one of the earlier Porky Pig shorts and falls into the "Porky as a kid" category, which was a fairly frequent gimmick in the first few years. There may be spoilers in my remarks below: In a few Porky shorts featuring Porky as a child, the plot device of "Porky is given money by his dad, with strict orders to do something specific, but something goes haywire" was used. This was one of those shorts, which are fairly predictable. Our hero winds up buying (by Standard Accident # 43 in the Cartoonist's Handbook) a horse which would fail the physical at a glue factory. Given that our hero doesn't relish the idea of returning home for a trip to the woodshed, he decides to enter a race to win the prize money, so he can go home covered in glory rather than fertilizer.Our hero lucks out, in spite of troubles, travails and trombones, passes "Go", collects his $11 and his horse is happy in the end as well and on his way to audition for John Philip Sousa.This short is on Looney Toons Golden Collection, Vol 3. Though it's largely a routine and by-the-numbers cartoon, it is worth seeing and the Collection is excellent. Recommended.
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