Edgar Allan Pooh . . . is about more than propagating enormous piles of chicken eggs, Warner Bros. makes clear. The sign at the beginning of SWOONER CROONER indicates that Porky Pig is managing the "Flockheed Eggcraft Factory--100% War Work." But is this facility REALLY populated by farmyard fowl? Heck no! When one hen is temporarily Defeathered about four minutes into this animated short, it's revealed that underneath her fluffy white quills she's sporting a matching lingerie set comprised of a lacy pink brassiere and panties! Furthermore, whenever the Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby roosters croon love songs, they send this female flock's egg ducts into overdrive, upping their output from a single white orb to dozens of eggs popped out per hen at a single sitting. Clearly, SWOONER CROONER constitutes a U.S. War Department-sanctioned effort to get America's Rosies riveting overtime. Why all the love songs at a "100% War Work factory?" (After all, these are not the "Make love, not war" 1960s!) Mainly this bullets & bombers by candlelight campaign was implemented due to Hitler's threat to spearhead a "Thousand Year Reich" or Ten-Century Reign of Nazi Terror. This, of course, raised the specter of a multi-generational conflict. That made it the DUTY of every American woman to become pregnant at every opportunity, preferably with twins, at least, since the Babes of Today became Tomorrow's Grunts. (And if Rosie could not be with the one she loved--or to whom she was wed--her marching orders were to love the one she was with!) That way, Rosie could make tanks, and have her baby, too. In hindsight, this proved to be Overbirth, leading to the Baby Boom, but who wants to be a Monday morning quarterback?

TheLittleSongbird I have loved Looney Tunes cartoons for as long as I can remember, and I could watch them all day if I wanted to. Swooner Crooner is just wonderful, and one of Porky's best for me. Porky is great value here, he can be bland when he is partnered with stronger characters but he is always endearing regardless. The animation is beautiful to watch, very crisp and vibrant in colour, while the music has so much character and nostalgic value. The songs are a treasure trove of old favourites, and are just a joy to the ear. Maybe the story is not the strongest one in the world, though it is an original one, but that doesn't matter in the slightest to me as there is never a dull moment and the whole of Swooner Crooner is relentlessly entertaining. The dialogue has freshness and wit, the gags are clever and imaginatively timed- the auditions especially are an absolute riot- and the caricatures of Frank Sinatra(the best one for me), Bing Crosby, Cab Calloway, Jimmy Durante, Nelson Eddy and Al Jolson are really fun to spot. Mel Blanc's vocal characterisations never disappoint, always a large part of why Looney Tunes cartoons work so well as a majority whole, and Swooner Crooner is no exception. All in all, wonderful and recommended with no hesitation. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Lee Eisenberg In the only Porky Pig cartoon to receive an Oscar nomination, filmdom's most famous swine owns a farm and has the hens lay eggs all day - to the tune of (what else?) Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" - but the hens get distracted by a crooning rooster. But when Porky hires another rooster to woo the hens back, the whole ordeal really turns into a battle of wits.An obvious aspect of "Swooner Crooner" is that it's truly a product of WWII, what with the clear allusion to Rosie the Riveter. But of course, they parody singers like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Yeah, those guys may have been really popular in those days, but I just bet that most people in my generation believe that BC and FS deserved to get mocked as brutally as possible.OK, so I don't know whether or not I can speak for every member of my generation. But I can say that this is a really funny cartoon. It got included in Leonard Maltin's "Bugs and Daffy: Wartime Cartoons".

Robert Reynolds This cartoon, nominated for Oscar, was Porky's only shot at the gold. It's a marvelous cartoon and parodies Sinatra and Crosby, among others. Watch particularly the audition, when Porky is trying out singers to get his hens laying eggs again. The guys at Termite Terrace loved parodies, not only actors, but singers as well. The auditionees are all parodies. It's a scream and great fun figuring out who's who. Reportedly, Bing Crosby hated it when he was parodied in cartoons. How Frank Sinatra felt about it, I have no idea. Recommended.