Studio: Leon Schlesinger Productions
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Produced by: Leon Schlesinger
Short Synopsis
Porky Pig is working backstage at a theatre late at night, flipping switches and whistling "You Ought to Be in Pictures", when he hears a "psst!" from a cage. Inside is a tiny African pygmy ant, who asks to be let out. Porky opens the door and the ant bolts. Then Porky notices the ant's price tag: $162,422,503.51. The chase is on. Porky trips into a trunk of magician's props and comes out wearing a top hat with a rabbit on his head, while the ant laughs. The ant leads him up to the flies and onto a high wire, shows him how far down the stage is, and shakes the wire until Porky falls. Down at a table of food, the ant bounces on a sandwich, hides in a mustard jar, and helpfully shows Porky how to get his hand out of it by smashing it on the table. He offers Porky a bottle of turpentine and a lit match. Porky tries to lure him out with a stick of candy, the ant swaps it for dynamite, and in the confusion the dynamite goes off under the ant, blowing him straight back into his cage. Porky smiles, and so does the scorched ant.
Why It Matters
- Jones's timing is starting to sharpen here: the ant's deadpan helpfulness, showing Porky how high up he is before shaking the wire, or demonstrating how to free a hand from a jar, anticipates the patient, sadistic courtesy of Jones's later tricksters.
- The film also reflects the racial caricature common in Warner cartoons of the period: the ant is presented as an "African pygmy" caricature, a reason the cartoon is seldom shown today and needs context when it is.
Notes and Trivia
- "You Ought to Be in Pictures", Porky's whistled tune, was a Warner-owned song that also gave its title to a 1940 Porky cartoon mixing live action and animation.
- See also: Notes to You (1941), Porky's Pooch (1941).