. . . Warner Bros.' Looney Tuners always have been "unstuck in time." GOLD DIGGERS OF '49 probably gave FIVE author Kurt Vonnegut himself fits when he first viewed this as a youngster. (Of course, the World appreciates that the adult Mr. Vonnegut was able to harvest the seeds sown in his Imagination by '49 in order to chronicle Billy's amazing travels.) The opening sequence of '49 implies that it might be based upon some small incident of the California Gold Rush (which U.S. schools USED to teach began at Sutter's Mill in 1849; now that Politically Correct Trivia has replaced a Common Core of Facts for America's kiddies, no one under Age 50 knows WHY San Francisco's NFL team is called the 49'Ers). However, Porky Pig is soon seen tooling around in a 60-years-premature Model T, and later Beans pilots a Bonneville Salt Flats speedster post-dating this cartoon by decades. Furthermore, '49 champions Interspecies Marriage with the Union of Beans and Porky's daughter, and it shows that racial identity is as fluid as all of Today's genetic testing TV ads would seem to suggest, as this animated short transforms two Asian Men into a pair of Black Males.

Tex Avery has gone on to far better cartoons since, but 'Gold Diggers of 49' is not a bad first cartoon at all, while not great it's decent.Wasn't crazy about Porky here, really like him as a character but his taller and slobbery look is nowhere near as appealing as the design that we're more familiar with, pretty crude from personal opinion actually. Nor with Joe Dougherty's voice work, Mel Blanc's Porky stutter is much more natural while Dougherty's sounds annoying and overdone. One gag misfires too, and that's the racially stereotypical gag with the Chinese dogs.However, while Avery's animation style became more refined later on there are some really imaginative and beautiful visuals here, especially in the chase sequence with lots of fluidity, crispness and meticulous detail. The music is no Carl Stalling, but it's lively, charmingly orchestrated, rousing and dynamic enough. There are some good gags, though Avery's succeeding cartoons were more consistent in humour and were sharper and wittier, especially the barber shop gag and the chase sequence, the latter being the highlight of the cartoon. There are some cute moments too, and the whole stuff with the gold makes for good fun.Beans is not one of the funniest ever characters and there are more interesting ones too, but he is compelling and amusing enough and he's likable. Kitty is adorable, and the villain is suitably dastardly. The chemistry between the characters is also enjoyable, and apart from Dougherty the voice acting from Bernice Hansen and Billy Bletcher is very good but the lack of Mel Blanc is much lamented.All in all, a decent first cartoon for Avery but he went on to do better. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is not another of those Warner Brothers cartoons kind of promoting their "Gold Digger" musicals of the 1930s, but a story about the real gold diggers of 1849. It stars "Beans," and takes place in "Goldville." Beans, trying to woo Porky Pig's daughter (who is not a pig), is out on the mountain when he strikes gold (via pulling a slot-machine-like arm!). He goes back into town and tells everyone.From that point, we mainly see Beans and Porky out digging for gold. A bad guys is nearby and he snags a bag full of gold. Porky tells Beans that if gets the bag back, he can marry his daughter. Beans hops into his jalopy and races up the hill, firing with a shotgun! Beans isn't really a funny guy but the cartoon has some good moments and the car is a real hoot. In the end, the bag of gold is only Porky's lunch, but that's gold to him!It certainly looks dated, but that's the case with most 1930s black-and-white cartoons, and sometimes that's just fine with me. This was a fast-paced, inventive cartoon.

A mildly amusing 1935 cartoon that was replayed yesterday on Turner Classic Movies.Beans was briefly (very briefly) the leading figure in Merrie Melodies, before his lack of any humorous comic personality suggested that he really did not deserve such an exalted position. He is one of the gold miners in Red Gulch, California in 1849 (hence the title - a joke supposedly on the popular Warner "Gold Digger" Musicals). His girlfriend is the daughter of Porky Pig. At this time Porky's size and personality were still up in the air. He is taller and fatter (and quite honestly gluttonous) in this cartoon. Beans brings back gold to the town and a rush starts. The town empties out. One racist joke in the film: a Chinese pair are riding a rickshaw (one is pulling it) when auto fumes (this cartoon has several anachronisms in it) turn them Black, and one starts talking like Amos and one like Andy.When a villain lassos Porky's tied bag, the latter says Beans can marry his daughter if he gets the bag back. He eventually does, in the course of changing his his old Model T into a streamlined racing car to catch the villain.As I said mildly amusing. The future touches of genius that Avery brought to his cartoon work in the 1940s are not found here. But he had to start somewhere, I guess.