. . . in Warner Bros.' not-so-subtle warning to America regarding September 11th. The Looney Tunes animated short PORKY THE FIREMAN even features an Osama Bin Laden cameo as the white-robed, white-bearded geezer trying to fool Porky by yelling, "Don't worry about me--save Grandpa!" Of course, the quartet of adult black cats impeding the firemen represent the quartet of airliners hijacked on 9-11. The doomed firefighters' serpentine hoses prove no match here for the anthropomorphic flames consuming "Mrs. Twerp's Theatrical Boarding House," which contains ALL the letters of "World Trade Center" and "Pentagon." Besides the Osama stand-in, many other civilians are forced to jump from the upper stories of the flaming Highrise, including the 14 "Flying Leroys." Another notable leaper is transformed mid-fall from a representative White banker to the iconic Resigned Black Chef featured in so many magazines and picture books churned out after New York City's Darkest Hour. When the walls of the flame-engulfed building finally pancake onto the doomed firemen near the close of PORKY THE FIREMAN (that is, the 5:22 mark), Warner throws in an unusual recap of key scenes (apparently to "pad out" the running time to a specific number of seconds demanded by their Nostradamus-like Muse), followed by a strange passage in which the Triumphant Terrorist Flame literally machine-guns the firemen, then beats its "chest" while unleashing a Tarzan yell. This short clocks in at 374 seconds--exactly one second for each of the New York City firefighters, policemen, and EMTs killed on 9-11. (In a rare glitch, Looney Tune's Cassandra-like prognosticators may not have accounted for the 37 New Jersey Port Authority fatalities.)

"Porky the Fireman" is a 6-minute black-and-white cartoon from over 75 years ago. The director is Frank Tashlin before he switched to live action and working with Jerry Lewis. The voice acting comes from the legendary Mel Blanc very early in his career here. Porky was actually his first big recurring role, even if the little pig still looks very different here and also lost some of his popularity to Bugs and Daffy in the coming years. Well, this short film here has an interesting reference occasionally and 1 or 2 funny scenes, but as a whole it is just not enough entertainment compared to with what Warner Bros came up with in the coming years, decades even. Not recommended.

"Porky the Fireman" is a self-explanatory Frank Tashlin-directed Porky Pig cartoon. Porky and his crew dash off to extinguish the roaring blazes at a theatrical boarding house, where plenty of funny gags arise.For me, the major highlight of "Porky the Fireman" is the lackadaisical pipe-chomping dog on Porky's crew. He follows the curvature of a fire hose as he nonchalantly strolls towards Porky and calmly asks him, "What did you say?" "I said turn on the water!!" "Oh." The dog then strolls back to the hydrant. Another time, he slowly climbs a ladder and asks Mabel the Fat Lady, "What did you say?" She responds by frantically coaxing him to save her from the burning building and put her on the street. "Oh." He grabs her and tosses her out the window!The only remaining question I have regarding "Porky the Fireman" is: What happened to all the firemen at the very end?

In 1935, Disney's MICKEY'S FIRE BRIGADE was a great cartoon. Three years later, under the direction of Frank Tashlin, PORKY THE FIREMAN took the same subject and did it forty times as well. Clocking in at 40 gags per minute, a sensible plot and excellent animation, this movie marked the end of Disney's domination of animation. Three years later, the Clampett satire of FANTASIA, A CORNY CONCERTO, would seal the issue.