If you've seen most of Porky Pig's early cartoons, you've probably observed that they mostly put him in a series of black and white Looney Tunes* portraying various walks of life: bullfighter, pilgrim, firefighter, etc. Most of these cartoons consisted of rather corny - but still really funny - spot gags and word jokes. Bob Clampett's "Porky's Poor Fish" is a prime example. The plot has a street cat sneaking into Porky's fish store with the aim of turning the piscine inhabitants into lunch, only to see them go all Rambo on him. But most of the cartoon has stuff like "Twenty Thousand Leaks Under the Ceiling" and "Tiny Shrimps with Giant Mussels".I probably speak for most Looney Tunes fans when I say that Clampett's best cartoons made heavy use of his penchant for contortionism. Examples include the iron lung in "The Daffy Doc", the garbage can in "A Corny Concerto", and any scene in "Porky in Wackyland" and "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery". I suspect that this one was a place holder. But still, it provided its fair share of laughs during its few minutes. Worth seeing.PS: the first time that Porky Pig had a run-in with fishes was in 1936's rare "Fish Tales", in which he goes fishing and dreams that the fishes try to cook him. In 1940, he also starred in "The Sour Puss", featuring a piscine who behaves like Daffy Duck.*At this time, the Looney Tunes were filmed in black and white and usually featured stars Porky and Daffy, while the Merrie Melodies were filmed in color and usually featured miscellaneous characters. After the Looney Tunes went color, the series became indistinguishable except for the opening songs.

Boy, the humor was corny back around 1940 but if you silly puns and such, it will make you laugh.Before this cartoon begins, we read that "This Screen Play is an adaptation of the World Famous Book "Twenty Thousand Leaks Under The Ceiling." Then we see a cat unsuccessfully chase a mouse followed by the graphic "Meanwhile -- The Shoppe Around the Corner." (Yes, it helps to know the movies of that day.)We see "Porky's Pete Fish Shoppe - Under New Mis-Management." Yup....the humor is strictly cornball. These corny signs are everywhere (i.e. ("Today's special: Little Shrimps with Big Mussels," "14-carat Goldfish," eels named "A.C. and D.C.," etc.) Actually, some of the puns with all the different kinds of fish are quite funny.The story occurs halfway through when that aforementioned cat walks by the fish show, after Porky leaves for lunch, sneaks in and thinks he's going to have a nice lunch himself. However.....In all, a pleasant cartoon that won't evoke a lot of big laughs but will have you smiling numerous times. It's a misnomer calling it a "Porky Pig" cartoon because he isn't in it for long. It was a feature on the Errol Flynn movie, Sea Hawk" DVD.

In "Porky's Poor Fish," directed by Bob Clampett, our good friend Porky Pig owns a pet fish shop, where the inventory is a potential target for an alley cat who hopes for an easy lunch. But, as the cat learns over the course of this film, trying to capture just one tiny fish in Porky's shop is no easy task.My favorite moments from this black-and-white cartoon include the following. First and foremost, my hat is off to Carl Stalling for his orchestration of the wonderfully swinging jazz number heard during the opening credits and during the first scene of the mouse whistling & skipping (followed by the cat). Porky likewise has a nice song/recitation as he introduces the audience to his shop. The two "filet of sole" fish become a pair of tap shoes, a lone "mussel" develops muscular arms that look EXACTLY like Popeye's, and all the flying fish resemble bomber airplanes as they take to the air.Porky Pig himself is not prominently featured in "Porky's Poor Fish," but the fish in his shop are loaded with jokes, gags, and puns associated with their names. This film may not exactly be the most popular Warner Bros. cartoon ever directed by Bob Clampett, but it is still worth seeing for the amount of work that Bob and his animation unit exerted into it. Catch this cartoon on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4.

This is a black and white Porky Pig short which doesn't really have a whole lot to do with Porky himself. As I want to talk a bit about the cartoon and some of the gags, this is a spoiler warning: This short has Porky Pig as the proprietor of a pet store which specializes in selling fish. It opens, though, with a cat following a mouse, with the intent of having lunch. Failing (rather unceremoniously) at accomplishing that, the camera then switches to the store and we see Porky break out in song while a bunch of rather marginal fish-related sight gags go by, the best of which involves some electric eels. Then the noon whistle blows and Porky goes out to lunch, placing a sign on the door. The cat, perhaps in the mood for some sushi, seizes the opportunity and goes into the store (turning around Porky's sign, which then reads, "in to lunch" instead.The bulk of the remainder of the short is the cat attempting to get a free meal and the efforts of the various fish to ruin his appetite for him. Again, the best bit involves the electric eels, though there are very nicely animated sequences involving an oyster, some flying fish and a mussel which figure prominently. While some of the bits are inventive and very funny, a lot of this is just a bit off the mark. The timing seems to be a bit off of a lot of the jokes here, or maybe I just didn't find it funny.The closing gag, where the cat sees the mouse again and goes after it when denied a fish dinner is fairly nice and a good way to close what is a very uneven short. This is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 4 and the collection itself is marvelous. This short is certainly worth a look at least once. Worth watching.