Get Rich Quick Porky (1937) Online

As I understand it, Gabby the Goat appeared in only three or four short cartoons in the late '30s, before they discontinued him, considering him a less than likable character. Bob Clampett's "Get Rich Quick Porky" is one of the cartoons showcasing Gabby. This one has Porky Pig and Gabby buying a phony oil field.

It was really in the early '40s when Clampett's work took shape. A few of his cartoons in the '30s showed off his penchant for the surreal (namely "Porky in Wackyland"), but his WWII-era work truly demonstrated the qualities most associated with his animation. I guess that the reason that this cartoon makes so much sense nowadays is the theme of oil: look at how much of US policy centers on that stuff.

Anyway, this one's worth seeing maybe once.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

'Get Rich Quick Porky' is an interesting curiosity for an early Porky Pig cartoon and for its subject matter, but it really isn't one of Porky's best cartoons in this early stage or since. For Warmer Bros/Looney Tunes fans, it is more a curio than a great cartoon, there's been far better before, during and especially since 'Get Rich Quick Porky' and there is a sense that they were still finding their feet.

For Bob Clampett 'Get Rich Quick Porky' is somewhat tame, this is not really a prime testament to his imaginative use of violence, wit, anarchy and razor sharpness. His work here is competent and has flashes of brilliance, but flashes doesn't feel enough in a cartoon that could have done with more gags and what there was could have been more than amusing and more inventive.

The Oil Land Hustler also didn't seem formidable or entertaining enough, basically a just there character with not much spark.

However, there is a lot to like about 'Get Rich Quick Porky'. Mel Blanc is outstanding as always. He always was the infinitely more preferable voice for Porky, Joe Dougherty never clicked with me, and he proves it in 'Get Rich Quick Porky'. Blanc shows an unequalled versatility and ability to bring an individual personality to every one of his multiple characters in a vast majority of his work, there is no wonder why he was in such high demand as a voice actor.

Furthermore, the animation is excellent, it's fluid in movement, crisp in shading and very meticulous in detail. Chuck Jones' witty visual characterisation comes through. The story may be predictable but is crisp enough in pace.

Carl Stalling's music is typically outstanding. It is as always lushly orchestrated, full of lively energy and characterful in rhythm, not only adding to the action but also enhancing it.

Porky is a likeable lead character, though fares better as a playing it straight support character to an even stronger lead. He has a great partner in Gabby the Goat. There are amusing moments here and some witty visuals, but somehow it was hard not to want more.

In summary, decent but not Porky or Clampett at their best. 6/10 Bethany Cox

. . . Corporate Capitalism, Warner Bros.' crack team of Animated Shorts Seers (aka, the Looney Tuners) courageously and prophetically take on Big Oil with GET RICH QUICK PORKY. At the beginning of RICH, a charlatan identifying himself as "John Gusher" bamboozles Porky Pig into expending his life savings on a bogus "oil patch" which Mr. Gusher has created by constructing a swamp of small petrochemical pollution pockets on a mid-town lot. (Porky forgoes an opportunity to get a 2% interest rate return on his liquid assets, which is 40 times the top rate that my own bank is offering in Today's quicksand of degenerate Corporate Corruption.) Naturally, when it turns out that there happens to be (unknown to Mr. Gusher) a REAL reservoir of oil located deep below the lot to which he's sold Porky all the mineral rights, this Trump-like Art of the Bad Deal Maker tries to swipe back Porky's paperwork. Clearly, Warner is warning America here in RICH to oust the odoriferous RumpScents Administration before Red Commie KGB U.S. Strong Man Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin's best buddy Secretary of State Rex "Exxon Valdez" Tillerson gets the opportunity to sell off the U.S. Future to his Russian Co-conspirators.

This is one of the reasons I don't like early Porky Pig cartoons. There is no real violence here, a standard in some shorts back then. I like Porky Pig but here he is not as funny as he would be in later shorts. The jokes are also not that funny either. So no thank you.