Release Date:

July 5, 1941

Main Character(s):

Porky Pig

Summary:

Draftee Porky Pig shows a newsreel related to the war.

That’s Not All, Folks:

This time, Porky only appears in the opening scene.

The title is a play on words for the 1941 film “Meet John Doe”.

This is a rare example of a cartoon related to World War II before the bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred (which is what caused the United States to officially enter the war).

The Porky drum ending for this cartoon is missing a frame, resulting in Porky not blinking during the outro.

What I Like About This One:

The title card is presented as a shield being shot out of a cannon facing the camera.

Porky being introduced as “Draftee 158 3/4”.

Porky requesting for any fifth columnists in the audience to leave the theater before the newsreel is shown.

Molten steel morphing into tanks once they are poured out.

An aircraft factory literally “humming” “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”.

An English “spitfire” plane literally spitting out flames and coughing in the middle of doing so.

A tall guy being very confident that he and a short guy have no chance of getting drafted and also telling the short guy they’d never take someone as small as him, but the next scene shows that they have both indeed been drafted. The short guy (marching on stilts) retorts to the tall guy in an annoyed tone (and in a very deep voice), “You and your education!”

“An army travels on its stomach”: soldiers are shown crawling like inchworms.

Horses are shown to have use in the army as well by pulling artillery.

An anti-tank gun doesn’t shoot a robot tank for target practice because one of the soldiers operating the gun is too focused on comparing heights of the sticks of his and his partner! (“Mine’s longer than yours!”)

A long range rapid fire coast defense gun shooting 10 million shells a second and wilting and panting before firing more.

A “land destroyer” being said to be 100 times faster than a tank but it’s revealed to just be Rochester and Jack Benny’s car the “Maxwell” (which Mel Blanc provided vocal effects for on the actual radio program).

The navy’s guns are pop guns.

When enemy bombers come zooming over to the States, the narrator wonders where our defenses are, but the Statue of Liberty gets rid of the enemy bombers by squirting them like mosquitoes!

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕