Release Date:

March 12, 1949

Main Character(s):

Porky Pig

Summary:

Porky Pig is the Pied Piper and has rid Hamelin of all their rats, leaving the cats very insulted as they are now out of work. Their leader, the Supreme Cat, offers to help them by disguising as a large rat for Porky to not get his reward and to try and catch him. Supreme also insults Porky several times while undisguised.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1070 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue.

The cartoon is a remake of sorts of “Pied Piper Porky”, with Porky again assuming the role, but going up against a different species, having a larger role in the cartoon, and eventually winning in the end.

You can find out who animated what scene here.

The mayor resembles I. Squeel from “The Up Standing Sitter”.

A cat resembling Supreme appeared 8 months later in “Swallow the Leader” (also a McKimson cartoon).

The tune that Porky plays on his clarinet is “Little Brown Jug”.

Porky appears in his Pied Piper outfit for this cartoon on the artwork for the second disc of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 5 DVD set which makes sense as that disc is a compilation of cartoons spoofing various fairy tales and this cartoon is on that disc.

What I Like About This One:

The rendition of Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto in E Minor” over the opening credits.

Reading the newspaper on Porky having rid Hamelin of all 3,000,000,000 of its rats, one cat starts to rant: “Rid the town of rats!? Why, that dirty-” but an offscreen person slaps a “Censored” sticker on his mouth before he can say anything taboo. More cats state their displeasure of Porky’s feat, one by one: “They can’t do this to us cats!”; “There’s only one guy can save us now- the Supreme Cat!”; “That’s it! The Supreme Cat!”; “He never let us down yet!” before they all cheer over the idea of Supreme helping them (animated by Phil DeLara).

With a very large crowd of cats gathering, Supreme listens to one of the cats stating the problem (animated by DeLara). Supreme starts to speak and asks the cats if he’s ever let them down. They all cheer “No!” He then asks them if he’s going to help them now. All cheer over this as well except for one offscreen voice shouting, “NO!” The “NO!” is revealed to be an outlier in the crowd when Supreme orders, “Throw that airedale out!” The cats are all elated when Supreme tells them he has the answer to their problem “right here” (under the seat of his throne made from a barrel). He continues that if one rat shows up, Porky won’t get paid. “Well, that’s where this disguise comes in”. The disguise is a rat costume. Amidst the cats cheering once more, Supreme leaves with “Supreme has spoken!” (animated by Manny Gould)

At the city hall, where the mayor is about to give Porky his reward money, the mayor asks Porky how he managed to get rid of all the rats (animated by Charles McKimson). Porky humbly answers that he “just blew some corn through this horn” and demonstrates by playing his clarinet (animated by John Carey). Just as Porky is about to receive his reward money, Supreme passes through in his rat costume: “Gangway, fellas! Let a rat through!”, much to the shock of both the mayor and Porky. “A rat!”, “A r-r-r-rat!” (animated by Charles) Supreme asks “You were expecting maybe Bugs Bunny?” The mayor takes the reward money away and reminds Porky, “Mr. Pied Piper, not a penny do you get, until you get rid of ALL the rats!” (animated by Gould) Supreme responds with, “Me Last of Mohicans” and imitates an Indian (animated by Fred Abranz).

Supreme waits by a corner undisguised and trips Porky (animated by DeLara). Unaware that the “rat” and Supreme are one and the same, Porky decides, “I’ll t-t-take care of you after I catch that rat!” Supreme retorts, “Ah, your sister smokes corn silk!” Porky walks away and contradicts, “M-m-my sister doesn’t smoke corn silk. Eh, eh, she works in a butcher shop and s-s-smokes hams!” (animated by Charles)

Porky finds a fence that has a large hole labeled “Rat Hole”. He starts to play his clarinet but Supreme tells him to go away with that noise as he has a “sick baby” in there. Porky dismisses him, “Ah, g-g-go on. You haven’t any s-s-sick baby!” Supreme disguises as a baby and says in a high-pitched voice, “He has so!” before coughing. He then dresses back into his rat costume and uses the costume’s tail to whip Porky in the behind causing Porky to scream in pain loudly (animated by Abranz).

Losing track of Supreme, Porky decides to “f-f-flush him out with a tune”. He plays “Little Brown Jug” slowly to which Supreme comes out as if he’s hypnotized before Porky starts playing it at normal speed and Supreme follows him while dancing to it (animated by Carey).

Porky sees that Supreme is no longer following him when he looks back just as Supreme runs past him. He chases after him but gets tripped again around the corner (animated by Carey). Undisguised, Supreme rudely asks Porky, “Why don’t you look where you’re goin’?” Getting his clarinet out of his mouth, Porky warns, “I’ll be b-b-back after you, you u-u-unsanitary old cat!” (animated by Charles) Supreme retorts, “Ah, your brother eats jellybeans!” before running off (animated by Abranz). Porky scratches his head and wonders, “I w-w-wonder how he knows so much about my family” before giving chase (animated by Charles).

Supreme goes through a hole in the fence. Porky attempts to follow (animated by DeLara), but Supreme gets back into the rat costume and whips Porky in the behind with the costume’s tail again. This time, Porky grabs the rat costume, which Supreme gets out of. Porky beats up on the costume with his clarinet (animated by Gould).

Back at the mayor’s office, Porky shows the mayor “And th-th-there’s what’s left of the last rat!” Delighted, the mayor goes to his safe to get the reward money, but finds that Supreme has somehow gotten in there. Supreme asks in the manner of Bert Gordon, “How do you do?” and runs off with the reward money. The mayor shouts in horror about all their money being stolen, but Porky assures him he’ll get it back before running after Supreme and shouting, “Hey! C-c-come back with that money!” (animated by DeLara)

Supreme goes behind another fence as Porky gets an idea on how to fool him. He says loudly to himself, “W-w-well, since I don’t get the r-reward, I’m g-g-going to bring back ALL THE RATS” (animated by Carey). Supreme is excited about this (animated by Charles) as Porky plays “Little Brown Jug” once more (animated by Carey). “Ah. Music charms the savage beast”, Supreme remarks in ecstasy (animated by Charles). Porky then plays a record labeled “Rat Stampede. To Fool Cats on the Other Sides of Fences” (animated by Carey). Thinking he’s hearing a large crowd of rats, Supreme is elated at “millions of ‘em!” and runs to the other side of the fence, only to get tripped himself (animated by Charles) . Porky grabs the reward money back and gives Supreme an insult of his own, “Ah, your sister drives a p-p-pickle wagon!” before continuing to play his clarinet and dancing off with the reward money (animated by Carey).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½