This comes on the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD of The Maltese Falcon, as part of its Warner Night at the Movies portion. I'm not sure seeing this before an escapist film(an excellent one, don't get me wrong) was a great thing... I would think being reminded of the situation right right before the opening credits of the picture would keep you from enjoying it. Anyway, this has Looney Tunes' Porky Pig(who looks almost like we know him to) presenting updates and such on the war, apparently not very long before the US entered it. How to deal with something that serious and unpleasant? Turn it into a bunch of gags, most of them visual. I gotta admit, however, that they are very funny. There's a bit of black comedy among it, and not everyone would find this entire thing to be in good taste. This has a spoof of a commercial from back then. Honestly, I was surprised they used a Napoleon quote, I wouldn't think they'd follow anything of his. There is some recognizable music used. The animation is well-done, with effective use of lighting and angles. This is entirely worth the 7 minute investment of time. There is disturbing content and a little racism in this. I recommend this to anyone who can imagine laughing at this. 7/10
10 Reviews
war was coming
lee_eisenberg4 November 2008
Bob Clampett's "Meet John Doughboy" came out a few months before the United States entered World War II. I don't know whether or not there was a sense throughout the country that we might soon enter. Whether or not there was such a sense, this cartoon offers some possible insight. Porky Pig hosts a newsreel showing the latest weaponry as a series of gags.
Tex Avery, as Termite Terrace's top director in the late '30s, had frequently used many spot gags in his cartoons (he left in 1941 following a dispute with producer Leon Schlesinger). In some of Clampett's early cartoons that I've seen, it looks as though he tried out these tricks. But clearly his forte laid in contortion and phantasmagoria. Each of the animation directors in Warner Bros. had his own style. It was really over the next few years that Clampett released his masterpieces, but this one is worth seeing.
Tex Avery, as Termite Terrace's top director in the late '30s, had frequently used many spot gags in his cartoons (he left in 1941 following a dispute with producer Leon Schlesinger). In some of Clampett's early cartoons that I've seen, it looks as though he tried out these tricks. But clearly his forte laid in contortion and phantasmagoria. Each of the animation directors in Warner Bros. had his own style. It was really over the next few years that Clampett released his masterpieces, but this one is worth seeing.
Wartime newsreel
TheLittleSongbird11 June 2018
Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes, Hanna and Barbera and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. Actually appreciate it even more now through young adult eyes, thanks to broader knowledge and taste and more interest in animation styles and various studios and directors.
Have a lot of appreciation and admiration for Bob Clampett, with a visual and humour style so distinctive and easily recognisable. His early work was very variable but when on top form and in his prime the best of his work was great and even more. 'Meet John Doughboy' is not one of Clampett's best. It is a very good cartoon though, even if there are funnier, wittier and fresher cartoons from him, and saw Clampett's unique style all over it and being at ease with the material.
Admittedly, 'Meet John Doughboy' may be slight and while Porky's more substantial role is appreciated he is not always as interesting as the supporting characters and caricatures.
While most of the cartoon is very amusing and well done, not all the gags work, either because the timing is not as sharp or because some of the material goes over the head due to unfamiliarity.
'Meet John Doughboy's' caricatures are far from forgettable and provide a lot of fun, familiarity with those being caricatured is in order though. Mel Blanc as always does a fantastic job with the voice work, showing an unparalleled ability to bring individuality to multiple characters.
The animation is as always high in atmosphere, with lots of smooth movement, imaginative detail in the gags and rich and meticulous detail in the backgrounds. Carl Stalling's music score is as ever high in energy, liveliness, character, lushness and whimsy, and not only is dynamic and fits effortlessly with the action but enhances everything.
What's more, 'Meet John Doughboy' is entertaining, with some amusing wildness, wit and bite starting to show at this point in the dialogue. Plus there are some beautifully timed and animated and imaginative sight gags, that contain some surprises and a lively pace.
In conclusion, well done and entertaining if not perfect. 7/10 Bethany Cox
Have a lot of appreciation and admiration for Bob Clampett, with a visual and humour style so distinctive and easily recognisable. His early work was very variable but when on top form and in his prime the best of his work was great and even more. 'Meet John Doughboy' is not one of Clampett's best. It is a very good cartoon though, even if there are funnier, wittier and fresher cartoons from him, and saw Clampett's unique style all over it and being at ease with the material.
Admittedly, 'Meet John Doughboy' may be slight and while Porky's more substantial role is appreciated he is not always as interesting as the supporting characters and caricatures.
While most of the cartoon is very amusing and well done, not all the gags work, either because the timing is not as sharp or because some of the material goes over the head due to unfamiliarity.
'Meet John Doughboy's' caricatures are far from forgettable and provide a lot of fun, familiarity with those being caricatured is in order though. Mel Blanc as always does a fantastic job with the voice work, showing an unparalleled ability to bring individuality to multiple characters.
The animation is as always high in atmosphere, with lots of smooth movement, imaginative detail in the gags and rich and meticulous detail in the backgrounds. Carl Stalling's music score is as ever high in energy, liveliness, character, lushness and whimsy, and not only is dynamic and fits effortlessly with the action but enhances everything.
What's more, 'Meet John Doughboy' is entertaining, with some amusing wildness, wit and bite starting to show at this point in the dialogue. Plus there are some beautifully timed and animated and imaginative sight gags, that contain some surprises and a lively pace.
In conclusion, well done and entertaining if not perfect. 7/10 Bethany Cox
Surreal War Short
Michael_Elliott12 January 2012
Meet John Doughboy (1941)
*** (out of 4)
This is a rather interesting Merrie Melodies short and starts off in a theater as Porky Pig introduces the "film" that's about to play. The film is basically showing what all happens in the Army and other services and you have to give it credit that nothing like this would be attempted today. We see countless jokes aimed at a variety of topics including a British "spitfire" plane that actually spits fire. Another joke deals with the draft where a man thinks he's too small to get in the service and then we get the payoff. There's even jokes about "Citizen Sugar Kane" and we are asked what would happen if America ever got invaded. That last joke certainly looks a lot different when viewed today. This B&W short runs just 7-minutes but there's not a slow moment to be found. Not all of the jokes work but when viewed today you can't help but get a surreal feel from it and especially when you consider what was coming up just a few months after this thing would have originally been seen. The animation is the usual high standards.
*** (out of 4)
This is a rather interesting Merrie Melodies short and starts off in a theater as Porky Pig introduces the "film" that's about to play. The film is basically showing what all happens in the Army and other services and you have to give it credit that nothing like this would be attempted today. We see countless jokes aimed at a variety of topics including a British "spitfire" plane that actually spits fire. Another joke deals with the draft where a man thinks he's too small to get in the service and then we get the payoff. There's even jokes about "Citizen Sugar Kane" and we are asked what would happen if America ever got invaded. That last joke certainly looks a lot different when viewed today. This B&W short runs just 7-minutes but there's not a slow moment to be found. Not all of the jokes work but when viewed today you can't help but get a surreal feel from it and especially when you consider what was coming up just a few months after this thing would have originally been seen. The animation is the usual high standards.
Meet John Doughboy
CinemaSerf17 March 2024
"Porky Pig" is quite literally drafted, very briefly, into this wartime morale-booster that plans to present us with some top secret newsreel. It starts with quite a fun "Daffy Duck" style RKO emitting logo, but thereafter it descends into a rather clumsily put together animation extolling the might of the US military. There's a lightly comedic basis underpinning it on occasion - a "Spitfire" that actually does, but the jokes are fairly poor and the stereotypes wear a little thin after a few minutes. Sure, in 1941 it had a job to do - and I suppose it does it well enough, but many years later it's near the bottom of the pile of propaganda efforts, sorry.
Though Porky Pig makes a cameo appearance here . . .
oscaralbert30 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
. . . along with Jack Benny and Rochester, it's mostly the Punny Narrator who puts on the show in MEET JOHN DOUGHBOY. This Looney Tune was released as True Blue Loyal American Democrats were battling Hitler's Fifth Column collaborators in the Rich People's Party for the Hearts and Minds of Our Nation. Then, as Today, the Elephantine Nazi Sympathizers in the U.S. Congress were itching to blow up every tiny international incident into a Big Brouhaha of Benghazi Proportions. In a MEET JOHN DOUGHBOY quote that could be taken from Today's newspaper, Citizen Sugar Kane paraphrases the current Rich People Party Idol Donald J. Duck by contending that "Our Open Door Policy is responsible for the (Military) Draft." Then, as now, RPP adherents bent over backwards to avoid paying ANY taxes and to shirk their birthright duty to serve in ANY military rank lower than Commander-in-Chief. MEET JOHN DOUGHBOY pictures every serviceman as a loathsomely incompetent hayseed. No doubt silver spoon childhood viewings of MEET JOHN DOUGHBOY inspired future U.S. Presidential Election Loser W. Bush to fritter away much of HIS time "serving" by going A.W.O.L., while would-be Game Show Host-in-Chief Donnie Duck-the-Draft "I'm the physically fittest candidate ever!" Trump was certified as 4F or UNFIT for service FOUR TIMES by his Art-of-the-Deal doctors.
Why does Porky Pig run around in a military tunic . . .
cricket3028 April 2013
Warning: Spoilers
. . . without wearing any pants in MEET JOHN DOUGHBOY?! This can hardly be considered respectful of any military tradition (since at least the time of Mel Gibson in BRAVEHEART). And since when can coastal artillery shoot "10 million shells a second"? The weight of that many shells in the same spot all at once likely would collapse any ocean overlook into the sea. Further, how accurate could targeting be at that rate of fire? And how would the artillery men know if the first five million shells utterly destroyed the target(s), allowing them to reserve the other half of their per-second ammo supply for later threats, reaction times being what they are? On the other hand, robotizing the Statue of Liberty to spray incoming enemy planes with bug bomb is such an ahead-of-its-time idea, it even may have helped Tom Cruise as #49 save his own bacon in OBLIVION so that #52 would not waltz in and steal his woman. The racist Jack Benny bit with some sort of CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG flivver as a secret weapon is less a question mark than just a wrong-headed and now archaic allusion.
We Had Just Got In It
Hitchcoc26 March 2019
Porky Pig introduces a bunch of propaganda for the war effort (not a bad thing at the time). We are then shown a whole series of hyperbolic scenes of the effort. What is left out is the horrible price to be paid. It's simplistic, but that's probably the way it needed to be. Remember, it's 1941. Pearl Harbor was in December.
Bob Clampett
boblipton9 August 2008
As usual for Bob Clampett in this period, another fine comedy newsreel with an armed forces theme -- with the war going on in Europe and a draft in this country, it was a natural theme and the beginning of the flag waving period. The credited writer is Dave Monahan, the best of Termite Terrace's writers for 'fake newsreel' cartoons and the jokes have not aged badly.
Clampett was one of the two geniuses directing at Schlesinger's cartoon factory in this period -- Chuck Jones' peak period would start next year and Friz Freleng, although rarely a groundbreaker, just turned out excellent cartoons. But Clampett and Tex Avery were madcaps, Avery slightly better at gag construction but Clampett for his speedy and outrageous animation Don't miss ANY chance to see any of his cartoons.
Clampett was one of the two geniuses directing at Schlesinger's cartoon factory in this period -- Chuck Jones' peak period would start next year and Friz Freleng, although rarely a groundbreaker, just turned out excellent cartoons. But Clampett and Tex Avery were madcaps, Avery slightly better at gag construction but Clampett for his speedy and outrageous animation Don't miss ANY chance to see any of his cartoons.
Yikes
Alba_Of_Smeg22 August 2020
Released a few months before the US entered World War II. This short animation presents an update on potential developments of the war and introduces propaganda content in a simple and comedic way. From a modern perspective there's something surreal about the whole thing. The combination of war, death, children's animation and slapstick comedy is something I found disturbing. The American positivity and naivety comes across in droves when the subject of mechanised warfare and invasion is being joked about. Haunting when you realise the attack on Pearl Harbor happened only a few months later. Also contains unsubtle hints of racism.
The world has gone mad. You decide to go to the cinema with your children as a means of escape and entertainment. Before your picture starts you get hit with this. Enjoy!
The world has gone mad. You decide to go to the cinema with your children as a means of escape and entertainment. Before your picture starts you get hit with this. Enjoy!
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