Wholly Smoke (1938) User Reviews

Porky Gives Kids A Good Lesson About Smoking

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 15 November 2007]

Wow, who would have thought it? They made an anti-smoking cartoon in 1938! Pretty amazing....and wild, too. This Porky Pig cartoon has our favorite porker learning a lesson about smoking, especially at a young age. Too bad the message was just about kids smoking, instead all of us.

Without going into the story, I was fascinated by a number of the sight gags in here like the smoke ring blowing contest; Porky's German mother, Mr. "Nick O'Teen" (who lives at 1313 Tobacco Road); the harmonizing matches; the cameo appearances of The Three Stooges, Bing Crosby, Cab Calloway, Hispanic dancers from Havana....and more.

A great lesson, and a great cartoon!

tobacco madness

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 4 January 2008]

Frank Tashlin's "Wholly Smoke" appears to be a cartoon version of "Reefer Madness". The plot has Porky Pig on his way to Sunday school when a thug gets him to take a puff from a cigar. From there, Porky experiences a sort of acid trip in which a character named Nick O. Teen shows him cigarette and cigar caricatures of celebrities of the era (The Three Stooges, Bing Crosby, etc.) warning Porky not to smoke.

Like I said, it's a "Reefer Madness" kind of idea: a wholesome youth takes one puff and gets hooked. Of course, this cartoon basically got everything right while "RM" got everything wrong (it claimed that marijuana is a narcotic; in reality, marijuana is a weed). And besides, marijuana doesn't kill people, while countless people have died from cigarettes. And you don't even want to know what they put in the cigarettes. The people behind this cartoon may have not known how accurate a cartoon they made.

So, it is a pretty neat cartoon. Not all that preachy, just a little bit hokey what with the Sunday school part. Mind you, there is a black-face scene.

One of the best classic Porky Pig Cartoons

[emasterslake · 8/10 · 5 June 2006]

just a reminder that this was made back when smoking was still a common thing for the public. And didn't know that smoking was not healthy to do.

Porky was given 5 cents to give at church and was told not to spend it.

On his way to the chapel, he find a kid smoking a cigar. He tells him little kids shouldn't smoke. The kid doesn't think Porky is man enough to smoke. So Porky bet on his nickel that he can smoke.

After getting dizzy and coughing a lot he winds up at a smoke shop. And is greeted by Nick O'Teen the smoke cloud dude. He was pleased to see that Porky is interested in smoking so Nick tests if Porky really does like to smoke. But getting his pipe, cigar, cigarette and tobacco friends to sing and remind that little kids shouldn't smoke.

For a cartoon this old it does have a good message in letting kids know that you shouldn't smoke at a young age.

But if this was made decades later it be "Smoking is bad for you". But can't blame the way people thought of smoking back in the olden days.

Sad thing is this is one of the many Looney Tunes that's been censored a few times. I never seen an uncut version or uncensored version of this fine cartoon.

I hope one day it'll be part of a collection of uncut Looney Tunes DVD.

Smoked ham

[slymusic · 30 March 2009]

Directed by Frank Tashlin, "Wholly Smoke" is a very good black-and-white Porky Pig cartoon dealing with the avoidance of smoking. On his way to Sunday school, Porky is diverted by a cigar-chomping gangster. This leads him directly into a smoke shop, where many horrors await Porky.

My favorite moments from "Wholly Smoke": The gangster does various flashy tricks with his cigar, but when Porky tries the same tricks, he fails. (Helping this scene along is, of course, Carl Stalling's music score.) At the smoke shop, I recognize caricatures of the Three Stooges (Larry, Curly, and Moe), Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby, and Rudy Vallee.

"Wholly Smoke" features a very early version of Porky Pig that I especially admire - an adorable little child, determined to do what is right. Indeed, by the end of this cartoon, Porky learns his lesson - NO SMOKING.

Anti-smoking cartoon from the 1930s

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 28 September 2015]

Well, these 7 minutes are not necessarily anti-smoking in general, just when it comes to young people smoking. Porky, who was still Warner Bros' biggest star around that time, smokes a cigarette and has the strangest hallucinations as a result from it. This is originally a black-and-white cartoon, even if there are colored versions out there. I thought this was neither too funny nor too smart in terms of the story, so if this cartoon is worth the watch for any reason, then it is because of its general weirdness from start to finish and several famous people from that era being included as cartoon characters, such as the 3 Stooges. Mel Blanc did most of the voice work and Frank Tashlin directed while George Manuell wrote this piece. These two may not be as known as Jones, Maltese or Freleng, but also worked on many Warner Bros. cartoons. All in all, not among the company's best. Good message, but not so great execution.

Tashlin's masterpiece

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 10/10 · 13 August 2003]

'Wholly Smoke' is a first-rate Looney Toon from the Warner studio's peak period. 'Wholly Smoke' has a good story, is cleverly animated, delivers a socially constructive message without lecturing, and (oh, yeah) it's extremely funny. This cartoon stands as a tribute to the sadly underrated Frank Tashlin ... and should be required viewing for all those misguided people who think that Chuck Jones was the be-all and end-all of Warners animation.

In this cartoon, Porky is cast as a boy-pig rather than an adult. His mother sends him off to Sunday school with a nickel for the collection plate. On the way, Porky encounters a standard Warner Bros bully: a bowler-hatted Dead End Kid pig-boy. This kid is smoking a cigar, and there's some funny animation (with good music cues) as the cigar smoke takes various shapes. When the punk learns that Porky has a nickel, he bullies Porky into giving it up. Porky feels some peer pressure: to prove he can be tough too, Porky takes a drag on the cigar ... and collapses into a sickening jag in which he is confronted by a smoke-man named Nick O'Teen.

Now comes the brilliant setpiece of this cartoon. To the tune of 'Old Man Mose' (a standby of the Warners music department), Nick O'Teen drags Porky into a nightmare reverie of anti-smoking images. Cigars resembling the Three Stooges poke Porky in the eyes. A squadron of cigarettes start marching in Busby Berkeley manoeuvres, spelling out the words 'NO SMOKING'. There's an extremely well-animated montage sequence, as the nightmare picks up speed. Eventually Porky reclaims his nickel, besting the bully and getting to Sunday school, vowing never again to smoke.

'Wholly Smoke' (made during the Schlesinger unit's black-and-white period) is a visual delight, as well as funny. Even the opening credits are better-looking than usual. There is only one unpleasant (vaguely racist) gag, when Nick O'Teen's face becomes temporarily covered with soot, making him look like a blackface minstrel and prompting him to do an imitation of Cab Calloway. I heartily recommend 'Wholly Smoke' for kids and adults, and I rate it 10 out of 10. All fans of Warners animation should pay more attention to Frank Tashlin and Robert McKimson, and MUCH less attention to the monstrously overrated Schmuck Jones.

Porky Pig in Wholly Smoke is a quite entertaining take on how kids shouldn't smoke

[tavm · 9/10 · 19 November 2009]

Just watched this Looney Tune Porky Pig cartoon on YouTube as linked from the Saturday Morning Blog. It has the child-pig going to church but on the way he encounters a bully his size who challenges him on his toughness by smoking on his cigar. Needless to say, some nightmares result..."Supervised" by Frank Tashlin, Wholly Smoke is quite entertaining when it goes on a delirium as Porky dreams of various smoking products singing and dancing about the dangers of smoke. Quite a bit of caricatures of famous celebrities like The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly), Bing Crosby, Rudy Vallee, and Cab Calloway abound and while some might be offended by the blackface matches, you might not notice right away since no stereotypical dialect comes out of them. Almost like a Max Fleischer cartoon yet with the Warner Bros. attitude that was just emerging from these Termite Terrace products. So on that note, Wholly Smoke is well worth seeing.

Before "actress" Patty Hearst's Grandpappy . . .

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 15 November 2016]

. . . William Randolph "CITIZEN KANE" Hearst foisted REEFER MADNESS upon gullible Rich People Party puppets such as Nancy "Just Say No" Reagan, Warner Bros. courageously confronted America's REAL corporate smoke culprit, Big Tobacco, with this Looney Tune animated short, WHOLLY SMOKE. As Porky Pig learns here, international health experts have documented 1,418.7 American Murders at the hands of the Bright Leaf Boys for every ONE fatality somehow attributed in part to pot (usually a hiking backpacker or bird watcher stepping on a land mine near a marijuana factory farm run by illegal foreigners in one of America's National Forests). Warner's child Porky Pig is victimized by every trick in Big Tobacco's Book, from the Cartoonish enticements of Joe Camel to the peer pressure applied by hired shills. Warner's "Nick O'Teen" character epitomizes the slick youth outreach that the Coffin Nail Corporations still are allowed to practice Today, with their peppermint and bubble gum-flavored E-cigarettes. But as the Trumpsters will say while they eliminate Affordable Health Care, Medicare, and Medicaid, "You can't live Forever!"

Porky Pig's smoke problem

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 22 January 2018]

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.

'Wholly Smoke' may not be one of my favourite cartoons of all time, but for me it is up there among the best of the late 30s Porky Pig cartoons, one of his best solo cartoons and one of his best directed by Frank Tashlin. Tashlin directs wonderfully here in 'Wholly Smoke', the cartoon boasting some of his cleverest, most imaginative and wittiest visuals and not only does Tashlin engage with the material he actually seems to be having a ball with it.

Porky is likeable as ever, effectively playing it straight and he isn't underused or too much of a support character. It will be admitted though that Nick O'Teen, with a sterling voice over from Tedd Pierce, and the smoking caricatures, in the hallucinatory sequence that dominates the cartoon to unforgettable effect, display stronger personalities.

A lot of fun 'Wholly Smoke' is, especially with the delicious wackiness tonally and the various smoke characters and caricatures that are great to spot. It is one of Tashlin's weirdest and the weirdest for Porky, but this is in a wonderful way. 'Wholly Smoke' is essentially a message cartoon, with a message that makes its point without preaching too much. It is also a message that eighty years on is an important and relevant one, more so now where smoking is no longer something that most people back then did because it was fashionable and a social thing but now an increasingly unhealthy lifestyle choice although addressed more in the media about the consequences.

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 'Porky's Building'. 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.

The animation is very good. It's fluid in movement, crisp in shading and very meticulous in detail. The story is paced beautifully but it is a case of everything else making more of an impact.

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.

In summary, great. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Little Boys Shouldn't Smoke, And That's No Lie

[jeremycrimsonfox · 10/10 · 12 July 2020]

One of the classic Looney Tunes shorts, this actually teaches a good lesson. In it, Porky is on his way to Sunday school when he sees a young bully smoking a cigar. Foolishly betting the nickel he is given to give to the collection plate, Porky soon finds himself at a smoke shoppe, where Nick O'Teen shrinks him and puts him in a nightmarish situation as he traps him and tells him he is at the right place "and he gets all the smoking he can handle", leading to a song as poor Porky is subjected to torture by anthromorphic smoking products (some designed like popular celebrities and characters at the time), which hammers the message in.

The short is good, and the song is not too scary, as it has a lot of comical moments and does teach Porky (and the viewer) a good lesson. This is also one of the shorts to have been done in color (however, the color version is infamous for having random scenes edited or removed on different networks, mainly because of two instances of blackface (one of them being recolored for Cartoon Network, which also removed the Indian Pipe scene). However, regardless of which version is seen, it is a good short that teaches a good leson: little boys shouldn't smoke.