Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The Wearing of the Grin 1951 ( Dir Chuck Jones)

After a slog of rather uninspiring Porky cartoons, I finally am able to write about one that I like.

The Wearing of the grin is without doubt a product of Chuck Jones' mind. Who else would use a huge cliche, make it surreal and pull it off perfectly? Add that to Michael Maltese's witty script and you have a recipe for an enjoyable 7 minutes.

The cartoon kicks off with the typical classic horror opening. Huge storm and Porky is the weary traveller on his way to Dublin and stuck in the middle of nowhere. He comes across a creepy castle and asks the owner if he can stay for the night. The owner does warn him that the castle is inhabited by leprechauns. Porky laughs it off , shuts the castle door and gets hit by a mace.

while he is in a daze we find out that the owner actually consists of two leprechauns Pat and Mike. Both suspect that Porky is going to stel their gold. When our porcine friend regains consciousness , the leprechauns ( now again as one person) show Porky two his room. After a blunder he discovers that Leprechauns do exist and freaks out. He is arrested by the Leprechauns for trying to steal their pot of gold ( despite the fact that Porky is obviously innocent.) he is sentenced to wearing a pair of green loafers.

After a couple of seconds Porky starts to dance an Irish Jig and moves into a land filled with giant shamrocks, pipes and stereotypical Irish panephernelia. In one excellently animated sequence porky is ensnared into a harp and is falling off a cliff into a vat of gold.

and then he wakes up. Looks at the owner and dashes out of the castle.

the owner smirks , another two pairs of hands shoot out of his coat ( the other leprechaun) and they shake hands triumphantly.

Truest me lots of people use the dream sequence, but how many cartoon directors use the dream within a dream trick? AND then create an open ended conclusion? did the leprechauns infilatrate Porky's mind? was Porky really awake? Jones definitely had the knack of putting his viewers in his cartoons and wearing of the grin is definitely no exception

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