Nothing but the Tooth

Today's feature short is  Nothing but the Tooth, which was released on May 1st, 1948. The short features Porky Pig who was the only survivor of the original Looney Tunes characters from the 1930's. He was the first true star character of the Merry Melodies/Looney Tunes series and an icon of animation. He has starred in the second most cartoons in the franchises, with 159 appearances in the original theatrical cartoons, second only to Bugs Bunny's 168 short lineup and ahead of Daffy Duck's 129 short lineup (although he shared 42 shorts with Daffy).

His stardom was short lived though as the 1940's brought in other stronger stars. In 1940 Warner Bros. released a total of 15 cartoons featuring Porky with no costar. In 1941 Porky found a costar in Daffy Duck and Porky's days of flying solo were basically over. By 1947 Porky was starting to become something of an after thought. Porky was in only two cartoons that year, One Meat Brawl and Little Orphan Airedale.

Porky was created to be a sidekick for what was thought to be Warner Bros. next big star "Beans the Cat". Beans and Porky made their debuts on 1935's "I Havent' Got A Hat" While he barely had over a minute of screen time in said short, Porky was an immediate hit with audiences. However, the studio seemed to think that Beans the Cat was going to be their next big character, so they tried a second cartoon, "Gold Diggers of '49", with young director Tex Avery at the directing helms, starring Beans and a heavily redesigned Porky as his sidekick. Once again, the pig won out as the next big thing, thus establishing him as the official mascot of the studio, while Beans quickly faded away soon after.

This is one of "There's no way in hell we're showing this on TV" cartoons. I can honestly say I don't ever remember seeing it on TV either. It was kinda strange watching this because Porky has almost always been the one who ends up on the short end of the stick. This time it was the other way around with Porky getting the best of the Indian.

The whole thing revolves around one gag, The Indian trying to scalp Porky. Why he's trying to scalp a bald pig is beyond me but hey that's just me. The cartoon was directed by Arthur Davis who I'm not real familiar with. Personally I'm not a big fan of the one gag cartoons. Variety is a good thing and you don't get that here. It's not a bad cartoon but it's not great either. I do find the Indian stereo type pretty funny though. I've run out things to say so just go watch the cartoon and form your own conclusions.