Porky in Wackyland and Dough for the Do-Do (A Do-Do-Double Feature)

Director(s): Bob Clampett (for “Porky in Wackyland”); Friz Freleng (uncredited for “Dough for the Do-Do”)

Summary: Both shorts center on Porky traveling to Darkest Africa (where the African country of Niger [that one “g” is very important! It doesn’t need to be doubled. And it’s pronounced “Nye-jer”] would realistically be on the map) to capture the last dodo in existence (Dodo birds actually lived on the island of Mauritius, which is near Madagascar [yes, it’s not just a 2000s kids’ animated movie]) for a four sextillion (which is 21 zeroes on the short scale system, as used in the United States, Canada, and most other English-speaking countries, barring Great Britain. The long scale, used in Great Britain, France, and Germany, has 36 zeroes in their sextillion) dollar reward. And if you think I’m going to run this through the inflation calculator to see how much purchasing power that is in 2025, you’re “Cuckoo! Cuckoo!”

Fun Facts: “Porky in Wackyland” is quite famous -- nay, it’s one of the most iconic Warner Bros. cartoons ever made. Besides having a color sequel in “Dough for the Do-Do” and the Do-Do (named Yoyo Dodo retroactively) having a son named Gogo Dodo on the 1990s version of Tiny Toon Adventures (the one where the voice actors are Charlie Adler [later replaced by John Kassir], Tress MacNeille, Don Messick, Joe Alaskey, Kath Soucie, Cree Summer [credited as “Cree Summer Francks”], Gail Matthius, Frank Welker, Danny Cooksey, Jeff Bergman, Gregg Berg, Maurice LaMarche, and occasionally, Noel Blanc), “Porky in Wackyland” is:

One of four cartoons put in the National Film Registry and considered “culturally relevant” by the Library of Congress in the United States

The only National Film Registry entry not directed by Chuck Jones

The only National Film Registry entry that’s a Looney Tune (the rest are Merrie Melodies)

On the final installment of Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon (speaking of this cartoon and Nickelodeon, expect a lot of online comments on how this cartoon “predicted” CatDog just because it had one fleeting scene of a creature that’s half-cat, half-dog) that aired on September 11^th…of 1999 (ha! Gotcha!)

In at #8 on The 50 Greatest Cartoons list (so it made the Top Ten, but not the Top Five).

Much like “Have You Got Any Castles,” also the closest a Censored Eleven cartoon has come to airing on American TV, as some of the scenes would later be recycled for “Tin Pan Alley Cats.”

The Channel(s): Sunset Productions/Guild Films and Nickelodeon (for “Porky in Wackyland”); ABC (for “Dough for the Do-Do”)

Part(s) Edited:

Uncut Scenes	Was Edited on the Sunset Production/Guild Films print for U.S. Syndication	Was Edited on Nickelodeon	Was Edited on ABC
Porky seeing a black, wide-mouth duck saying “Mammy” as he passes by him	No	Yes (“Porky in Wackyland” only)	Yes (“Dough for the Do-Do” only)
Three-headed freak going Three Stooges on itself (read: slaps itself, pokes its eyes, tweaks its nose)	No	No	Yes (“Dough for the Do-Do” only)
Do-Do pops into frame on the WB shield and slingshots Porky into the ground	Yes (“Porky in Wackyland” only)	No	Yes (“Dough for the Do-Do” only)

As you can see from the chart, the remake “Dough for the Do-Do” is more edited than “Porky in Wackyland,” though that’s because ABC was stricter against showing violent and racially insensitive content. The third cut on ABC (the WB shield one), however, was done, not just because of slapstick violence (the slingshot), but because of copyright/studio rivalry reasons. You see, back before Disney made ABC its bitch, ABC was the bitch to a theater chain that was part of Paramount Studios (the same Paramount that’s now associated with Nickelodeon) and Warner Bros was one of Paramount’s rivals,so showing a symbol from a rival company was (most likely) against the rules (at least from the legal department, not Standards and Practices [the network censors]). “Porky in Wackyland”’s reason for cutting the Warner Bros. shield part when syndicated by Sunset Productions/Guild Films was because Warner Bros back in the 1950s initially didn’t want to be associated with television, because television was considered the imminent death of the movies (it still is, but now you have the Internet, streaming, people giving up on TV and media in general for many reasons, from boredom to hating how politicized, sleazy, mindless, and/or overly inoffensive and politically correct it’s become [yeah, I don’t get it, but that’s Internet commentary for ya]; and, if you can believe it, books [yes, people still read, even if some have learning difficulties]).

What Wasn’t Cut But Should Have Been: I…don’t think there’s anything…at least for “Porky in Wackyland.” ABC’s version of “Dough for the Do-Do” could have cut Porky getting a brick dropped on its head (like how “Homeless Hare” cut Bugs dropping a brick on Hoicules the construction worker’s head). They already cut the Al Jolson duck,  the three-headed freak abusing itself (in a non-sexual way; I know “abusing oneself” is a euphemism for masturbation in some circles), and the WB shield/slingshot part. Why not cut a fourth scene and go for the record?

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit(s): Nothing, though it did use to confuse me as to why the WB shield part would be cut from the Sunset Productions/Guild Films version. The same scene in “Dough for the Do-Do” at least had a good reason that I discovered right off the bat (copyright reasons/the network it played on wasn’t associated with Warner Brothers, so they couldn’t legally show it).

Video Comparison (still using Wondershare Filmora free version. I would use Da Vinci Resolve, but that eats up a lot of gigabytes on my computer [No video should be 4.18 gigs if it’s only three minutes, as seen with my severely-edited “Jungle Jitters” video]. Will definitely buy the version that doesn’t export watermarked videos before 2025 is over, as this is the time of year I make a lot of money at my job because of the increase in hours and paid holiday time):

“Porky in Wackyland” edits:

 

“Dough for the Do-Do” edits:

(forgive some of the errors in the video; I was behind schedule due to work and software issues)

Availability Uncut: Since “Porky in Wackyland” (and, to a lesser extent, “Dough for the Do-Do”) is considered one of the iconic Warner Bros. shorts, both have been released on home media.

“Porky in Wackyland” releases:

Ham on Wry: The Porky Pig Laser Collection (LaserDisc, 1993)

Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition, volume 7: Welcome to Wackyland (VHS, 2000)

Looney Tunes Golden Collection, volume 2, disc three (DVD, 2004)

Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: volume 2, disc one (DVD, 2004)

Looney Tunes Collection: Best of Tweety and Sylvester, volume one (DVD, 2005, available in Region 2 areas)

Looney Tunes Big Faces Box Set: Tweety Pie (DVD, 2011, available in the United Kingdom)

Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, volume 2 (DVD and Blu-ray, 2012; Blu-ray was later brought back in 2025)

Looney Tunes 3 Feature Collection Best Of (2012, “Porky and Daffy” disc, DVD, available in Region 2 areas)

Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection, volumes 2 and 3 repack (2014, DVD)

Porky Pig 101 (2017, DVD, disc 3)

Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection, volumes 1-3 repack (2018, DVD)

“Dough for the Do-Do” releases:

The Looney Tunes Video Show, volume 6 (VHS, 1982, Canada and UK release only)

Warner Bros. Cartoons Golden Jubilee 24 Karat Collection: Porky Pig’s Screw Ball Comedies (VHS and Beta, 1985, time-compressed)

Longitude and Looneytude: Globetrotting Looney Tunes Favorites (1994, LaserDisc)

Looney Tunes Presents: Taz's Jungle Jams (1998, VHS)

Looney Tunes Golden Collection, volume 1 (2003, DVD, disc 2)

Looney Tunes Collection Best of Daffy and Porky (2004, DVD and video CD, available in Region 2 areas)

Looney Tunes Big Faces Box Set: Daffy Duck (2011, DVD)

Looney Tunes 3 Feature Collection Best Of (2012, “Porky and Daffy” disc, DVD, available in Region 2 areas)

Is/Was It on Streaming or Digital Download: “Porky in Wackyland” isn’t available on streaming or digital download as of this writing, but “Dough for the Do-Do” is (I don’t understand why. Anything “Dough for the Do-Do” has, “Porky in Wackyland” does too, so why choose one over the other?). “Dough for the Do-Do” was on Boomerang’s streaming service from 2017 to 2024 and is now on Tubi as part of the 700 to 800 Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts available for free. If you’re into digital downloading, you can find it on iTunes or Amazon Prime Video (exact uploading years for both services are unknown, but it’s there and that’s all that matters).

‘Til next time…

The Village Smithy (or They Shoot Horseshoes, Don't They?)

Director: Tex Avery

Summary: In a spoof of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem “The Village Blacksmith,” Porky Pig is an apprentice to the titular Village Blacksmith, and screws up in getting his master a horseshoe.

The Channel(s): Nickelodeon

Part(s) Edited: Ah, the first Nickelodeon edit done because of violence and not outdated racial stereotypes or to trim the runtime for commercials (“Gold Diggers of ‘49” is a gray area. Yes, the shooting scene with the metal tub does count as a violence cut, but it also counts as dangerous behavior if you think that viewers are dumb enough to think that a metal tub will protect them from gunfire and most of the censorship attention in that short belongs to the scenes with the Chinese laundrymen, including the brief scene of them in blackface from car exhaust).

Anyway, the Nickelodeon version of “The Village Smithy” cut the part where the village blacksmith guns down the rubber horseshoe after he puts it in a vice and the pressure causes the scene to shake.

How It Plays Edited/Video Comparison: The way I cut it, where I deleted the shaking part as well as the shooting part and the blacksmith putting away his gun after using it, is probably what Nickelodeon did (I originally had the shaking part, then jumped to Porky coming in with the horse, but there was a typo on one of the title cards, so I deleted the file). If you ignore the minor continuity error of the horseshoe suddenly going limp after getting tightened and the skip in audio, then it’s not a big deal, as this video will attest:

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit: Not much. I mentioned the slight audio cut and continuity error as being potential tells that something was cut, but I remember seeing this when I was younger on Nickelodeon, and it didn’t stand out through my seven- to eight-year-old eyes and ears (and believe me, I do remember a lot of censorship cuts to Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons).

Availability Uncut: Not many places to find this uncut, even though it’s relatively harmless by modern standards. Its only physical media release is on the Porky Pig 101 DVD, and it was on HBO Max (n.k.a Max), but the collection of Looney Tunes shorts has been taken down as of 2025. Maybe they’ll bring it back with a new assortment of shorts, but that won’t be for a while.

Update: As of 2025, “The Village Smithy” is now part of Tubi’s Looney Tunes collection, where 786 out of the 1000 original theatrical shorts (and some modern shorts made from the 1970s to the 2000s) are featured.

The Cat Came Back (Plunger, Mousetrap, Poke 'Er Eye)

Quick note before I start: I know I said I was going to change up the blog and take it to a new direction, but I have five entries on the back burner formatted in the old style. For ease of transition (and because I'm still thinking of new ways [or a new way] to approach my entries), the entries to this short, Milk and Money/Porky's Prize Pony, I Love to Singa, and The Village Smithy will be in this style. After another full post covering a group of similarly censored cartoons (it will either be the Banned Bugs Bunny 12 or The Hunter's Trilogy), I will transition over to my as-yet new style (I am considering a podcast-style transcription with accompanying video and picture stills, but nothing is set in stone yet). So, enjoy these last five entries as they are.

Director: Friz Freleng

Summary: In this platonic version of Romeo and Juliet, a kitten and a mouse, despite being taught by their respective mothers that they and their kind are sworn enemies of the other, run off and become friends. When the two end up getting trapped in a sewer, will the two warring families put aside their differences and save their children?

The Channel: Unnamed syndication

Part(s) Edited: Going by the old Censored Cartoons Page and the Looney Tunes wiki, there are four parts edited for seemingly no reason (though at least one part has a justified reason for being edited).

• The momma mouse training her kids on how to run through a mousetrap without getting caught
• The momma cat getting poked in the eyes (and the momma cat poking the momma mouse in the eyes after thinking back to why they're enemies in the first place) [this counts as two cuts, and is probably the only justified edit, as eye-poking is often considered dangerous, imitable slapstick violence, especially if you've ever seen a Three Stooges short with the classic trio of Moe, Larry, and Curly]
• The momma mouse using a plunger to get the kitten and mouse out of the sewer.

Please Note: the accompany video refers to the momma mouse as a "momma rat." That's my bad for doing these on lack of adequate sleep.

How It Plays Edited/Video Comparison: Not too bad, though the eye-poking part being edited is obvious. Without it, there's no reason why the momma cat and mouse hate each other (besides the fact that cats and mice don't get along anyway). Here's the compare/contrast clip:

Please Note #2: I switched over to Filmora for this video because it works better. There's a watermark on it because I have the free version. Somewhere on this journey, I will get a paid version, but that's probably not going to happen. DaVinci Resolve is good and I will come back to it, but Filmora has better features and I will stick with it unless otherwise noted.

Availability Uncut: It is available for streaming (uncut, naturally. It's not problematic by modern standards, outside of some violence, drowning peril, and species discrimination, but it's cute and charming enough to get away with it) on HBO Max (now called "Max"). If you're looking for a physical release of it, there's only two choices: The Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc set (volume 5, side 5, "Pesky Pets") or the Blu-ray version of the movie The Walking Dead (no relation to the graphic novel or the AMC series) starring Boris Karloff and Ricardo Cortez.

Update: As of 2025, “The Cat Came Back” is not on HBO Max (a.k.a Max) anymore. It is uploaded on Tubi.

Bosko the Lumberjack (Moose-Fire)

Director: Hugh Harman

Summary: In a refreshing break from the one-shot musical cartoons, we’re back with Bosko. As the title indicates, Bosko is a lumberjack who cuts down trees and tries to save his girlfriend, Honey, from a villain named Pierre. It should also be noted that this is (so far) the last Bosko cartoon to be public domain (as the years go by, this will change and I will try to edit in the changes to reflect that).

The Channel: Nickelodeon (on the Nick@Nite version of Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon)

Part(s) Edited: According to the old Censored Cartoons page, there was said to be a scene cut where Bosko fires a rifle into a moose head. Turns out that’s a lie. The actual scene cut was Pierre entering the cabin with Honey to escape Bosko trying to get Honey back, and the moose head on the wall randomly coming to life and shooting Pierre in the butt repeatedly. The Mandela effect at its finest.

How It Plays Edited: Doesn’t affect the overall story, but does create the plot hole of Pierre rubbing his butt just as Bosko enters the cabin to fight him. Nothing major.

Video Comparison:

Uncut version:

Edited clip:

Availability Uncut: As mentioned before, this is the last Bosko cartoon that has fallen into the public domain in America (and, with time, there will be more to come). Since there are no official releases of this short (either on streaming or physical media), your best bet is to watch it on online video sites that allow public domain videos.

Ain't Nature Grand? (Spit-Bit)

 

Director: Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising

Summary: Bosko’s fishing trip turns into a string of scenes where he cavorts with nature.

Part(s) Edited: Another light one from the days of Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon being a Nick at Night show. Bosko petting the fish until it spits in his face was cut. The Looney Tunes wiki says that there was a scene where Bosko gets bitten by the fish he pets, but I’ve scoured every uncut copy I could find and the biting scene doesn’t exist; only the spitting. If you care anything about people having access to correct information, please fix it. On top of that, there’s nothing overly-violent about spitting in someone’s face. Yes, it’s kinda rude and disgusting (especially since this premiered around the time when the Hays Code was written up as a guideline to proper movie content, but wouldn’t be fully enforced until 1934 and spitting back then was considered crude and disgusting enough to be a problem with the censors), but not violent. This is why I conclude that this was done either because Nickelodeon’s censors were really strict back in the late 1980s or it was just a cut made because the network needed that time for commercials.

How It Plays With the Edit: Since I can’t find evidence that this was edited, I like to imagine that the scene went from Bosko saying, “Ain’t that cute?” to the audience about the fish to the fish jumping out of his hands and back in the water. The cut doesn’t make or break the cartoon, since we’re still in the era of cartoons having thin plots and thinner characterization and only being a vehicle for visual gags set to music.

Availability Uncut: No official release as of 2024, but this is a public domain short, so your best bet is either on online video sites or bargain bin videotapes and DVDs that have compilations of old cartoons (and maybe a forgotten short film or live-action movie) that aren’t under copyright. Here’s the whole cartoon below for those who don’t want to go on YouTube:

There's also a redrawn colorized version of this short that exists, but, as far as I can tell, I never saw it on television. Here's a video showing the differences between the black and white and redrawn-colorized version: