Erica Derrick
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Rosie Searle
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Nicole
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
phantom_tollbooth
Frank Tashlin's 'Porky the Fireman' is one of those excellent early Porky Pig cartoons in which Porky could easily be substituted for a different character. The emphasis here is very much on a series of extremely inventive gags all based around a burning building which Porky's fire brigade is trying to save. Frantically alternating between trying to find a source of water and rescue people from the blazing windows, the firemen finally extinguish the last flame… or do they?! 'Porky the Fireman' moves at a real lick, ensuring that if you don't like one gag there'll be another one along immediately. This speedy pace is only broken up by the cartoon's true star, a laid-back, pipe-smoking dog whose terminally relaxed demeanour is entirely incongruous with the situation. Some of the dog's jokes take longer than your average gag but Tashlin treats his material with an assurance which makes certain that the audience will not become bored. The inventive idea of personifying the flames that are destroying the building results in some brilliant moments too. 'Porky the Fireman' dashed my preconceptions about its dull title by proving to be a fast-moving, funny and fresh animated short. Recommended.
slymusic
"Porky the Fireman" is a self-explanatory Frank Tashlin-directed Porky Pig cartoon. Porky and his crew dash off to extinguish the roaring blazes at a theatrical boarding house, where plenty of funny gags arise.For me, the major highlight of "Porky the Fireman" is the lackadaisical pipe-chomping dog on Porky's crew. He follows the curvature of a fire hose as he nonchalantly strolls towards Porky and calmly asks him, "What did you say?" "I said turn on the water!!" "Oh." The dog then strolls back to the hydrant. Another time, he slowly climbs a ladder and asks Mabel the Fat Lady, "What did you say?" She responds by frantically coaxing him to save her from the burning building and put her on the street. "Oh." He grabs her and tosses her out the window!The only remaining question I have regarding "Porky the Fireman" is: What happened to all the firemen at the very end?
Lee Eisenberg
If you thought that cartoon gags had gone as far as they could, just watch "Porky the Fireman". Whether the fire spells out messages, water from the fire hose plays Whack-a-Mole with the fire in the windows, or one character seriously needs his hearing fixed, the whole cartoon goes to show that nothing was sacred to the Termite Terrace crowd.OK, so maybe we could also be cynical and say that Warner Bros. spent about the first four years of Porky Pig's existence mostly putting him in various kinds of roles just for the hell of it (aside from this one, he was also an engineer, pilgrim, bullfighter, etc.). But seriously, with the sorts of gags that these cartoons had, how can you not like them at least some?! I will say that Porky and the other characters really started getting some of their best roles in the early '40s, but this is still worth seeing, if only as a historical reference.
boblipton
In 1935, Disney's MICKEY'S FIRE BRIGADE was a great cartoon. Three years later, under the direction of Frank Tashlin, PORKY THE FIREMAN took the same subject and did it forty times as well. Clocking in at 40 gags per minute, a sensible plot and excellent animation, this movie marked the end of Disney's domination of animation. Three years later, the Clampett satire of FANTASIA, A CORNY CONCERTO, would seal the issue.
