JohnHowardReid
"Porky Pig" (voiced by Mel Blanc), "Patrick Henry" (voiced by John Litel), "Uncle Sam" (voiced by John Deering).Director: ROBERT McKIMSON. Supervision: CHARLES M. JONES. Screenplay: Dave Monahan, Robert Givens, Richard Hogan. Music director: Carl W. Stalling. Music arranger: Milt Franklyn. Producer: Leon Schlesinger. Color by Technicolor.Copyright 1 July 1939 by The Vitaphone Corp. Merrie Melodies. U.S. release: 1 July 1939. 1 reel. 9 minutes. COMMENT: Although Steve Schneider rates this as one of the best of the Porky Pigs, I'm afraid I would place it in the also-rans. Disregarding all the outdated pep talk from a James M. Flagg of an Uncle Sam, it's still pretty boring, both visually and also on the sound track. The illustrations look like the sort of crudely reverential cartoons you find in early 20th century schoolbooks. Worse still, there is not an ounce of imagination, wit or vitality evident at any stage of this potted history of the land of the free. It proves that even the Warner cartoon people can be far more blandly dull than Terrytoons at their worst when they go all serious.
phantom_tollbooth
Chuck Jones's 'Old Glory' is an totally serious Warner Bros. cartoon which typifies Jones's early attempts to emulate Disney in its cutesy approach. Longer than the average Warner cartoon, 'Old Glory' is also notable for its complete lack of gags. A patriotic message cartoon, it features an apple-cheeked Porky Pig as a schoolboy who is bored by his attempts to learn the pledge of allegiance until the ghost of Uncle Sam explains why it is so important. Cue lots of rotoscoped animation of American history. Hardly the recipe for a laugh riot, 'Old Glory' doesn't even try to tickle our funny bone, aiming instead for a rousing effect. Being neither American or particularly patriotic, 'Old Glory' was never going to have much of an effect on me and, while I do recognise it as a handsome piece of animation, it's a misfire in the entertainment stakes. Jones would later make some far stronger patriotic propaganda films that managed to be both informative and entertaining (the wonderful 'So Much for So Little' for example) but 'Old Glory' always leaves me yelling "For the love of god, somebody drop an anvil"!
Lee Eisenberg
If we're going to take "Old Glory" as a lesson, it should be a warning about the government using tragedies as excuses to practically shred the Constitution (you know what I mean). As for Uncle Sam teaching Porky Pig a lesson about what great men Patrick Henry and George Washington were, that remains debatable since both those men owned slaves. And of course the Bill of Rights originally only gave rich white men voting rights, so it's always worth noting that it has always been popular movements that brought progressive change to our country.So it's worth seeing as long as you can analyze it. And I wish that we'd kept the Pledge of Allegiance like it is here (with no "under God").
Robert Reynolds
With the amount of attention being currently given to the Pledge of Allegiance and when (or even whether) it should be said, this cartoon sets forth a very direct and basic value to those words that still holds over 60 years later. Allegiance should (actually I feel that it MUST) be given freely and by choice or its valueless. This cartoon, through effective use of rotoscoping (at least it looks like rotoscoping), is an enlightening look into the value of patriotism and makes some compelling arguments in its favor. Recommended.
