Porky in Egypt (1938) User Reviews

Great camel freak-out!

[clem-5 · 7/10 · 10 June 1999]

A slightly inferior companion piece to the stunningly brilliant "Porky in Wackyland", the first two minutes of this cartoon are fairly standard (though good) Warner Bros pre-WW II animation fare. Then: the camel freaks out, succumbing to that "desert madness", and the proceedings get totally out of hand. Some of the best cartoon mania anywhere (and surely one of the sources to the rumor that all early animators loved hallucinogenics). Alas, to the best of my knowledge, the camel never followed up his star turn in this one.

Oddball but fun, while not one of Porky's best

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 20 November 2012]

I love the Looney Tunes cartoons(well a vast majority of them anyway), and while he is not one of my favourites I do like Porky Pig. Porky in Egypt is not one of the best, as the first two minutes or so are rather standard with not much that is funny and the story doesn't really go anywhere, but it is fun. It does have an oddball nature, which people may love and others may find themselves perplexed, for me there were times throughout where I was one or the other. This said, the animation is great with the black and white looking beautiful and everything looks fluid, I especially liked what was done with Humpty Bumpty's nightmarish vision. The music has some authentic flavour while having the manic characterful energy often distinctive in Looney Tunes. The humour has Bob Clampett written all over it, and it all feels fresh and witty with the gags cleverly timed. Porky is endearing here if a little bland compared to Humpty Bumpty the camel, who bags all the best moments that help to make him one of the best supporting characters of any of Porky's cartoons. Mel Blanc is excellent as always in his vocal characterisations. Overall, not one of Porky's best, but fun especially for Humpty Bumpty. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I still say that the desert is more desirable than hot humid climates.

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 5 October 2007]

One of Bob Clampett's many surreal cartoons has Porky Pig on vacation in Egypt, where he misses a tour. Boarding a camel, Porky travels through the desert, but the oppressive heat sends the camel into full-scale dementia! How funny to think of an American going to a foreign country expecting a really easy time, and this befalls him! Yes, "Porky in Egypt" mostly looks like a place holder in between the really great cartoons that in 1938 (aside from "Porky in Wackyland", others included "Daffy Duck in Hollywood"). But I still find it funny. And if I may say so, people often treat the desert as the least tolerable climate, but if you've ever experienced a hot humid climate such as the southeastern US, the desert actually feels quite nice.

Anyway, worth seeing.

Insight into American perceptions of Egypt in the 1930's

[ShiraDotnet · 4/10 · 27 May 2006]

The only familiar Looney Tunes character featured in this one is Porky Pig. It's about 6 1/2 minutes long.

The setting is theoretically 1930's era Egypt. A bunch of guys sit around wearing turbans and loin clothes. A woman wearing harem pants and a little top struts by with a jug on her head, then removes her face veil to expose a very ugly face. (She doesn't dance, though.) Then the scene shifts to a guy in loincloth and turban sitting on a bed of nails. He swallows a flaming sword which gives him indigestion. Next a tour group of people clad in European-style safari garb boards a camel to go sightseeing. All of this happens within the first minute and a half.

Porky Pig tries to join the tour group, but gets left behind. So he gets on his own camel and heads out. They get lost in the desert under the blazing sun. The camel freaks out and starts playing bagpipes, then dances the Highland fling. (Yes, it really is recognizable as the Fling complete with shedding. The camel's turnout isn't half bad... As for what it's doing in a cartoon titled Porky In Egypt, well, remember, the camel IS freaking out.) Porky sees a mirage of the camel sitting in a pond of cool water and tries to jump in with it, and finds himself buried in sand. The camel gets its sanity back long enough to take them back to the city.

I'll admit, Porky isn't my favorite Looney Tunes character, and 4 1/2 minutes of the camel freaking out got to be a bit excessive for my taste - at first it was amusing, but then it started to drag and seemed like it wasn't going anywhere. So in general I'm not fond of this cartoon. But I was amused by the first 1 1/2 minutes, and I did like the camel's Highland Fling.

Absurd Humor, And The Camel Steals The Show

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 23 May 2007]

Believe it or not, you still see this kind of shock-humor today, and you probably always will. This cartoon isn't some old-fashioned slam on Egyptians or their beliefs or way of life - it's just far-out absurd humor. For instance, in the very first scene we see a couple of the locals, dressed in Mid-East garb, waking up, beginning to chant and then - wham! - someone breaks out a pair of dice and a guy yells, "Come on, seven. Baby needs a new pair of shoes!" You see - absurd humor....and it IS funny. To emphasize that point, the very next scene has a veiled, what-looks-like, sexy woman with a great body passing by, the guys whistle....until she lifts the veil and we see a toothless old hag! A short time later, we see a long camel that can seat 10 people. Some of the humor is stupid or dated to the point where we miss it, but some are clever.

Anyway, Porky Pig is there and he misses the long camel ride, hitches one of his own and begins a trek in the desert. Then, this settles into a short story of "desert madness" when the brutal sun (and I mean "brutal) knocks Porky's camel for a loop.

At that point, this cartoon gets hilarious. Porky's camel (named "Humpty Bumpty") is delirious, hysterical and then thinks he's saved and begins playing bagpipes, doing an Irish dance, etc. - very, very funny stuff. Humptey is, by far, the funniest camel I've ever seen in a cartoon.

Creepy, bizarre and funny in a stomach-twistingly unsettling way. An oddball cult classic

[phantom_tollbooth · 8/10 · 4 November 2008]

Bob Clampett's 'Porky in Egypt' is among the strangest and most unsettling cartoons you'll see in your lifetime. While early Porky Pig shorts could sometimes tend toward the cutesy or pedestrian, Clampett's were usually crazy, frenetic balls of energy, the like of which only he could pull off. Released the same year as his much lauded classic 'Porky in Wackyland' and his lesser praised but no less classic 'Porky's Party' and 'Porky and Daffy', 'Porky in Egypt' is the nuttiest of the lot. As is often the case in these early Porky cartoons, Porky gets star billing but very much plays second fiddle to another character, in this case a camel named Humpty Bumpty! Venturing out into the desert alone, Porky is surprised when his camel is suddenly struck by sun-induced desert-madness. The insane antics of the camel then completely take over the picture, resulting in a bravura tour-de-force of jaw-droppingly mad animation in which Humpty Bumpty snaps from wild pose to wild pose, howling in paranoia one minute and playing some inexplicably produced bagpipes the next! Any early hint of a plot is forsaken in favour of sheer Clampett lunacy as the camel and Porky battle their own mental states in a barren, featureless landscape. Creepy, bizarre and funny in a stomach-twistingly unsettling way, 'Porky in Egypt' never ceases to amaze me. I remember the first time I saw it, I wasn't entirely sure that it had really just happened! But happen it did and I'm truly glad that's the case. I highly recommend this oddball cult classic. Whether you enjoy it or not, it's certainly a cartoon that you'll never forget not matter how hard you try.

Bizarre just for the sake of bizarreness!

[slymusic · 18 April 2007]

"Porky in Egypt" is unfortunately not one of the better Porky Pig cartoons directed by Bob Clampett, although it IS abundant with Clampett's characteristic zaniness. Porky misses out on a guided tour of Egypt, so he grabs a camel and embarks on his own tour, during which the hot sun gets the better of the twosome and causes them to go completely insane. As interesting as this sounds, the main problem with this cartoon is that is doesn't really go anywhere.

Despite its weaknesses, "Porky in Egypt" still contains a few memorable moments. The opening scene depicts a group of Arabs solemnly chanting and then abruptly shooting craps, after which we see an ostensibly beautiful harem girl who then reveals her hideous face! Porky's camel is quite funny as he 1.) hunkers down on all fours and declares to Porky his craziness with the heat, 2.) performs a Scottish jig, and 3.) imitates humorist Lew Lehr with his line "Camels is the cwaziest peoples!"

We can always count on Bob Clampett for the wildest, weirdest animation possible, but "Porky in Egypt" is simply a silly cartoon that misses its mark. The sight of one particular fire swallower with pins, needles, and swords stuck through his body is painful to behold.