Punch Trunk (1953)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Absolutely brilliant

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is one of the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts I remember watching years ago well. When Nickelodeon, TBS, and TNT used to air these cartoons, as well as those by MGM in the 1990s. I didn't have many favorites in this series growing up, but I think this is among my favorites, both as a one-off and among those in either series in general, as well as favorite '50s cartoons and those directed by Chuck Jones. One day, the unexplained happened. Other than arriving by ship, an abnormally small, adult, bull elephant comes seemingly out of nowhere and wanders around a large city (maybe somewhere in New York). Almost every person and animal he encounters along the way causes them to react the same way, which is freak out at the sight of a rather unusually miniature-sized elephant, faint, or flee, and finding that weird. Out of all of those moments, my most favorite part is when he's in the apartment home of Marsha, Jennene, and John. If nobody had seen him for themselves, they would've never believed it as the saying goes, "seeing is believing". It must not be so far-fetched after all if more than one individual has come across it. Once that happens, most everybody is convinced and they haven't gone mental after all. There's no explanation how nor why this elephant is not like other, average-sized elephants, nor even where it came from exactly (other than Africa), but I guess that doesn't really matter. Most everyone's fright and puzzlement may be the point of what makes this so greatly entertaining, in addition to this mystery. One reason why I love this so much and more than Jones's more recognized shorts, such as One Froggy Evening, is because of how much it seems to poke fun at surrealism and its self-reference to that. In how in this everything seems to be normal until the elephant arrives. Recommended, I've always enjoyed it.

. . . but few if any viewers in the 1900s would have sensed that Warner Bros.' Looney Tuners intended PUNCH TRUNK as a warning parable, or been able to decipher all the Real Life Chaos packed into PUNCH TRUNK's seemingly innocuous seven minutes. Warner's always Prophetic Animated Shorts Division obviously uses the image of a rat-sized 5" Bull Elephant stalking the streets of a major U.S. city to trumpet the advent of D.J. Trump. The "Picayune Pachyderm," as Warner labels it, is an accurate True-to-Scale Life-Sized Comparison of the Elephant Party's Giant-Souled first President, Abe Lincoln, and its would-be final POTUS, the small-spirited Trump. That the Party of Big Game Hunter Teddy Roosevelt could degenerate into the current rabble led by a self-proclaimed P - - S Y Stalker/Grabber, and that Ronald "Tear Down This Wall!" Reagan's Bunch would decay down to a mob led by a GAME SHOW HOST ranting about erecting Huge Walls of our own would have been as unfathomable to the I-Like-Ikers as it is Today to the Heavenly Host. Warner tried to warn us, but the Angels are Weeping, anyway.

I too originally saw this on Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, and while Punch Trunk is not my favourite from the film I like it. Why? Because it is cute and quirky. The story is slight, and the humour isn't necessarily thick-and-fast and madcap, but what is funny is the surrealism, like one review said. Also the cartoon does have some very nice animation, some sweet music and the tiny elephant is simply adorable even if it does wreak havoc. The supporting characters are good enough, though the little elephant steals the cartoon. Overall, nice enough if nothing absolutely outstanding. It is very sweet, cute and quirky, and is just a nice watch really. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I originally saw "Punch Trunk" in the compilation film "Daffy Duck's Quackbusters", and I've now seen it in its own form (or should I say "I SEEN IT!"?). It was one of Chuck Jones's many completely outlandish shorts during the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies heyday. My interpretation is pure conjecture, but I get the feeling that the cartoon may have been an allusion to things like the possible UFO landing in Roswell; it seems like the sort of thing that could never happen, but what if it could? Just how would we respond if a five-inch-tall elephant started walking around the city? But like I said, that's just my interpretation. The cartoon was probably intended as pure entertainment (and it is fairly funny, if not Jones's best cartoon ever). As it's not readily available on video or DVD, you can watch it on YouTube.