Shanghaied Shipmates: A cartoon where the food is scarce and the jokes are loud

Is it worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for the early days of Porky Pig, you’ll probably find Shanghaied Shipmates charming enough to sit through once. But if you aren't already into black-and-white animation, the thin plot and the frantic, screechy energy might just give you a headache. It’s not exactly deep, but it’s definitely something.

The whole thing starts in a bar, which feels like a pretty standard way to kick off a sailors' adventure. You get that weird, jittery animation style that makes everything feel like it's vibrating. It reminds me a bit of the frantic pacing in Cinderella, though the tone here is way more chaotic.

The pirate captain is a piece of work

The captain is one of those classic villains who just loves being mean for the sake of it. Watching him eat the meat off a bone and then toss the bare scraps to the crew is honestly kind of gross, but it makes you want to see him lose.

The mutiny scene is pure pandemonium. There’s a moment with a cannon that goes exactly how you think it’s going to go, and the cartoon physics take over in a big way. The timing on the final explosion feels a little rushed, like the animators were just ready to go home for the day.

• Porky's stutter is in full swing here, which is always a trip.
• The way the crew just accepts being kidnapped is pretty hilarious if you think about it for more than a second.
• The raft scene at the end is a perfect, weird little footnote to a story that never really needed a happy ending.

It’s funny how some of these older shorts, like the ones you might see in Popular Science J-5-1, have this way of feeling like they’re from another planet. Shanghaied Shipmates isn't going to win any awards for storytelling, but the ink and paint have that nice, worn-in look. Sometimes that’s enough. ⚓️