Hoggy Porkman, Attorney at Law is an American animated courtroom black comedy series created by Michael Ouweleen and Erik Richter and produced by Universal Cartoon Studios, in association with Sony Pictures Television for Spike TV and later, TBS. The show revolves around the activity of the Warlus & Warlus law firm, which is staffed mainly by various characters who had originally been featured in past Universal cartoons, most notably Porkman and the Pig Galaxy Trio.
The Hoggy Porkman pilot first aired on The WB on December 30, 2000. On September 2, 2001, the series moved to Spike TV and later TBS, continuing for four seasons and 39 episodes before ending on July 22, 2007. Many of the episodes ran for 22 minutes, in order to fit in a half-hour timeslot.
Premise[]
Hoggy Porkman, Attorney at Law features ex-superhero pig Hoggy Porkman as an attorney working for a law firm alongside other cartoon stars from any Universal cartoon series. Similarly, Hoggy's clients are also primarily composed of characters taken from various cartoon series of the same era. Many of Porkman's nemeses featured in his former cartoon series also became attorneys, often representing the opposing side of a given case.
Hoggy usually fills the role of a criminal defense attorney, though he will act as a civil litigator or other such job when the plot calls for it. The series uses a surrealist style of comedy, featuring characters, objects, and jokes that are briefly introduced and rarely (if ever) referenced thereafter. Also, because the series relied heavily on popular culture references to classic television animation, Hoggy Porkman, Attorney at Law constantly delves into parody, even featuring clips of these series or specially-created scenes which mimic the distinctive style of the animation being referenced. The series is notable for its adult-oriented take on classic Universal cartoon characters. The series usually shows some flashback about Hoggy's past life as a superhero, which are flashbacks from Porkman and the Pig Galaxy Trio. Sometimes, the series have some multi-part episodes.
Instead of rigid plot structure, much of the humor is derived from the fact that superheroes and supervillains are given more realistic and human qualities, such as a mad scientist named Dr. Catducktor, who becomes a paranoid prosecutor. Also, several of the plots revolve around the popular myths about classic Universal characters, such as Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda being alcoholics, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (in his original Disney/Iwerks design) as a greedy moneymaker and Chilly Willy as a stalker.
Production[]
Although the first season (and the first three episodes of the second season) was animated using hand-drawn animation and digital ink-and-paint, the rest of the second and remaining seasons were animated using Adobe After Effects. The reason for the switch was that the animation studio, AKOM Production Company (founded by Nelson Shin), was having difficulty maintaining the fast pace of the show, and thus the production of episodes slowed down due to constant retakes. Toon City Animation later animated the first three episodes of the second season. Universal liked their work, but had to let them go because their animation felt too rubbery and cartoony, and didn't fit well with the style of the show.
By animating the later episodes at Universal Cartoon Studios in-house with Adobe Flash, not only were problems corrected more quickly, but production costs were much lower. Some animation was also done for the show at Bardel Entertainment in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Voice actors[]
- Gary Cole: Hoggy Porkman
- Dan Castellaneta: Earthworm Jim, Dr. James Harvey, Additional Voices
- Jeff Bennett: Peter Puppy, EWJ Narrator, Additional Voices
- Kath Soucie: Princess What's-Her-Name, Katherine 'Kat' Harvey, Additional Voices
- Jim Cummings: Psy-Crow, Additional Voices
- Edward Hibbert: Evil the Cat
- John Kassir: Snott, Henchrat, Additional Voices
- Billy West: Woody Woodpecker, Wally Walrus, Smedley, Additional Voices
- B.J. Ward: Winnie Woodpecker, Additional Voices
- Elizabeth Daily: Knothead, Additional Voices
- Nika Futterman: Splinter, Additional Voices
- Andrea Martin: Mrs. Meanie, Additional Voices
- Tress MacNeille: Andy Panda, Additional Voices
- Mark Hamill: Buzz Buzzard, Tweaky Da Lackey, Badger, Additional Voices
- Michael Bell: Additional Voices
- Frank Welker: Chilly Willy, Additional Voices
- Danny Goldman: Dr. Catducktor
- Malachi Pearson: Casper the Friendly Ghost
- Lucille Bliss: Fairy Princess
- Roz Ryan: Additional Voices
- Kevin Michael Richardson: Additional Voices
- Dana Synder: Additional Voices
- June Foray: The Jokester, Additional Voices
- Jeff Bergman: Additional Voices
- Rob Paulsen: Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost, Additional Voices
- Joe Nipote: Stretch
- Jess Harnell: Fatso, Additional Voices
- Joe Alaskey: Stinkie, Additional Voices
- Dayton Allen: Additional Voices
- Alan Young: Additional Voices
Episodes[]
List of Hoggy Porkman, Attorney at Law episodes
Reception[]
Hoggy Porkman, Attorney at Law was named the 91st best animated series by IGN. They compared it to Space Ghost Coast to Coast, a show that is also based on an old cartoon, in this case on a Hanna-Barbera one, and described it as a clever show.
Music[]
The theme song is an edited version of the song "Slow Moody Blues" written by Reg Tilsley. Other notable songs used in the show include Charlie Steinman's "It Is Such A Good Night" (AKA "Scoobidoo Love") and a lyricless version of Gianni Morandi's "La Mia Mania" (AKA "Okay Maria").
Video game[]
Main article: Hoggy Porkman: Attorney at Law (video game)
A video game based on the series has been released for the PlayStation 2, Wii and PlayStation Portable video game consoles. It was developed by High Voltage Software and published by Capcom, with gameplay mechanics similar to Capcom's Ace Attorney series. It was released on January 8, 2008.
Trivia[]
- Danny Goldman used the same voice he had used for Brainy Smurf (from The Smurfs) for the role of Dr. Catducktor.
- Pencil tests of a few first season episodes from South Korean-based studio AKOM exist in the bonus features of the Hoggy Porkman, Attorney At Law: Volume One DVD set.