#daffy duck and egghead

[pulpsandcomics2]

Daffy Duck and Egghead

[daikenkki]

X

[termiteterraceclub]

Termite Terrace Club - June 5th

1937 - Uncle Tom’s Bungalow - Dir. Tex Avery 1943 - Yankee Doodle Daffy - Dir. Friz Freleng 1954 - Little Boy Boo - Dir. Robert McKimson

TV 2023 - Bugs Bunny Builders Season 1: "Sea School" / "Underwater Star"

[animatedminds]

The Day The Earth Blew Up

Oh, people call me Daffy They think that I am goony But just because I'm happy Is no sign I'm looney tooney! Went to go see The Day The Earth Blew Up - spoiler alert, it's great and you should go watch it - a few days ago, and really wanted to give myself a minute to put thoughts together enough to make a post about it. This is really the little movie that could, left to pull itself up by its own bootstraps when its home company wasn't interested in it - and helped across the finish line by the little studio that could. Praise for bringing us this movie rightly goes to Ketchup Entertainment, and always should: getting this made and released, let alone marketed on top of that even the little bit it is has been, must have been an enormous hassle and a huge gamble, and one I sincerely hope pays off for the studio. They deserve it, and animators could always use more safe havens out there.

Onto the movie itself. Now, I'm a huge classic Looney Tunes fan, with pre-Jones (Clampett, McKimson, and others in between) Daffy Duck in particular being my favorite. So even if I weren't locked in to support the animators and studio, this would've been an instant watch just for that. This film draws largely from Porky and Daffy cartoons, naturally, but in particular their run of "two roommates" cartoons like Porky & Daffy, Porky's Last Stand and Porky Pig's Feat. To be the most precise of all, this movie is an evolution from Looney Tunes Cartoons - the most recent major Looney Tunes television series which aired in the last decade - with much of the same production team, and which also drew mostly from that era for its depiction of Daffy and Porky.

This was a very good pick for a number of reasons, but the reason that really wowed me the most was in the narrative. This movie wasn't just fighting to get itself released, it was also a risky experiment in a kind of storytelling Looney Tunes has never done before. This is as far as I can recall the first ever Looney Tunes feature in theaters that solely starred Looney Tunes characters and their worlds, without filling the space with guest stars or live action characters like Space Jam or Back In Action, filling the space with cartoon reruns like The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, or using the Looney Tunes characters to fill for other existing characters like Bah Humduck.

This movie had to answer the tough question: "can these characters that were created to work within seven minute shorts carry over an hour of story?" Looney Tunes has always been a franchise about trying new things and reinventing themselves in new ways. They needed to eventually ask this question. And the answer is... they can, and pretty well, actually. Porky and Daffy's classic dynamic are a good pick for that because they are a very archetypical duo. One is sensible, but naive and easily overwhelmed. One is off kilter and destructive to the other's plans, but also driven and a doer who makes action happen. This is a classic character duo concept that is pretty tried and true: maybe of all the Looney Tunes characters and their dynamics, it might be the best starting point for a film like this (though this wasn't actually the first attempt, but more the attempt that actually made it to the light of day), because it's one that traditionally works.

And work it does. It's the building block on which the plot is able to deliver structure, while still maintaining a world where everyone is as Looney and off-kilter as you can expect from a Looney Tunes production. Their number one ally is a brilliant scientist who is obsessed with tasting things like sponges and rock shavings. Their nemesis is an alien whose master plan involves world domination through bubble gum (played by Peter MacNicol and man do I miss him as Doctor Octopus). Things get weird. And they get weird while actually building endearing character arcs in a way you wouldn't expect for characters like Porky and Daffy that still neverthess work perfectly for Porky and Daffy. In the classic Porky and Daffy set up, Daffy is a screwup, one who drags Porky into insane situations and usually blows things up instead of fixing them. And the movie leans into this, exploring how and why they still work as a pair and as friends despite this, having an actual emotional core without getting so serious that it loses the core that these guys are here to make you laugh.

Visually, this movie is great as well. It's an offschoot of a television series, so there's a bit of more simplified character designs than you might be expecting, but it utilizes those rather than acts in spite of them, making the simple but exaggerated designs a part of the humor and adding a gorgeously vibrant color palate and sense of background and setting to make the whole thing really a treat to look at. And this is just a random note, but you'd expect a Looney Tunes movie to be very cameo heavy, as well. Both Back in Action and Space Jam, though pretty great imo, both leaned heavily into the "hey look guys, it's Tweety / Granny / etc" or "haha! Bugs is doing the Rabbit Season bit again! remember that?" vibes. But this film surprisingly has very little of that. There's cameos and references, don't get me wrong, but it's mostly to older, more historical Looney Tunes characters like Gabby Goat and Buddy (the one that hit me the most is outright obscure, as one the main characters from my favorite Daffy Duck cartoon - A Pest In The House - is a recurring background character). I know some people were disappointed that the alien villain in this wasn't Marvin the Martian. But looking at what they made in the end, I get it. That isn't the kind of thing they wanted to do with this film, it stuck to its guns on that, and I love the film for it.

Now, like with any comedy - any movie, for that matter - there's a couple things that didn't hit me as well. A few jokes here and there that didn't land as well as the others, but that's to be expected. This is a nitpick, but I wish the very last punchline of the film had a bit more set up earlier on to call back to, just to really push the humr of it. And plotwise, without getting into any actual spoilers there's a pretty major shift in the climax of the film that I found myself wishing hit the movie a bit earlier than it did. But that's about it. It's a pretty darn good movie, and I'll almost certainly be seeing it again in theatres if it doesn't get pulled early. I said it before, but go watch this film! Not just because it deserves support, but because it's fun. Watch it if you're a Looney Tunes fan. Watch it if you're an animation fan. Watch it if you're a comedy fan. Watch it if you just love to laugh and aren't self-conscious about laughing at something silly. Because silly it is, and that's why we love it. I'm hoping more Looney Tunes projects see the light of day, but it's not looking likely. I'm hoping more Porky & Daffy content gets made, but that doesn't look likely either. So I'm going to enjoy the hell out of this while I can, and I recommend you do as well. Now you know why I'm dizzy And do the things I do I am askew and you'd be too If the Merry Go Round Broke Down

[thinkbolt]

Daffy Duck and Egghead (WB, 1938) dir. Tex Avery

After his first showing the previous year, Warner Brothers leaned hard into Daffy Duck, making no less than FIVE Daffy cartoons in 1938. Here's his second film, in full color, and featuring WB's chosen headlining comedy star Egghead, in a re-hash of Avery's first "Crazy Duck vs. Hunter" flick.

Daffy also sings "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" which was written in 1937 and very quickly became well known as the Looney Tunes theme.

Buy me a coffee!

[textsfromlooneytuneland]

(817): 

You might see me up a tree with a deranged look in my eye , just walk away at that point

[dailylooneys]

Happy 85th Biwthday to Elmer Fudd!

85 years of the world-famous cartoon hunter, created by Chuck Jones and voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan.

Before becoming the famous hunter we know him as, made an appearance as a prototype character in Tex Avery's Little Red Walking Hood (1937), named Egghead.

Though his official name didn't appear until A Feud There Was (1938), also directed by Avery.

His first official appearance was in Chuck Jones's Elmer's Candid Camera (1940) with the Bugs Bunny prototype.

While the short has it's significance of introducing Elmer, the film was not really favored among fans and even director Chuck Jones himself:

"Perhaps the kindest thing to say about “Elmer's Candid Camera” is that it taught everyone what not to do and how not to do it." - Chuck Jones

The famous and well-known dynamic between Bugs and Elmer wouldn't be firmly introduced until Tex Avery's A Wild Hare (1940), the debut of the world-famous screwy rabbit.

Despite this, the directors still experimented with Bugs and Elmer as a duo in shorts like Elmer's Pet Rabbit (1940) by Jones, that starred this early, more aggressive version of Bugs, complete with yellow gloves and a different voice, depicted as an unwelcome guest in Elmer's home.

It would take a while for Bugs and Elmer to become a prominent duo in the series, as Bugs would be paired up with many different characters, such as Willoughby The Dog and Cecil Turtle to name a few, all during 1941.

And, of course, there was still some experimenting going on, design-wise. The famous Fat Elmer was first seen in Bob Clampett's Wabbit Twouble (1941) for a few shorts, phyiscally resembling his voice actor, before retrieving back to the original, more familiar design.

In this short, Bugs was the heckler to Elmer, a role that continued on in Friz Freleng's The Wabbit Who Came to Supper (1942) and The Wacky Wabbit (1942) as by Clampett, until the roles were switched to Elmer being the antagonist, to help make the rabbit more tolerable to movie theater audiences, as his fame and popularity grew bigger and bigger by 1942 as the most popular character of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies film series.

From then on, Elmer and Bugs would become one of the more well-known pairings in animation and film history, featured in many of the greatest shorts ever done.

Though many sometimes forget that Elmer did have different co-stars through his tenure, such as Sylvester and Daffy, like in To Duck or Not to Duck (1943) by Jones, Kit for Cat (1948) and Wise Quacks (1949) both by Freleng, serving a different dynamic as the straight man to Sylvester and Daffy in Design for Leaving (1954) by Robert McKimson.

After sometime, according to David H. DePatie, who later became the executive producer for Warner Bros. animation studio for much of the 1960s, would state that none of the directors were all that fond of Elmer Fudd, believing he wasn't threatening enough for Bugs and his very limited role as the hunter. Friz Freleng was the most vocal of his disdain towards the rabbit-hunting formula and Elmer as a character, which is evident in both Stage Door Cartoon (1942) and The Hare-Brained Hypnotist (1942) where Elmer technically doesn't hunt Bugs, but does something different. Even in Hare Brush (1955) features a parody of the formula in the most humorous and memorable of the much later Bugs shorts.

“Friz didn’t like Elmer Fudd. As a matter or fact, I don’t think any of the directors liked him. The quota would come down, from the head of the cartoon studio, how many we’re gonna do, and Elmer was always in one of them. And they always hated the idea doing Elmer, really, none of them. I’m talking about Chuck, Bob McKimson or Friz Freleng, they didn’t want anything to do with Elmer Fudd. I think, in self-defense, that’s where Friz got the idea for Yosemite Sam.”

— David H. DePatie on Elmer Fudd (Friz on Film)

This disinterest of Elmer is made clear, as the character would appear infrequently in later shorts from the 1950s, resulting in smaller roles and cameo's. His last original appearance in the classic film series would be Crow's Feat (1962) by Freleng and Hawley Pratt, where he barely even appears and has no lines whatsoever. Additionally, Arthur Q. Bryan died in 1959, Elmer was voiced by Hal Smith in Pre-Hysterical Hare (1958) and What's My Lion (1961), but not as effective as Q. Bryan, sadly and respectively.

Though, Elmer continues to appear in many Looney Tunes-related movies and TV shows, continuing the famous rabbit-hunting formula and having a character in Tiny Toon Adventures who is a complete contrast to Elmer, Elmyra Duff.

In some ways, Elmer's legacy and notability as one of the most famous fictional animated cartoon character counts as something, to Bugs Bunny's popularity, among other things.

[dafpork]

was thinking about all the times Daffy has been referred to as an orphan (Bah Humduck, cut line in Daffy Duck and Egghead). and then i was watching (the good one) Lilo and Stitch and the whole ugly duckling thing reminded me that Daffy has been compared to the ugly duckling multiple times (A Coy Decoy, A Corny Concerto, there’s a story in one of the Dell comics about this). and, once again, i am thinking about Porky grounding him and giving him a figurative and literal home and instinctively treating him to a hospitality that he never knew was missing out on and, in short,

[keira-incognita]

The Many Faces of Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck is arguably one of the most versatile cartoon characters ever created. He has played a myriad of roles over the course of his long career and shown many distinct personality traits. Each director that has worked on Daffy has brought something to the character and has helped define and develop him. The transition Daffy has made over the years has been startling and quite hilarious. From his humble beginnings as an uncontrollable screwball to the greedy egomaniac we all know and love, Daffy Duck has shown more range than most of today’s live-action actors.

It all began in 1937 with Tex Avery’s cartoon "Porky’s Duck Hunt." At this point in time, Porky Pig was, surprisingly enough, the most popular Looney Tunes character and its main star. This cartoon begins much like any other Porky cartoon, but takes a definitively wacky turn that would change the course of animation forever. The first appearance of the as yet unnamed Daffy introduced a new kind of cartoon character: the screwball. Daffy was unlike anything audiences had seen before. He was manic and uncontrollable, insane for no discernable reason. He defiantly stood up to the gun-toting Porky and bounced and laughed his way all over the place, including the end titles. His frantic energy and loony personality were just what cartoons needed.

Daffy, the "crazy, darn fool duck," continued to be an unbridled ball of hilarious lunacy throughout his early pictures in the 1930s and '40s. He received his name in his second appearance, Tex Avery’s 1938 picture "Daffy and Egghead" — which also featured the man who would be Elmer Fudd. However, it was director Bob Clampett, not Avery, who truly developed Daffy’s madcap character. Clampett’s Daffy was a bit taller and leaner than the original squat and pudgy design used by Avery. Clampett’s Daffy was a gleefully wild screwball, who was content to "Woo-hoo" his way throughout life, an almost ever-present thorn in the side of Porky Pig. In fact, Daffy’s popularity began to eclipse Porky’s. Based on 1940’s "You Ought To Be in Pictures" by director Friz Freleng, one might imagine this is exactly what the crafty duck had in mind from the start. Here, Daffy tries to trick Porky into leaving cartoons for live-action features so that he can become the new star of Looney Tunes. While Daffy’s efforts on-screen are not so successful — Porky returns and soundly thrashes the duck — in real life audiences could not get enough of Daffy, and he soon became Warner’s new king of the cartoon hill.

Clampett and the other animators would continue to develop Daffy’s personality and visual design throughout the 1940s. Most notably was the work of Robert McKimson. McKimson made Daffy a little bit leaner, a little less crazy, and a bit wittier. The once great Porky Pig now found himself reduced to being the straight man for Daffy’s wacky antics. Daffy also found himself involved in World War II, much to his chagrin, as evidenced in the 1945 short "Draftee Daffy," where he is constantly evading the "little man from the draft board."

The Daffy of the 1940s was a good-natured goofball who was zany but a little more in control. And just as "You Ought To Be in Pictures" foreshadowed the duck’s rise to stardom, so did "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" give a glimpse of the next stage in the duck’s evolution. This 1946 gem by Bob Clampett features Daffy as gumshoe Duck Twacy, hot on the trail of a piggy bank thief. This parody of comic strip detective Dick Tracy is complete with a ludicrous rogues gallery featuring such oddballs as Rubber Head and Neon Noodle. Daffy was still a crazy darn fool duck but showed that he could do more than just comedy.

The next director to leave his mark on Daffy was the great Chuck Jones. Jones, I feel, contributed the most to Daffy’s evolution. While he still displayed occasional fits of lunacy, Jones’ Daffy was much more defined by his large ego, his lust for fame & fortune, his greediness, and his uninhibited jealousy of Bugs Bunny. Jones also altered the duck’s design yet again, and it is his taller, lankier and scruffier Daffy that is most recognized today.

The first contribution that Jones made to Daffy’s character was a continuation of what Clampett began in "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery." This is what I like to refer to as Daffy as the hapless adventurer. The 1950 film "The Scarlet Pumpernickel" was the first of many Jones cartoons placing Daffy in the role of an adventure hero parodying popular movies and literature. Harkening back to "You Ought To Be in Pictures," this cartoon features Daffy pitching his masterpiece script to the head of Warner Brothers and proclaiming that he is tired of being typecast in comedy and wants to try his hand as a dramatic leading man. What follows is an all-star Looney Tunes extravaganza that sets up the formula for following cartoons: Daffy relentlessly tries to be a dramatic leading man & hero and proceeds to fail miserably at both. Try as he might, he can’t shake his comedy roots, and time and time again winds up with the short end of the stick.

Daffy’s wacky adventures continued in such classic Jones shorts as the western farce "Dripalong Daffy" in 1951, the sci-fi spoof "Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a ½ Century" in 1953, and "Robin Hood Daffy" in 1958. Not so surprisingly, and in a brilliant bit of revenge, Porky Pig is often featured in these stories as Daffy’s sidekick who ends up overshadowing his mentor and saving the day. While Daffy’s ego and bad luck get the best of him, it’s Porky who is competent and resourceful. Porky defeats the outlaw in "Dripalong Duffy," outwits Marvin the Martian in "Duck Dodgers," and subdues the Shropshire Slasher in the Sherlock Holmes parody "Deduce, You Say." An almost fitting turn of events given what Daffy had put him through over the years.

The final stage of Daffy’s development was as the spotlight craving, greedy, upstaging, egomaniacal foil to Bugs Bunny. Indeed, the pairing of Warner’s two biggest stars was a stroke of pure genius. For just as Daffy had eclipsed Porky in popularity, so had Bugs overtaken Daffy. Daffy was none too happy about it and was determined to get the spotlight back.

The Bugs-Daffy dynamic began with Chuck Jones’ 1951 masterpiece "Rabbit Fire," where the two toons square off against each other in a continued effort to convince Elmer Fudd that the other is the animal currently "in season." Daffy proves to be no match for the superior wit of Bugs and is perpetually on the receiving end of Elmer Fudd’s gun. The debate over whether it was Duck Season or Rabbit Season would continue in "Rabbit Seasoning" in 1952 and "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!" in 1953, the latter were it is ultimately revealed to be Baseball Season!

The Bugs and Daffy rivalry does not stop there, not by a long shot. The animators realized they had a successful formula on their hands and continued to pair the rabbit and the duck in many more films throughout the 1950s and early '60s. Two shorts in particular stand out. The first is the definitive Daffy Duck cartoon and one of the finest animated films ever made. The second is the best example of the Bugs-Daffy one-upping each other relationship, which was surprisingly directed not by Jones but by Friz Freleng.

The first cartoon is the 1953 classic "Duck Amuck" where Daffy is continually plagued by an unseen animator who rearranges the duck’s world and appearance and effortlessly torments our star into a frenetic rage. The animator is finally revealed to be none other than Bugs himself, showing that he has, and always will have, the upper hand. This cartoon exemplifies everything that Daffy is: a wild, loony character, an actor capable of playing any role, an egotist in constant need of attention, and a loveable rogue who is at his funniest when he is losing.

This point is further driven home in the second cartoon, Friz Freleng’s "Showbiz Bugs" in 1957. The rivalry between the stars to see who is funnier, more talented and more popular comes to a head on the Vaudeville stage. Daffy tries and tries to win the audience over and garner applause, but to no avail. He is constantly overshadowed by the effortless performance of Bugs, whose simple dance step gains more appreciation than any one of the duck’s acts, save perhaps for the last one, in which Daffy blows himself up. Unfortunately, as Daffy himself states, "he can only do it once." Daffy finally receives the admiration he seeks and winds up losing anyway. This film proves a simple truth of cartoons. Bugs Bunny is funniest when he wins; Daffy Duck is funniest when he loses.

By the 1960s, Daffy’s journey from unstoppable madman to greedy SOB was complete. While cartoons after this period were of significantly less quality and misused Daffy as the mean-spirited tormenter of Speedy Gonzales, they could not tarnish the memory and reputation of one of the world’s most beloved characters.

Daffy Duck continues to delight audiences to this day in movies and on television. Films like Space Jam and Looney Tunes: Back in Action, and cartoon series like Duck Dodgers continue to show Daffy as the multifaceted comedic genius that he is. He is and always will remain: the greatest foil of Bugs Bunny, the least successful adventure hero ever born, and a crazy, darn-fool duck. And I for one wouldn’t have him any other way.

Selected Filmography

"Porky’s Duck Hunt" (1937) – Tex Avery

"Daffy Duck and Egghead" (1938) – Tex Avery

"You Ought To Be in Pictures" (1940) – Friz Freleng

"Draftee Daffy" (1945) – Bob Clampett

"The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" (1946) – Bob Clampett

"The Scarlet Pumpernickel" (1950) – Chuck Jones

"Rabbit Fire" (1951) – Chuck Jones

"Drip-Along Daffy" (1951) – Chuck Jones

"Rabbit Seasoning" (1952) – Chuck Jones

"Duck Amuck" (1953) – Chuck Jones

"Duck Dodgers in the 24th and ½ Century" (1953) – Chuck Jones

"Duck! Rabbit, Duck!" (1953) – Chuck Jones

"Beanstalk Bunny" (1955) – Chuck Jones

"Deduce, You Say" (1956) – Chuck Jones

"Showbiz Bugs" (1957) – Friz Freleng

"Robin Hood Daffy" (1958) – Chuck Jones

This essay was written in 2005 for the History of Animation course at Columbia College Chicago. It has not been updated to include more recent film & television series featuring Daffy Duck.

[dorothydalmati1]

Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies 1938 Episode 1: Daffy Duck & Egghead

Written by Ben Hardaway

Directed by Tex Avery

Animated by Virgil Ross

Voice characterizations by Mel Blanc & Danny Webb

[termiteterraceclub]

Termite Terrace Club - January 1st.

New Year, New Look!

Shorts Released on this Day

- 1938: Daffy Duck & Egghead, Dir. Tex Avery. The first Daffy cartoon in color

- 1949: Wise Quackers, Dir. Friz Freleng.

- 1955: Pizzicato Pussycat, Dir. Friz Freleng (70th anniversary)

- 1965: Zip Zip Hooray!, Dir. Chuck Jones, Maurice Noble, Tom Ray. (60th anniversary) (Comprised of scenes from the Adventures of the Road-Runner pilot from 1962).

- 1966: The Astroduck, Dir. Robert McKimson

[makaientjluvdaprince]

I just watched Daffy Duck & Egghead (1938)

[thinkbolt]

Origins of Daffy Duck

From the minds of Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Mel Blanc from the beginning!

Porky's Duck Hunt (1937)

Daffy Duck and Egghead (1938)

What Price Porky (1938)

Porky and Daffy (1938)

The Daffy Doc (1938)

Daffy Duck in Hollywood (1938)

Buy me a coffee!

[zombiegangster]

Daffy Duck & Egghead

Daffy Duck & Egghead | Director: Tex Avery | Studio: Warner Bros. | USA, 1938