Duck Amuck (1953)

Director:

Chuck Jones

Writer:

Michael Maltese (story)

Release Date:

28 February 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Animation | Comedy | Short

Plot:

The short-tempered Daffy Duck must improvise madly as the backgrounds, his costumes, the soundtrack, even his physical form, shifts and changes at the whim of the animator.

Plot Keywords:

Animator | Daffy Duck | Audio Problems | Animation Filmmaking | Breaking The Fourth Wall Via Iris Shot

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Mel Blanc

...

Daffy Duck / Bugs Bunny (voice)

Runtime:

7 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #15191) | UK:U | Canada:G (Nova Scotia)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

According to Chuck Jones, the revelation of the animator in the ending is just for comedic value - Jones (the director) is speaking to the audience directly, asking "Who is Daffy Duck anyway? Would you recognize him if I did THIS to him?"

Quotes:

[first lines]
Daffy Duck: Stand back, musketeers, they shall sample my blade! Touche!
[suddenly realizes that there is absolutely nothing behind him]
Daffy Duck: Musketeers? Hm? En Garde, eh? My blade? Hey, psst. Whoever's in charge here! The scenery! Where's the scenery?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Behind the Tunes: Hard Luck Duck (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Old MacDonald

A Looney Tunes short that may never get old- years ahead of its time

One of Chuck Jones' most beautifully crafted short cartoon pieces, Duck Amuck is one of the first (or the first?) cartoons to work the element of the theatre into an animated short. As Woody Allen did in Annie Hall (though that was twenty-four years later), the filmmakers here create that acknowledgment of there being an audience- and, more amusingly, their acknowledgment of themselves being apart of the process. I'm certain there were other animated shorts from Looney Tunes where a character may have one or twice looked at the 'audience' and asked a question or said a joke, but I'm also certain it wasn't done to such a length as this. Quite possibly, this is one of the greatest one-joke/in-joke stretches ever put on film.

At the start, Daffy Duck thinks he's about to be in a piece as a musketeer- that is, until the background is pulled right out from under him. He'll never get back to that background again, but Daffy will keep on trying to persuade the animator to bring back some sense into the works. By the end he's exasperated, and the joke comes full circle to be totally satisfying.

Throughout the short what keeps it so funny on repeat viewings is that the absurdities of each new backdrop and each run-in Daffy keep their validity. There's a lot of creative juice flowing through this one, and since the turns are unexpected on the first viewing, on the following ones you laugh at yourself for laughing at it again. Another plus is that Daffy Duck is a superb character when he's kept on his toes- like when he's put against a city backdrop that looks like it was drawn by a five-year old. He asks, "Now, how about some color, stupid!" And then is painted over in bizarre hues. The joke that follows that is one of Chuck Jones' most surreal executions.

Overall, a classic for its time, influential; on a level that will perhaps get the adults laughing more so than the kids, and for those in youth who discover it for the first time on TV or on the new DVD, it isn't old- this is the kind of sense of humor found on other modern cartoons (Simpsons, for example).