A Duck for the Ages: A Tribute to Daffy Duck

Note: This post is a response to the guys over at Trope & Dagger who are debating over the best Looney Tunes character  You should head over and check out some of their stuff if you like some differing points of view on all things pop culture.

No other cartoon series has brought us as diverse a cast of characters as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, but who amongst this group can be crowned the best? It is certainly a subjective matter, but some characters do stand out more than others. My vote for Best Looney Tunes Character: Daffy Duck.

Of the dozens of characters that were created by the animators at Termite Terrace, Daffy has had the longest, most diverse career, and best represents the spirit of that ragtag collective.

Let's go back to his origins. Daffy was not the first major star at WB (that distinction belongs to Porky Pig), but unlike his stuttering costar, this duck was something new and gave birth to what would be known as the screwball character in cartoons. Bob Clampett, who along with Tex Avery created Daffy in 1937's Porky's Duck Hunt, described the phenomenon thusly:

"At that time, audiences weren't accustomed to seeing a cartoon character do these things. And so, when it hit the theaters it was an explosion. People would leave the theaters talking about this daffy duck."

Over the next thirty years Daffy would be utilized by every directorial unit at the studio, with each one lending its own flavour to the character.

Tex Avery played the duck as a ball of unrestrained manic energy, bewildering Porky, his long suffering straight man for decades.

Under Bob Clampett's unit he achieved his acme (see what I did there) as a complete lunatic who defied every law imaginable, especially the laws of physics. Animator Rod Scribner's artwork still stands as some of the wildest and funniest ever put to paper. Baby Bottleneck and The Great Piggy Bank Robbery are two outstanding examples of the looniest Looney Tune in action.

By the mid '40s, the studio had lost Avery and Clampett and cartoons were drawn by three different units. Each had their own set of characters. Friz Freling had Sylvester and Tweety and Yosemite Sam, Bob McKimson had Foghorn Leghorn and the Tazmanian Devil, and Chuck Jones had Roadrunner, Wile E. Coyote and Pepe LePew. Big stars like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck were shared by all three.

Of these three units, Chuck Jones emerged as the dominant creative voice and the other two directors largely followed suit in terms of types of gags and general story structure. It must be said however that McKimson held out for a few years and as a result his cartoons have a much more slapstick feel than Jones's more cerebral approach to animating.

In Jones's cartoons, Daffy's character is given a complete overhaul. Instead of a screwball, he is greedy, self-centered and conniving. He was often paired with Bugs Bunny where he served as a foil for Bugs's cool and collected demeanor. The bunny's popularity had by this time eclipsed Daffy's, and cartoons often played up this jealousy with Bugs always getting the better of his feathered costar. The Hunters Trilogy of "Rabbit Fire", "Rabbit Seasoning", and "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!" are the best examples of this.

Daffy was also successful as a headliner during the '50s and early '60s. He played Robin Hood, Duck Dodgers of the 24th 1/2 Century, and the swashbuckling Scarlet Pumpernickel. It was also during this time that he starred in "Duck Amok", regarded as one one of the greatest animated shorts ever made for it's existential breaking of the fourth wall. By the time the studio shut down in the '60s, Daffy was even playing the villain opposite Speedy Gonzalez, although these cartoons are a far cry from the duck's heyday.

Daffy Duck's career at WB spanned three decades, and Mel Blanc voiced him for 52 years, longer than any other character in the history of the medium. He's played heroes, villains, and sidekicks in settings from all times and places. He's hit Adolph Hitler on the head with a mallet! He may lack the coolness of Bugs Bunny or the tenacity of Wile E. Coyote, but he makes up for it with sheer chutzpah. Early on in his career, Tex Avery was quoted as saying, "In a cartoon, you can do anything." No character before or since has embodied that spirit as much as Daffy Duck.

Again, Daffy smacking Hitler with a mallet.

As a final note, enjoy this 13 1/2 minute supercut of all of a Daffy's loony laughter. I can't think of a better way to celebrate not just the greatest Looney Tunes character, but one of the best cartoon characters ever.

"Croissant de Triomphe" Gives Hope to Disney Shorts

This past week Disney released Croissant de Triomphe, the first in a new series of animated shorts featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  You can watch the short HERE on Disney's website.  This is part of a series of 19 shorts that are going to be produced and aired on TV and online starting this summer.

I love the short.  First off, it looks great.  It blends design elements from classic thirties Disney cartoons (the "sliced pie" eyes being the most obvious one), modern design and backgrounds, and fun cartoon action. The dialogue is in French, but that's alright because the action speaks for itself. Sometimes things get a little too hectic, but the character movement is loose, fun, and looks fantastic.

Secondly, it's entertaining; something that I wasn't sure that I'd ever say about a Disney short.  Walt and his band of merry men were early pioneers of many aspects of animation as we know it. Sound, color, feature length animated films, and using different planes to create the illusion of depth were all techniques that, if not started by the studio, were definitely perfected there. Unfortunately, many shorts and longer films produced by Disney were more about showing off this technology or the quality of the art itself rather than to be entertaining.  

Most people who claim to be "Disney fans" are really just fans of the animated feature films that have become the studio's hallmark, not the animated shorts that preceded them.  In fact, once Walt Disney saw the possibility of animated features, he started devoting less and less studio time and resources to shorts until they were eventually phased out entirely.  It's a shame that these shorts don't get more airplay.  They hearken back to an era when Mickey was much more impish (lecherous even!), Goofy went full retard, and Donald Duck was a straight-up (albeit hilarious) asshole.

It's refreshing to see the Disney characters go back to their roots rather than stay in the bizarre mixed roles of marketing icons and preschool kiddie fodder.  At around three and a half minutes in length, Croissant doesn't overstay its welcome, has some good gags and action, and should hopefully just be the beginning of things to come.  The shorts have some strong talent behind them with directors that have worked on Dexter's Laboratory, Syn-Bionic Titan, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Chowder!, and SpongeBob SquarePants.  I'm hoping to see some of these shorts feature Donald and Goofy as well as some more of the other characters' personalities, but this is a fabulous inaugural effort and I can't wait for more.

Cartoon Shorts On The Rise (Hopefully)

Last week, the Motion Picture Academy announced its short list for the Best Animated Short category.  The news got me thinking: how often do people these days think about animated shorts?  If you showed a copy of the nominees list this year to the average person, I'd wager that most people would not recognize more than one or two of the entries.  

Even as an aspiring animation professional, I haven't had the opportunity to see most of the nominees since they usually only make the rounds on film festivals and art house theaters, and Orlando is seriously lacking in both when compared to New York, Los Angeles, or Toronto.  This troubles me because I love animated shorts.  They are my favorite form of animation and the fact they they no longer occupy the same level of notoriety in the popular consciousness that they once did bothers me.  Back in the Golden Age of Animation, shorts were a staple for the movie-going audience.  Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, and Tom & Jerry, as well as many other classic cartoon characters, were born and reached their creative peak in theatrical shorts.

Disney and Pixar are perhaps the two best  places for quality shorts to be made and get a reasonable amount of exposure.  Both studios,  under the leadership of John Lasseter, have encouraged artists to come forward with their pet project ideas and to use studio resources to make them a reality.  Last year there was Enrico Casarosa's deeply personal La Luna from Pixar, and this year there is Disney's Paperman.  

The short, directed by John Kahrs and playing in theaters before Wreck-It Ralph, is a sweet little boy-meets-girl story, but where it really succeeds is the visuals.  A new blend of CG and traditional hand-drawn animation makes for a final product that has all of the expressiveness and artistry of traditional techniques, but also the depth and complexity of the new school.  Still images (like the one at the top of this post) do not do the film justice.  It must be seen on the big screen to truly appreciate its value.  It is truly remarkable to watch, and I sincerely hope that it breathes some new life into more classical ways of producing animation.

There has been a growing trend in playing animated shorts before films.  In the last year or so, it seems that most animated films have been preceded by some kind of short, be it Maggie Simpson in the Longest Daycare, I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat, or Paperman. Even TV seems to be gravitating towards shorter programming with many of Cartoon Network's shows now being broken up into 15-minute segments.  Maybe studios are starting to see the viability of making shorts, and while we will almost certainly not be able to get back to the state of cartoon shorts were in their heyday, it's at least nice to see that they are starting to come back.  Hopefully some of the wonderful shorts that were not released with major films will also one day find a way to reach a larger audience as well.  Now all we need to do is get out and watch them!