Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies

Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies
Genre	Animated TV-movie
Directed by	Hal Sutherland
Produced by	Norm Prescott Lou Scheimer
Written by	Len Janson Chuck Menville
Starring	Mel Blanc Len Janson Larry D. Mann Chuck Menville Howard Morris Larry Storch Jane Webb
Country	United States
Original channel	ABC
Release date	December 16, 1972
Running time	1 hour
Preceded by	The Red Baron
Followed by	Luvcast U.S.A.

Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies is a 1972 animated one-hour TV-movie (with a live-action segment near the end) that was part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. In this Filmation-produced movie, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and other Looney Tunes characters interact with the characters from the Filmation series Groovie Goolies.

This movie is notable for being the one and only time that Warner Bros. "loaned out" their famous Looney Tunes characters to appear in a Filmation production (otherwise they were a silent partner). Warner Bros. had shut down their animation studio in 1969.

Synopsis

Daffy Duck is in Hollywood producing a movie about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, starring himself; also appearing in the film are Porky Pig, Petunia Pig, Sylvester, Tweety, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé Le Pew, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and Charlie Dog.

At Horrible Hall, the Groovie Goolies are watching a television interview in which Daffy’s talking about his new movie, when their program is interrupted by a ghoulish being calling himself The Phantom of the Flickers; he announces his intention to destroy every film that Daffy Duck and company ever made, including their current King Arthur film. Being a huge fan of Daffy, Frankie goes to Hollywood to offer his help, and the other Horrible Hall residents go along with him.

Mayhem ensues when the Looneys and the Goolies first meet, but they eventually settle down and continue filming the movie. The Phantom suddenly grabs the film and, disguised as Hauntleroy, tries to escape from the Goolies by running through a magic mirror into “Mad Mirror Land” (i.e., the real world). Frankie, Drac, and Wolfie chase after him, and after a cartoonishly slapstick pursuit they bring the Phantom and the film back to their world.

The Phantom turns out to be Drac’s long-lost uncle Claude Chaney, a formerly famous silent film actor who was acting out of anger over black-and-white films being replaced by color films. Daffy gives Claude a job, the movie wins an award, and the Goolies head for home.

Notes

• The Phantom of the Flickers is an obvious parody of The Phantom of the Opera, a novel which has been made into movies and plays; Lon Chaney, Sr. played the title role in the 1925 film, and Claude Rains starred in the 1943 version. The name “Claude Chaney” is derived from these two actors’ names.
• The live-action segment uses pixilation to enable the actors to move like cartoon characters; e.g., when the Goolies drive imaginary cars down the road.
• Bugs Bunny was not present in the special, a notable absence considering he was the biggest star of the Looney Tunes cast.

Voices

• Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Tweety, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Pepé Le Pew, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester, Charlie Dog
• Larry D. Mann: Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Bone-apart, Batso
• Howard Morris: Franklin “Frankie” Frankenstein, Wolfgang “Wolfie” Wolfman, Mummy, Orville, Ghoulihand
• Larry Storch: Count Tom Dracula, Claude Chaney/Phantom of the Flickers, Ratso
• Jane Webb: Bella LaGhostly, Hagatha, Sabrina Spellman, Petunia Pig

Availability

This movie has never been officially released on home video (due to various rights issues), but traders on the Internet have been recording and selling DVDs of this film, most of which were originally black-and-white kinescopes of the original broadcast. Non-official copies of the original color production have also emerged.

References

• Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies at the Internet Movie Database
• Jim's Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies page
• Toon Tracker: ABC Saturday Superstar Movies — Filmation (which includes a video clip of the “Mad Mirror Land” segment).
• Cartoon Research FAQ-2

External links

• Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies at the Internet Movie Database
• "Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies" at TV.com