The Night of the Living Duck

Night of the Living Duck
Merrie Melodies series
title card
Directed by	Greg Ford Terry Lennon
Produced by	Steven S. Greene
Story by	Greg Ford Terry Lennon
Voices by	Mel Blanc Mel Tormé (singing voice)
Music by	Music is from Previous cartoons which was conducted by Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn
Animation by	Brenda Banks Norm McCabe Frans Vischer Rebecca Rees Mark Kausler
Layouts by	Robert Givens Lin Larsen
Backgrounds by	Richard H. Thomas Alan Bodner
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	September 23, 1988 (released at New York Festival) September 24, 1988 (released with Daffy Duck's Quackbusters)
Running time	6 min.
Language	English

Night of the Living Duck is a six minute 1987-animated, 1988-released Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Daffy Duck, directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon. It was released to theatres as a part of Daffy Duck's Quackbusters on September 24, 1988.

Plot

Daffy Duck, here a horror fanatic, is reading a scary comic book called "Hideous Tales" (issue #176). The story ends in a cliffhanger, and Daffy rifles his bookcase looking for the next issue ("It's a veritable collector's item!"). A Smogzilla clock falls, and beans Daffy, making him think he's the featured act in a nightclub. All the customers at the nightclub are classic movie monsters. Fortunately, there was a bottle of "Eau de Tormé" in Daffy's dressing room, which makes him sing like Mel Tormé. He sings "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives" to the room, and they love it. Then he goes around the room, greeting the patrons, but his good-natured ribbing of "Smogzilla" doesn't go over well with the giant lizard ("Say, Smog baby, been any major cities lately?", "You know, Smogzilla's just like any unemployed actor, except when he pounds the pavement, it registers a ten on the Richter scale!", "Oh, what's the matter? The public not buying those cheap special effects anymore?"), who eats Daffy. Daffy wakes up, to find himself stuck in a wastebasket, along with the comic he was looking for (Hideous Tales issue #177), with "Smogzilla" on the cover. Daffy scoffs, and the Smogzilla on the cover comes to life, saying, "You were expecting maybe Calvin Coolidge?"

Trivia

• This is the last Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoon where Mel Blanc voices one of his characters.
• This cartoon was the opening sequence for 1988's Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, which was released a day after this short was released.
• Alfred E. Neuman (of MAD magazine fame) appeared briefly in this short holding some drinks (when the Creature from the Black Lagoon is shown).
• Some of the monsters featured include Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, Bride of Frankenstein, Invisible Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Blob, Medusa, The Fly, The Wolfman, Leatherface, and of course Godzilla called Shmodzilla in the cartoon.