- Ducking the Devil
-
Ducking the Devil Merrie Melodies (Daffy Duck) series Directed by Robert McKimson Produced by Edward Selzer Story by Tedd Pierce Voices by Mel Blanc Music by Milt Franklyn Animation by George Grandpre
Ted BonnicksenLayouts by Robert Gribbroek Backgrounds by William Butler Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone CorporationRelease date(s) August 17, 1957 Color process Technicolor Running time 6:36 Language English Ducking The Devil is a 1957 Merrie Melodies animated cartoon with Daffy Duck and the Tasmanian Devil.
Contents
Synopsis
At a zoo, a cage was reserved for Taz. He soon escapes and runs amok. Meanwhile, Daffy is at home in his duckpond, and reads about Taz's escape in a newspaper. Taz soon finds him and gives chase after the black mallard. While fleeing from Taz's hungry jaws, Daffy hears a news bulletin posting a $5,000 reward for the Tasmanian Devil's return which also says Taz becomes docile when exposed to music. After failing with a radio (the extension cord doesn't go too far), a trombone (Daffy loses the slide) and bagpipes (apparently the only music Taz doesn't like), Daffy eventually resorts to using his own voice to calm the devil. Eventually, after serenading him for ten miles, Daffy leads Taz to his cage, slamming the door on the beast just as his voice was about to give out. After Taz grabs some of the Duck's reward money which slipped on the ground, Daffy rushes inside the cage screaming his famous line "its mine, mine all mine", and beats him up, and reassures the audience that he may be a coward, "but I'm a greeeedy little coward."
Availability
"Ducking the Devil" is available, uncensored and uncut, on the Looney Tunes Superstars DVD. However, it was cropped to widescreen.
Notes
"Zookeeper Burton", mentioned by a radio announcer in a newsflash that Daffy is listening to, is possibly a reference to Warners production manager John Burton. (It is rather funny that, even at this late date, the aging remnants of the old Termite Terrace gang would still be referring to themselves and their studio as a "zoo".)
This is one of several WB cartoons that uses the gag of receiving a package immediately after placing the order in the mailbox.
This is also the only Golden Age Warner Brothers cartoon where Taz's adversary was a character other than Bugs Bunny (in this case, Daffy Duck).
A small amount of footage from both Bedeviled Rabbit and Wild Over You is reused in this cartoon.
A running gag is that Taz acts the character about whom the music plays-for example he mimics an stage Irishman with pipe when Daffy sings When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.
External links
Categories:- English-language films
- 1957 films
- Merrie Melodies shorts
- Films directed by Robert McKimson
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
