Ducking the Devil
Directed byRobert McKimson
Story byTedd Pierce
Produced byEdward Selzer
StarringMel Blanc
Music byMilt Franklyn
Animation byGeorge Grandpre
Ted Bonnicksen
Reused Animation:
Phil DeLara (unc.)
Layouts byRobert Gribbroek
Backgrounds byWilliam Butler
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
  • August 17, 1957 (1957-08-17)
Running time
6:36
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Ducking The Devil is a 1957 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Robert McKimson.[1] The short was released on August 17, 1957, and stars Daffy Duck and the Tasmanian Devil.[2]

Plot

At a zoo, a cage was reserved for the Tasmanian Devil. He soon escapes and runs amok, scaring everyone away from the zoo in the process. Meanwhile, Daffy is at home in his duck pond, and reads about Taz's escape in a newspaper. Taz soon finds him and gives chase after the black duck. While fleeing from Taz's hungry jaws, Daffy hears a news bulletin posting a $5,000 reward (the equivalent of $45,686.65 in 2022) for the Tasmanian Devil's return which also says Taz becomes docile when exposed to music.

After failing with a radio (the extension cord does not go too far), a trombone (Daffy loses the slide) and bagpipes (apparently the only music Taz does not like), Daffy eventually resorts to using his own voice to calm the devil. Eventually, after serenading him for 10 mi (16 km), Daffy leads Taz to his cage, slamming the door on the beast just as he finishes his song-and his voice gives 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: "It's mine! Mine, all mine!", and beats up Taz, and reassures the audience that he may be a coward, but he's a "greedy little coward".

Home media

Ducking the Devil is available on the Looney Tunes Superstars DVD. However, it was cropped to widescreen. It was also included in Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Vol. 1, this time in the ratio in which it was originally animated (fullscreen aspect ratio), and in the Taz's Jungle Jams VHS.

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 was the only Golden Age Warner Bros. cartoon where Taz's adversary was a character other than Bugs Bunny (in this case, Daffy Duck).

A small amount of footage from both Bedevilled 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 a stage Irishman with pipe when Daffy sings When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.

This is also one of the few times Daffy goes after a large sum of money and not only succeeds in getting it, but keeps it by the cartoon's end.

Among the headlines in the newspaper Daffy reads, in the beginning, include "Ike to Make Slow Cruise to Bermuda" and "3700 May Quit Tonight".

Music

References

  1. ^ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 300. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  2. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 60–62. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Ducking the Devil.
Daffy Duck in animation
Tasmanian Devil (Taz) in animation
Films directed by Robert McKimson
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