Daffy Duck & Egghead

Daffy Duck and Egghead
Merrie Melodies (Daffy Duck/Egghead) series
Directed by	Fred Avery
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger
Story by	J.B. Hardaway
Voices by	Mel Blanc (uncredited) Danny Webb (uncredited)
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Virgil Ross Irven Spence (uncredited) Paul Smith (uncredited)
Distributed by	Warner Brothers Pictures
Release date(s)	January 1, 1938 (1938-01-01) (U.S.)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7 min, 37 sec
Language	English
Preceded by	Porky's Duck Hunt (1937)
Followed by	What Price Porky (1938)

A director's note seen at the beginning of the film, just after Daffy and Egghead are introduced.

Daffy Duck & Egghead is a 1937-produced, 1938-released Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series. It features the early, zany version of Daffy Duck, who spends the film harassing Egghead (later to become Elmer Fudd), marking the second appearance of Daffy Duck (after Porky's Duck Hunt), his first in color, and first where he is given his current name. It includes a set-piece song-and-dance number by Daffy, doing his own variation of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" (later the theme for Looney Tunes).^[1]

Plot

The story begins with Egghead (in a voice imitating radio comic Joe Penner) who is annoyed by a (rotoscoped) shadowman in the audience who refuses to sit down. Enraged, Egghead shoots the audience member and the member falls after going through extended "death throes". Egghead hears a call from the grass, and out comes Daffy Duck biting his nose (just like he did to Porky Pig in Porky's Duck Hunt.) While fighting, a tortoise (with a voice imitating radio comic Parkyakarkus) comes and tries to give Daffy and Egghead new weapons. When the tortoise goes away, Egghead uses his real gun and Daffy tries to make him shoot the apple on his head. Egghead misses every time, so Daffy puts a blind sign, a cup of pencils, and disguise glasses on Egghead. ("Too bad, too bad," as Daffy says.).

Daffy then walks away and sings his own variation of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" by himself five minutes into the cartoon, in a set-piece drawn in a different style from the rest of the cartoon, and also containing the subdued, early form of Daffy's lisp, which is absent in the rest of the film. Daffy then shakes hands with his reflection from the lake and they both dive back into the water.

Later, Egghead finally manages to capture Daffy by shooting a pair of gloves from his gun, knocking Daffy out and allowing Egghead to place him in a net. Just as Egghead celebrates, a duck from the mental ward comes to claim Daffy. He thanks Egghead for helping to catch Daffy, and tells him that Daffy is 100% nuts. "Yeah?" Egghead asks. "Yeah!" answers the duck warden. At that moment, both he and Daffy beat Egghead up before woohoo-ing out into the distance. Egghead becomes fed up with the antics and decides to join them as the cartoon ends. A similar joke would end 1940's Knock Knock, the debut of Woody Woodpecker, a character whose early behavior was similar to the early Daffy, and likewise voiced by Mel Blanc, who was then working for Lantz as well as Warner/Schlesinger.

Edited version

• When the short aired on both Cartoon Network and The WB, the scene where Egghead shoots an audience member after standing up from his seat numerous times is cut.^[2]

Availability

VHS- Daffy! VHS- Golden Age Of Looney Tunes Vol 2: Firsts Laserdisc- Golden age of Looney Tunes Vol 1 DVD- Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3^[3]

See also

• Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1929–1939)

References

External links

• Daffy Duck & Egghead at the Internet Movie Database
• Daffy Duck & Egghead at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Daffy Duck and Egghead (Blue Ribbon) on the Internet Archive