Green Darmok's Mostly Animation Blog

Cartoon violence doesn't need to be "mindless."  Sometimes it can be skilfully integrated with witty wordplay and creative jokes about fictional technology. Director Chuck Jones and writer/story artist Michael Maltese demonstrate this in their classic cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (Warner Bros., 1953). In this cartoon, Daffy (as Duck Dodgers) and Marvin are rival claimants, on behalf of Earth and Mars respectively, for Planet X and its precious resources (Illudium Phosdex, the "shaving cream atom", if you're curious). Marvin has Daffy at ray-gun point with an "A-1 Disintegrating Pistol" (A-1 is evidently the Martian counterpart of Acme), but Daffy isn't bothered, as he's wearing a "disintegration-proof vest".  This is a funny "technology" gag in itself: the idea of a futuristic version of a present-day item (a bullet-proof vest), and the idea that you could protect yourself from disintegration the same way yo...

Nobody did manic energy like Bob Clampett, especially in his last few years at Warner Bros.  And no cartoon did manic panic like Bob Clampett's  Draftee Daffy  (1945). The story is a variation on the "escaped criminal" plot previously used by Tex Avery in Dumb-Hounded (1943) and later in Northwest Hounded Police  (1946) - updated to be more World War 2-relevant (and probably more relatable to most of the contemporary audience).  Daffy's gung-ho patriotic fervour turns to panic when he learns he's been called up by "the Little Man from the Draft Board." While Avery's escaped jail-wolf travelled all over the world in his attempt to escape the Long (and calmly stoic) Arm of the Law, Daffy spends most of the cartoon just trying to escape his house.  But any restrictions in the setting are made up for by Daffy's performance - that is, the combined performance of voice actor Mel Blanc and the animators. I posted before  about how fascinated I was by th...