Daffy Duck Hunt

“B-B-Benedict Arnold!”

Porky and his dog, the Barnyard Dawg are out hunting. Cue duck. Daffy empties all the shells and taunts Porky and his dog with some french dancing. Porky tells the dog to get him and the dog decides that a trick will help him win. He begins to cry and Daffy asks what’s wrong. The dog explains (lies) that if he does not catch a duck, Porky will torture him. In a rare moment of selflessness, Daffy says they will pretend he was caught. After the dog brings Daffy back to his master, Porky decides that one duck is enough for dinner. They go home and put Daffy in a freezer.

Porky goes to sleep whilst the dog hears thumps in the freezer. His two consciousnesses appear and try to make him choose to let Daffy freeze or at least warm up for helping him. Choosing the right choice, he puts Daffy in the oven to get some heat. Daffy tries to leave but is explained that he is not going to leave. Daffy makes a lot of racket and Porky storms in to see what is going on. Daffy jumps in the dog’s mouth and the poor mutt gets beaten.

More of this zaniness follows. Finally, Porky says that if the duck is not in the freezer then the dog dies. Opening it up he allows Daffy to jump out, dressed like Santa and has them sing “Jingle Bells.” Porky then notices the calendar says April, and gets an axe to finish Daffy. However, he is stopped by the patch on Daffy that says, “Do not open until Christmas”. Daffy figures that by then, he will have figured a way out of the mess he got himself into.

Personal Rating: 3 (but it teeters dangerously towards the “4” category)

Any bonds today?

Now what we have here is a short that is entirely music. We see a figure approaching and it is our patriotic cartoon character, Bugs Bunny. He starts to sing and tell us we must buy war bonds if we are going to win World War 2. Soon Porky and Elmer (in his fat phase) join him. So as you are probably guessing it is not really worth your time to watch it, right? Wrong! It is a great song! One that I find myself singing whenever I take a walk. If you do not watch this, then you are definitely missing out. (Just be mindful of the blackface. That is humorless.)

Personal Rating: 3

The Awful Orphan

“Looking for something, bub?”

Every time Charlie appeared with Porky, orphan was in the title. Just FYI.

We start out with a crowd of people who are watching Charlie give a demonstration of something every home needs…himself. Needless to say, no one is amused and Charlie is forced to hitch a ride in a pet shop delivery car. He crawls into a cage that is supposed to contain a canary and is delivered to Porky. The rest is just Porky trying to get rid of him and Charlie coming back.

He tries reasoning, he tries bribery, he even tries locking Porky out of his apartment. In the end, Porky gives in but now Charlie does not want to live there. This makes Porky go insane and we end with a shot of Charlie being forced to be the master of a snarling Porky.

Personal Rating: 4

Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century

“Can you do it, Dodgers?”

This is probably the longest title for a Looney Tune made in the golden age. (Its sequel is longer.) And don’t worry. If you forget what you are watching, the short keeps reminding us. I’m sure everyone has seen this one. I mean, George Lucas showed it in certain theaters when “Star Wars” came out, and a clip appears in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

The plot is that in the 24th and a half century, the shaving cream atom (aludium fozdex) is alarmingly low. The only remaining source is on Planet X and Daffy and Marvin are both trying to claim it for their planets. For once, Daffy actually wins this battle but as Porky says, it’s not really a big deal. The fighting has only left a football sized planet left. Also interesting is the fact that this is the only short where Marvin did not appear with Bugs. (He really should have appeared more.)

Personal Rating: 5

Golden Yeggs

“Oh, my aching back!”

A commotion is going on at Porky’s farm. It turns out to be a golden egg. The goose responsible has read the original story, and says that Daffy is the one who did it. Daffy goes along with the charade and he comes to the attention of Rocky and his gang who want the money the duck produces. They “talk” Porky into giving him away and the rest is gags as Daffy tries to get away with it without dying. It’s a great short that deserves to be a full-length motion picture. I hope you are enjoying this place as much as I am. Woo hoo hoo hoo!

Personal Rating: 3

Boobs in the Woods

“That’s my lake.”

Porky and Daffy worked great together, but to me they were at their best when Daffy was a screwball. Don’t get me wrong though, I still love it when Daffy was more serious, but for me this is comedy genius.

So we got Porky just out trying to paint a picture when Daffy gets in his way. What follows is our favorite duck getting the best of our porcine friend. As we all know, Daffy usually wins, but in this one (which I think is Daffy’s last crazy cartoon) Porky wins.

Personal Rating: 4

Deduce You Say

“I may be down, but the jig is up!”

We open and find Daffy, A.K.A. Dorlock Holmes and Porky, (Watkins) on the case of the Shropshire Slasher. After all the times you’ve seen Porky and Daffy together, you may be mistaken into believing its nothing special. But you’re wrong. It makes fun of the British language quite a bit, and Daffy gets his neck bent. This is why Looney Tunes are better than whatever they’re parodying. I bet Sherlock was never a clown, or that we ever saw his foe’s mother. Did Sherlock ever get his face full of darts? I think not. Case closed.

Personal Rating: 4

The Wearing of the Grin

“I sentence ye to the wearing of the green shoes.”

That’s a harsh punishment. Let me tell you why. Porky needs a place to spend the night, and the only one he finds is supposedly full of leprechauns. Porky is skeptical, but soon finds himself at the mercy of them. They accuse him of trying to steal their pot of gold. What follows next is Porky running from the aforementioned shoes in a surrealistic Irish setting. He then awakes to find it was a dream. Or was it?

Personal Rating: 4

Porky Chops

“Some guys don’t never learn.”

This is one of my favorite Porky cartoons. Is it popular? Not to my knowledge. Is it one of the best? No. Is it funny? Heck yeah it is! One of the reasons it’s so great is because Porky is a jerk in it. (Nice change of pace.) He’s a lumberjack who is trying to chop down a tree that has a squirrel in it. The squirrel asks Porky to stop (since he’s on vacation) but Porky refuses and declares all out war. The squirrel is funny but he has no name. So I need a name for him. Any ideas?

Personal Rating: 3

Yankee Doodle Daffy

“♪I’m a cowboy, yes sir I am!♪”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love music! And this short is full of it. I don’t really understand the title though. That song is nowhere in it, and it has nothing to do with patriotism. Still its wonderful and almost the whole cartoon is singing. Like if they remade every Looney Tune into a full length animated feature, this one would be a musical. So whats is all about? Singing. That’s all I’m going to say. Its basically Daffy just singing to Porky. (It works!)

Personal Rating: 4