Duck Amuck

Already as a boy I could understand the humor in 'Duck Amuck' - but perhaps not it's meta-ambitions! If I knew then how good this short movie is I would never ever let my father erase it!

Quotes like: "NOW WHAT?" and "Give me a close-up!" can't leave my head! Duffy (or Daffy) has since this movie always been my personal cartoon favorite.

Don't miss this incredible masterpiece, then you will miss one of the best movies ever made!!!

Rating: 10 of 10.

There is nothing here that hasn't been said already. This is by far one of the better Daffy Duck cartoons, for it is witty, inventive and hilarious like a Looney Tunes cartoon should be. The concept has been done before, so it just loses out on the originality element, but I overlook this every time I watch this, because everything else works brilliantly. Where to begin praising it? The genius script, Daffy's performance or the animation?

Well I'd best start off with the animation. The animation is wonderful, colourful and solid looking, looking so good after all these years and the backgrounds themselves are picturesque. The music is a real joy to the ears, if there is anything I love more than anything else in the world it is good music, and I loved it here. And the script? I seriously need to think of another Daffy cartoon where I was laughing so hard non- stop. The script was a gem, full of witty asides and quotable lines. Mel Blanc's absolutely fantastic vocal performance is to be praised too, Daffy was at his manic and cynical best here, and Blanc delivered flawlessly.

All in all, as far as I can see there is nothing wrong with Duck Amuck. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Duck Amuck is Daffy's frustrations of being trapped in an animated short that keeps changing scenery, has him playing a guitar with shooting sounds, fighting with himself in another frame, gets drawn in different sizes and colors, and basically is at the mercy of an unseen animator. This is Chuck Jones' and Michael Maltese's masterpiece of abstract animation. One of my favorite parts was at the changing scenery sequence when, after Daffy changes into a farmer outfit singing "Old McDonald Had a Farm" in front of a barn background, it changes into a winter scene with a snow-house as the duck then sings, "And on this farm he had an igloo..." LOL! At the end, the duck demands to know who is behind the whole thing. All I'll say is that person says, "Ain't I a stinker?" Duck Amuck is definitely worth seeing again and again.

Daffy D'Artagnon strikes again! Except......where's the scenery? A paintbrush adds scenery - but it's the wrong kind! So it's Daffy Duck, farmer, and on this farm he had an igloo......duh? Skiing eskimo Daffy, skiing right into Hawaii.....eeeeeeeeeeeee.

And so is Daffy Duck subjected to the whims of an offscreen animator, erased, redrawn, his voice changed, everything is done to him except the proper contextualization, which steadily drives Daffy bonkers. A demand for a closeup gets an iris-out, then we see just how bloodshot Daffy's eyes are.

A rubbery black background blob smothers Daffy, so he destroys it and demands the picture begin - so we iris out to THE END - NO! NO!!!!!!!

Two Daffys (the result of the film projector sticking between frames) nearly come to blows, then eventually we get the answer to the mystery that has Daffy yelling his lungs out - and the audience laughing at a film parody to end all such. It's been said this cartoon breaks the fourth as well as fifth and sixth walls - but they forgot to mention the seventh and eighth walls it breaks as well.

The Duck has been a favorite cartoon character of audiences from his inception, but in Chuck Jones' hands, Daffy was at his greediest, all too human like best (worst?).

In this cartoon, Daffy Duck is manipulated by some unseen, omnipotent force that keeps changing the scenery, the sound, and even the appearance of Daffy himself, much to his horror. The humor in most of the gags go deeper than the usual Warner Bros. cartoon, with claustrophobia, an exact duplicate of Daffy and instant deformity inflicted upon him has us laughing at our own fears.

But it's Jones' vision of Daffy that is the true star of this and many other of his cartoons. The other directors, the great Friz Freleng and the unfairly maligned Robert McKimson, never really had the grasp of the new Daffy Duck that emerged in the mid 40's, but he really was a new creation of Michael Maltese and Chuck Jones, only faintly reminiscent of the crazy antics that handlers such as Frank Tashlin, Tex Avery and Robert Clampett portrayed him as possessing. That old Daffy was wild and wacky and good, the new Daffy always has us humans at a disadvantage by making fun of our own weaknesses.