Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century

This is quite possibly the best Daffy/porky pig cartoon ever. This short introduced Duck Dodgers into the Americon lexicon and I can't say anything else about this short that hasn't been said before by a great many many people. Needless to say this cartoon is greatness. And if you haven't seen it before, you in all likelihood just don't like Loony Tunes in the least and there's no help for you anyway. To everyone else this is and always will be a classic, and rightfully so. Like the first disk of the Loony Tunes golden Collection, the second disk also leaves the best for last. This hilarious Hugo nominated cartoon is on Disk 2 of the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1"

My Grade: A+

This Daffy Duck spoof of Buck Rogers in the Twenty-fifth Century is fairly funny, especially once he has met up with Marvin the Martian.

"Duck Dodgers" has been given the task of finding Planet X, the only remaining source of Illudium Phosdex (the shaving cream atom). He sets off with his side kick, eager young space cadet Porky Pig, and eventually finds the planet which he claims for Earth, a few seconds later Marvin arrives claiming it for Mars and the two of them have a stand-off involving Acme Disintegration Guns, Ultimatum Guns and finally they each attack the other with explosives that leave little of the planet intact.

I found this to be pretty funny, Daffy usually amuses me more than Bugs Bunny due to his general incompetence and Marvin the Martian is always funny.

When the earth's supplies of the shaving foam atom run low, the scientific community turns to Duck Dodgers, the space travelling adventurer, to seek out a new supply. Dodgers travels to the unexplored planet X, rich in the atom, to claim it for earth; however a Martian is also on the planet to claim it for Mars. A battle ensues.

For many people this is Daffy's best cartoon; it certainly seems to have stuck in many peoples' childhood memories, mine included. The plot spoofs the Buck Rodgers series of the period reasonably well and sees Daffy going to planet X and battling Marvin with a variety of funny weapons. It starts a little slowly but gets better when Marvin appears. The gags may not be brilliant but they have a certain imagination and energy to them that make it all work pretty well.

I much prefer Daffy in his `crazy duck' personae rather than his later work, which is probably why I only enjoyed this film rather than loved it. Here he seems quite restrained and it is only occasionally when his character shines through the character of Dodgers. Porky has little to do but is reasonably amusing in his minor role, but it is Marvin that gives the best support in his rather one-dimensional role.

It will stick in my mind because it is such a good little spoof but it isn't as good as perhaps it has been remembered. On top of that, I didn't see any of the Daffy I really love and that was a problem for me.

Sometime in the 2300s, Earth has run out of illidium phosdex, used to make shaving cream, so the government sends Duck Dodgers (Daffy Duck) and his cadet (Porky Pig) to get some from Planet X (to get there, Duck Dodgers suggests that they do a nonsensical zigzag, but his cadet says that they should just follow Planets A, B, C, etc.). Unfortunately for Duck Dodgers and his cadet (but fortunately for the audience), Marvin the Martian is also trying to claim the planet. After that, the rest of the cartoon consists of Daffy and Marvin trying to destroy each other with progressively wackier and wackier weapons (which was probably an allusion to the arms buildup in the Cold War).

"Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century" is mostly Daffy and Porky doing their usual crazy stuff, with some great one-liners: "Whoops. Had the silly thing in reverse." and "This planet ain't big enough for the two of us!" This is what classic cartoons are all about!

I can't believe only two people commented on this so far. This has to be Chuck Jones' best work of all time. This is one cartoon I can watch over and over again. I crack up every time Daffy says his line about the disintegrating pistol.