Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur

Caspar Caveman and his pet dinosaur go hunting for breakfast, and guess whom they come across! Of course, Daffy isn't going to get caught so easily, especially since he conveniently has a number of tricks up his sleeve.

I guess that Daffy Duck was a relatively new character when this cartoon came out, but they sure did some funny stuff with him. I think that my favorite scene was when Caspar Caveman slingshots a rock at Daffy, and Daffy escapes it, and it ends up conking the dinosaur on the head and the dinosaur does a dazed dance. "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur" is what people mean when they talk about classic cartoons!

Millions of years ago, in stone age times, a cave man wakes up hurt and heads out to hunt for food with his trusty dinosaur for help. They come across some open water and spy Daffy Duck swimming and decide that he'd make a good meal - that was their first mistake.

This cartoon opens with a disclaimer that informs us that, for no great reason, this cartoon is set millions of years ago - just in case the audience can't guess that from the presence of cavemen and a dinosaur. This short features Daffy in `crazy' mood, which I always enjoy more than his bitter and cynical mood. The action is quite funny even if it isn't that imaginative at times.

The cave man sounds a little like Elmer Fudd and even vaguely resembles him to the point that I wondered why they didn't just get him in instead. Daffy is hilarious and is what makes the cartoon such fun, the dinosaur of the title doesn't have that much to do but has a few laughs - although he is a bit of a dumb animal.

Overall this is a good cartoon because I believe that any chance to see Daffy in crazy mood is worth a look even if the material is not as imaginative as it could have been.

Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939)

*** (out of 4)

A caveman wakes up hungry so he grabs his dinosaur and the two go out looking for food. They stumble across Daffy Duck but he's not going to be so easy to catch.

This is another very funny short that manages to have two great characters and one less than stellar one. I will say that I think the caveman isn't all that interesting and even the vocal work for him is rather forgettable. With that said, the rest of the short is full of fun action and plenty of nice laughs including one sequence where Daffy paints a duck with bad results for the caveman. As you'd expect the animation is excellent and with the laughs this is certainly worth watching.

Daffy Duck & the Dinosaur employs some good, solid gags, but I'm not a huge fan of the early, manic-like Daffy. I thought the real star of the show was Casper Caveman, who is supposedly a caricature of Jack Benny (I'll take Paul Penna's word for it, because I really don't know!) Nevertheless, Casper had some great mannerisms and was just a funny, unsuspecting victim of Daffy's crazy plans. Speaking of crazy plans, the ending was also quite funny and refreshing when Daffy gets a little too caught up in his scheme. Overall, this is a good, solid Daffy Duck cartoon. It's not the funniest out there, but it definitely has its moments.

My IMDb Rating: 8/10

The animation may be rather dated, the story a little sparse and the pace rushed in places, but Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur is a pleasant enough cartoon. Daffy is funny and manic here, as are a vast majority of the gags and the ending is an unexpected surprise. The music is lovely, and the dialogue good. Casper the Caveman comes very close to stealing the show with his mannerisms and all that and is very reminiscent of Jack Benny, not only with the voice but the dialogue as well. I have to say though Fido is adorable, for a dinosaur he really is a cutie. I loved it when he got hit by the thing that was meant for Daffy and he starts dancing.

Overall, pleasant enough but a somewhat rudimentary entry in the Looney Tunes canon. 7/10 Bethany Cox