Book Revue

The books on bookshelves are coming to life. One book is Looney Tunes Merrie Melodies comics with Daffy Duck walking off the cover. While Daffy does make an appearance, it is not a long one. A lot of this is non-specific books or classics. I don't recognize a lot of these and I am not that invested in them. That is probably my main issue. Quite frankly, the Daffy Duck appearance is basically a cameo or fan service for Looney Tunes fans. I would rather have him be the store owner or late night janitor or a magician. This could be Daffy Duck's Fantasia. Instead, it is all rather random and non-specific.

OK, it's not necessarily the all-time *best* Daffy Duck cartoon (that would be "Duck Amuck" or "Robin Hood Daffy", or maybe "Great Piggy Bank Robbery") but it's my personal favorite - I just love it to bits. Clampett at his high-octane best, taking on the old workhorse "book covers come to life" formula and *demolishing* it (no one at WB ever made another!) with a show-stopping and hysterically funny performance by Daffy. From a spot-on-perfect impression of Danny Kaye playing a homesick Russian gypsy ("*sigh* How different was my little willage...the happy peoples, sitting on their balalaikas, strumming their samovars...") to a mad scat song warning Red Riding Hood to beware the wolf and an all-out battle, the duck just rocks. The concentrated energy of this cartoon blasts off the screen! A slow start, but once Daffy appears onscreen, brother, clear the decks. A definite 10.

When it strike midnight at the book shop, things go crazy. The characters in the various books of the time begin to cavort. However, what could have been a very clever cartoon becomes a study in the pop culture of post World War II. Frank Sinatra appears and all the female characters go into hysterics. When a thinly clad young Indian maid appears, there is a chorus of wolves (some are actually wolves but most are just male characters). Eventually, Daffy Duck gets on the scene. There is a lot of jazz and he doesn't respond well to it. I just didn't find this one very gratifying. Daffy howls and screams and his encounter with the Red Riding Hood wolf is lame at best.

Daffy Duck stars in the surreal short that has all the books of a book store coming alive in humorous ways. Fawning over Frank Sinatra, whom Daffy seeks to steal the spotlight from with his Danny Kaye impersonation (and he succeeds I might add). He also goes up against the Big Bad Wolf in this great Robert Clampett short (and pretty much all of Clampetts work on Looney Tunes was indeed great, so for this to be one of the standouts is really saying something). This animated short can be seen on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 and also features an optional commentary by Micheal Barrier.

My Grade: A+

Young Man with a Horn: Harry James; The Voice in the Wilderness: Frank Sinatra; Brass: Tommy Dorsey- Sinatra worked for him; Drums Along the Mohawk: Gene Krupa; The Pie-eyed Piper: Benny Goodman; Arkansas Traveler: Arkansas-born Bob Burns (with his so-called "bazooka"); So Big: James Durante; Daffy Duck dressed up as Danny Kaye.

The line "... so round, so firm, so fully packed... so (free and) easy on the draw" was in reference to a Lucky Strike cigarette commercial- in coincidence, the Sportsman Quartet (also in this cartoon) used to do commercials for Lucky Strike on the Jack Benny Radio Program.