Daffy Duck – Chuck Jones

Who is Daffy Duck?

Although Daffy was created by Tex Avery, Chuck Jones re-invented Daffy’s persona as a greedy, self-centered duck, as exemplified in Rabbit Seasoning and Ali Baba Bunny. Daffy first appeared in Porky’s Duck Hunt, released on April 17, 1937. The cartoon was directed by Tex Avery and animated by Bob Clampett. Porky’s Duck Hunt is a standard hunter/prey pairing, but Daffy (barely more than an unnamed bit player in this short) was something new to moviegoers: an assertive, completely unrestrained, combative protagonist.

Who created (drew, animated, and/or directed) Daffy Duck?

There were a number of animators and directors that influenced Daffy Duck; however, the most notable ones are Robert McKimson, Friz Freleng, and Chuck Jones, as they worked closely together with a similar vision for their characters. Robert McKimson re-designed Daffy (in Daffy Doodles) to be rounder and less elastic, which was the first time he had made a Looney Tunes cartoon as a director. The studio instilled some of Bugs Bunny‘s cunning into the duck, which made him as smart with his mouth as he was with his craziness. Arthur Davis, whose cartoons can be recognized by their laid-back attitude and their characters’ predilection for wearing bow ties, had a short run directing his own Warner Bros. cartoon shorts. Davis directed content for a few years in the late 1940s until upper management decreed there should be only three units (McKimson, Friz Freleng, and Jones), who presented a Daffy similar to McKimson’s one. McKimson is thought of as the last of the three units to ensure his Daffy was uniform with Jones’ “screwball” version, with even late shorts, such as Don’t Axe Me (1958). Starting in You Were Never Duckier, Daffy’s personality changed from being less loony to more greedy.

Daffy Duck’s Persona Development:

As a result of Bugs Bunny’s rise to fame, Warner Bros. recast Daffy as the rabbit’s rival, intensely jealous, insecure, and determined to steal back the spotlight, while Bugs either remained cool-headed but mildly amused and/or indifferent to the duck’s jealousy and used it to his advantage. Daffy’s desire to achieve stardom at almost any cost was explored as early as 1940 in You Ought to Be in Pictures, but the idea was most successfully used by Chuck Jones who redesigned the duck once again. You can see the scrawnier and scruffier version of him in one’s “Hunting Trilogy” (or “Duck Season/Rabbit Season Trilogy”) of Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck! Rabbit, Duck! (launched in 1951,1952, and 1953).

In those episodes, Daffy’s attention-grabbing ways and excitability provide Bugs Bunny the perfect opportunity to fool the hapless Elmer Fudd into repeatedly shooting the duck’s bill off. Also, these cartoons reveal Daffy’s catchphrase, “Youuu’re deththpicable!” Jones’ Daffy sees himself as a self-preservationist, not selfish. However, this Daffy can do nothing that does not backfire on him, more likely to singe his tail feathers as well as his ego and pride than anything.

Film critic Steve Schneider calls Jones’ version of Daffy “a kind of unleashed id Jones said that his version of the character “expresses all of the things we’re afraid to express.”

This is evident in Jones’ Duck Amuck (1953), “one of the few unarguable masterpieces of American animation” according to Schneider. In the episode, Daffy is plagued by a godlike animator whose paintbrush changes the setting, soundtrack, and also Daffy. When he demands to know who is making these alterations, the camera switches back to reveal none other than Bugs Bunny. “Duck Amuck” has been heralded as a classic of filmmaking because it illustrates how the personality of a character can be recognized separately from his appearance, voice, plot, and even the setting.

A Darker Daffy:

There were a few years from 1965-1968 when Warner Bros. animation studio briefly outsourced cartoon production to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (DFE). During that time Daffy Duck became an antagonist to his friend Speedy in some cartoons, where he was transformed into a disturbingly nasty and bitter character. You can see the extent of maliciousness in Well Worn Daffy (1965), Assault and Peppered (1965), and  Go Go Amigo (1965).

After an abysmal failure in See Ya Later Gladiator, considered one of the worst cartoons made by Warner Bros., it was a sign that Daffy needed an overhaul. Chuck Jones’ Daffy Duck was revived; he returned to the greedy, selfish, neurotic, and spotlight-hungry character that we all love so much.

Content Revival:

In 1987, to celebrate Daffy’s 50th anniversary, Warner Bros. released The Duxorcist as its first theatrical Looney Tunes short in two decades. He appears in a piano duel with his Disney counterpart and rival Donald Duck in the 1988 Disney film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as both are playing Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.

Daffy later appeared in several feature-film compilations. In 1983 came Daffy Duck’s Fantastic Island. And then in 1988, Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters was released, which is considered one of the Looney Tunes’ best compilation films, and featured another new theatrical short, The Night of the Living Duck.

Daffy has also had major roles in films such as Space Jam in 1996 and Looney Tunes: Back in Action in 2003. The latter film does much to flesh out his character, even going so far as to cast a sympathetic light on Daffy’s glory-seeking ways in one scene, where he complains that he works tirelessly without achieving what Bugs does without even trying.

Again. in 2003, Daffy Duck was cast in a brand-new Duck Dodgers series. (It should be stressed that in this show, Duck Dodgers actually is Daffy Duck due to him being frozen in suspended animation in some unknown incident.)

He had a cameo appearance in the Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries episode When Granny Ruled the Earth, first airing on March 27, 1999. Daffy has also been featured in several webtoons, which can be viewed online (YouTube).

In the television series Tiny Toon Adventures, Daffy is a teacher at Acme Looniversity, where he is the hero and mentor of student Plucky Duck. Daffy is shown as a baby in the Baby Looney Tunes show, and makes occasional cameos on Animaniacs and Histeria! In the show Loonatics Unleashed, his descendant is Danger Duck (voiced by Jason Marsden), who is also lame and unpopular to his teammates. In the majority of these appearances, the selfish, neurotic, and spotlight-hungry Daffy characterized by Chuck Jones is the common version.

More recently, Daffy has been given larger roles in more recent Looney Tunes films and series. Following Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Warner Bros. has slowly moved the spotlight away from Bugs and more towards Daffy, as shown in the 2006 video release Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas, where Daffy plays the lead, while Bugs Bunny appears in a supporting role.