Cartoon a Day: My Favorite Duck

My Favorite Duck
1942
Directed by Chuck Jones
Available on: Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 6

Well it's been a crazy summer. There's been a lot of travel and internet problems at home that has made doing "Cartoon a Day" tough. Plus, the fact that I just got lazy. But with it being September 1, here we go again.

"My Favorite Duck" is the first cartoon to team director Chuck Jones and writer Michael Maltese. That team would produce some of the greatest cartoons of all time. In this short, Porky Pig is on a camping trip where he is annoyed by Daffy Duck who continues to point out that it is not duck season so you can't harm a duck in any way.

Not all of the gags work, but some are classics. The fishing sequence in which Porky ends up floating on the wrong side of the water is very original as is the ending where the film breaks and Daffy has to describe the end of the film to the audience.

From an animation standpoint, the highlight of the film is some of the unique angles used. There is an obsession with low camera angles here like what you might expect to see in a student film. In this film it works well, especially in the final moments of the film when Daffy's plan has backfired on him.

Cartoon a Day: My Little Duckaroo

My Little Duckaroo
1954
Directed by Chuck Jones (as Charles M. Jones)
Available on: Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 6

"My Little Duckaroo" features Daffy Duck as a Lone Ranger type hero, with Porky Pig as his sidekick (or "comic relief" as this short calls him). The film has that classic Chuck Jones style to it, but I didn't find this one as out-loud funny as some of Jones' other Daffy shorts.

You may think this sounds silly, but there is a major distraction in this film that kept me from really enjoying the gags. Much of the film takes place inside the hideout of the villain, Nasty Canasta. For some reason, the inside walls are decorated with pages from a book...so you can see words and pictures on the walls. It's an odd choice for background art.


I just couldn't pull my brain away from trying to read the print on the walls. I suppose that shows that I'm easily distracted, but I just couldn't stop looking at those stupid walls. So I guess there's some cool animation here, but bad choices for backgrounds.

Cartoon a Day: Milk and Money

Milk and Money
1936
Directed by Tex Avery (as Fred Avery)
Available on: Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 5

This was actually yesterday's cartoon. I was having some computer problems last night so I'm a bit behind on blogging about it. In "Milk and Money" Porky Pig is working his father's farm, but it seems that the mortgage is due and Mr. Viper has come to collect. So Porky heads off to the big city with his horse to try and make a fast $10,000.

They first try delivering milk door to door, but they end up getting fired after the horse is bitten by a horse fly and goes nuts causing the destruction of all the milk bottles. They end up going to the horse track where a bite from the same horse fly results in Porky and his horse becoming the winners of the race...and the $10,000 prize. The farm is saved.

This is an interesting short to look at as it is an early example of Tex Avery's direction. There are a few hints at some of the things he would do in some of his later MGM shorts, especially during the horse race sequence. The humor does come in spurts, but this is a pretty funny early Looney Tune.

Cartoon a Day: Confusions of a Nutzy Spy

Confusions of a Nutzy Spy
1943
Directed by Norman McCabe
Available on: Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 6

We finish off a week of World War II themed shorts with "Confusions of a Nutzy Spy." This film features Porky Pig as a police officer who, along with his hound Egbert, is chasing down an enemy spy.


There are only a handful of things in this short that tie it to the war...a Hitler mask that the dog runs across and the spy character's accent and use of a "heil Hitler" are about it. Many of the film's funniest bits come from sight gags at the beginning of the film. Once again you can really see how these films were aimed at adult audiences when the camera pans past two wanted posters featuring ugly crooks and then lands on a poster that says "Wanted" with a poster of a pin up girl.



The animation of the spy, Missing Lynx, is pretty funny. He has some great poses during a sequence where he's trying to blow up a bridge, but the dog keeps fetching the bomb and bringing it back to him.

This is a funny short, it's a shame that a few references to the war have kept it out of the public eye for so long.