Melissa Duck
Encyclopedia
Melissa Duck is an animated cartoon
character
in the Warner Brothers
Looney Tunes
and Merrie Melodies
series of cartoons and the animated television series Baby Looney Tunes
. She is featured as main character Daffy Duck
's blonde girlfriend in several cartoon shorts but is only referred to as Melissa in one, The Scarlet Pumpernickel
, where she is voiced by Bea Benaderet
.
, Daffy
's owner, a young girl, also becomes the besotted owner of a small, yellow duckling. When a jealous Daffy
feeds the duckling growth pills, he is surprised to see it age into a white, female duck with blonde hair. By the end of the cartoon, the two have fallen in love and given birth to roughly ten black, white and yellow ducklings of their own. The blonde duck in this cartoon bears visual similarities to Daffy's girlfriend from Muscle Tussle (as well as a vague resemblance to the female pigeon Hatta Mari from Plane Daffy
, 1944) and may represent the "origin" of the Melissa Duck character.
Melissa Duck first officially appeared by name in adult form in the original Looney Tunes
short Chuck Jones
' The Scarlet Pumpernickel
(1950) which was, in 1994, voted number 31 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. In the cartoon, she appears as a blonde damsel-in-distress and Daffy Duck
's love interest. The plot followed Daffy
attempting to save Fair Lady Melissa from having to marry the evil Grand Duke Sylvester
with whom she is not in love.
Femme Fatale (AKA 'The Body,' has also been referred to as Fowl Fatale or Shapely Lady Duck), from the 1952 Daffy Duck cartoon The Super Snooper, was a tall voluptuous bright blue-eyed, redheaded duck wearing red lipstick who bears a strong resemblance to Melissa Duck. In the cartoon, she fell madly in love with the inept detective Daffy was portraying at first sight. Femme Fatale also appears on the cover of volume 5 of the Looney Tunes
Spotlight Collection, which indicates that she and Melissa may be considered the same character since unlike Femme Fatale, the identities of all of the other characters on the cover are well known Looney Tunes characters.
Later in Robert McKimson
's Muscle Tussle
(1953), Daffy Duck
's girlfriend appears with him on a visit to the beach. The girlfriend's design in this cartoon is markedly more stylized than Melissa's appearance in The Scarlet Pumpernickel
, but a contemporary comics adaptation of Muscle Tussle
carried the name Melissa on to this new design as well. The voice of Melissa in this cartoon is obscure voice actor Gladys Holland, the narrator of UPA
's classic 1952 adaptation of Ludwig Belemans's 1939 classic Madeline
.
Another blonde, female duck featured in the Greg Ford
and Terry Lennon 1987 cartoon The Duxorcist
, the first Looney Tunes
short released to theaters after the original series ended in 1969. A loose parody of William Friedkin's The Exorcist
, the cartoon depicts the single, young duck as having become possessed by ghosts. Despite having paler feathers, the female duck from this cartoon physically appears very similar to Melissa from The Scarlet Pumpernickel
; even more so than the designs in Muscle Tussle and Nasty Quacks.
Melissa Duck was the inspiration for the Shirley the Loon character on Tiny Toon Adventures
, a spin-off series which follows the adventures of the next generation of Looney Tunes
; each character being, to a degree, modeled after the original Looney Tunes. Shirley the Loon is a similar-looking blonde, female waterfowl
with a romantic interest in the male duck character, Plucky Duck
, who in turn is inspired by Daffy Duck. Despite the comparisons between Melissa and Shirley's characters, Melissa Duck never featured in an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, despite other original Looney Tunes
having done so.
, which casts the adult characters from the original Looney Tunes theatrical shorts as their infant selves. Melissa had a crush on Daffy Duck ever since she was an infant. However, unlike well-known male characters such as Bugs Bunny
and Daffy Duck
, female characters were rare in the original shorts; with Melissa Duck, Petunia Pig
and the Tasmanian She-Devil only making a couple appearances each, whilst Baby Looney Tunes
character Lola Bunny
was created for the 1996 movie Space Jam
. In Baby Looney Tunes
, Melissa, a yellow duckling with darker hair than her adult self, acts as a comedian
and enjoys making her friends laugh, even though her humor sometimes gets her into trouble. She is voiced there by Janyse Jaud
.
's beautiful admirer in Cartoon Network
's The Looney Tunes Show
, though her name and design have been inconsistent. Initially referenced as "Marisol Duck" during production, she was first renamed Tina Duck, then Tina Russo on the show's website. The character has also had several visual overhauls; at first given lavender feathers and purple hair, she was more recently redesigned to have yellow feathers and brown hair. Tina has appeared in the following episodes "Double Date", "Bugs & Daffy Get a Job", "That's My Baby" and "Beauty School".
Tina has a fairly rational personality, and seems to be more understanding of Daffy than anyone else, recognizing that despite his social awkwardness and mannerisms, he's just a lonely guy who needs some attention and affection. This makes her a significant contrast to Bugs, who is usually indifferent to Daffy's shenanigans and personality altogether, though she still gets mildly annoyed whenever her boyfriend doesn't quite get the message.
has also appeared married in other Looney Tunes cartoons. For the most, Daffy's wife, usually referred to as Mrs. Daffy Duck, holds dominance over him in the marriage, forcing him to take an interest in their eggs or ducklings. In all the cartoons, the wife is portrayed as identical to Daffy but wearing female items of clothing (much the same way as the wives of the Tasmanian Devil
and Porky Pig
have been animated). In one short, Daffy's wife was given a name, Daphne Duck; she has also been nicknamed Honey Bunch and My Love.
In Wise Quacks
(1939), Daffy is married to Mrs. Daffy Duck whose four eggs, which eventually hatch, must be protected by their father from a hungry buzzard. In The Henpecked Duck
(1941), Daffy is unhappily married to his dominant wife, Mrs. Daffy Duck, who appears identical to her husband but with a brimmed hat and a skirt. She seeks a divorce from him as he, after commanded to sit on it, lost their egg. In the end, however, Daffy proves the egg is not lost and it hatches into a small black duckling, Junior. In The Stupid Cupid
(1944), Daffy avoids being targeted by Cupid
(played by fellow Looney Tune Elmer Fudd
) as he is still suffering from their last encounter which forced him to marry a very dominant duck (whose father also managed to pressure the wedding by pressing a shotgun against Daffy during the ceremony). Again she looks very similar to Daffy in appearance; other than her white wedding dress shown in the family album, and the red hat she wears during the short which closely resembles her hat from The Henpecked Duck. The pair gave birth to six black ducklings including one which is two-headed. In Stork Naked (1955), Daffy is married to a duck named Daphne who, once again, appears very similar to Daffy but this time wears a blue bow in her head. Although, Daphne wants to have (possibly more) children, Daffy is against the idea and attempts to stop the egg-delivering stork from arriving at their human-like house. According to the Big Cartoon Database
, Daphne Duck was intended to become the duck equivalent of Bugs Bunny
's girlfriend Honey Bunny
, although she failed to become as popular as Honey had. Finally, in Quackodile Tears (1962), Daffy is once again married to a fairly dominant wife, nicknamed Honey Bunch, who forces Daffy to sit on their egg (similar to the scenario in The Henpecked Duck). She also appears very similar to Daffy, but wears a pink skirt and bonnet. In the end, the egg hatches into a black duckling but Daffy had, in the course of the short, lost the unhatched egg in the middle of an alligator's nest of eggs.
In the 1950 short, His Bitter Half
, Daffy marries a different, large and grey duck for her money, but he soon runs away after experiencing her bossy ways and her son Wentworth's trouble-making which leads to Daffy getting scalped, beaten up and blown up by a firework.
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the Warner Brothers
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
and Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
series of cartoons and the animated television series Baby Looney Tunes
Baby Looney Tunes
Baby Looney Tunes is a Canadian-American animated television series that shows Looney Tunes characters as toddlers. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation....
. She is featured as main character Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
's blonde girlfriend in several cartoon shorts but is only referred to as Melissa in one, The Scarlet Pumpernickel
The Scarlet Pumpernickel
The Scarlet Pumpernickel is a 1949 animated Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in 1950, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese....
, where she is voiced by Bea Benaderet
Bea Benaderet
Bea Benaderet was an American actress born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, California. She is best remembered for her wide variety of television work, which included a starring role in the 1960s television series Petticoat Junction and Green Acres as Shady Rest Hotel owner Kate...
.
Character history
In the 1945 cartoon Nasty QuacksNasty Quacks
Nasty Quacks is a 1945 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series. It was the final Daffy Duck cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin, who is not credited as he had already left the studio for the second time...
, Daffy
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
's owner, a young girl, also becomes the besotted owner of a small, yellow duckling. When a jealous Daffy
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
feeds the duckling growth pills, he is surprised to see it age into a white, female duck with blonde hair. By the end of the cartoon, the two have fallen in love and given birth to roughly ten black, white and yellow ducklings of their own. The blonde duck in this cartoon bears visual similarities to Daffy's girlfriend from Muscle Tussle (as well as a vague resemblance to the female pigeon Hatta Mari from Plane Daffy
Plane Daffy
- Synopsis :One after another of a company of carrier pigeons fall prey to the seductive wiles of "Queen of the Spies" Hatta Mari. The alarm is raised at pigeon headquarters when Pigeon 13 goes AWOL with the female Nazi spy bird, to whom he reveals all his secrets...
, 1944) and may represent the "origin" of the Melissa Duck character.
Melissa Duck first officially appeared by name in adult form in the original Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
short Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
' The Scarlet Pumpernickel
The Scarlet Pumpernickel
The Scarlet Pumpernickel is a 1949 animated Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in 1950, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese....
(1950) which was, in 1994, voted number 31 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. In the cartoon, she appears as a blonde damsel-in-distress and Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
's love interest. The plot followed Daffy
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
attempting to save Fair Lady Melissa from having to marry the evil Grand Duke Sylvester
Sylvester (Looney Tunes)
Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., Sylvester the Cat or simply Sylvester, is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic Tuxedo cat in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies repertory, often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper...
with whom she is not in love.
Femme Fatale (AKA 'The Body,' has also been referred to as Fowl Fatale or Shapely Lady Duck), from the 1952 Daffy Duck cartoon The Super Snooper, was a tall voluptuous bright blue-eyed, redheaded duck wearing red lipstick who bears a strong resemblance to Melissa Duck. In the cartoon, she fell madly in love with the inept detective Daffy was portraying at first sight. Femme Fatale also appears on the cover of volume 5 of the Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
Spotlight Collection, which indicates that she and Melissa may be considered the same character since unlike Femme Fatale, the identities of all of the other characters on the cover are well known Looney Tunes characters.
Later in Robert McKimson
Robert McKimson
Robert "Bob" Porter McKimson, Sr. was an American animator, illustrator, and director best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros., and later DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...
's Muscle Tussle
Muscle Tussle
| Producer: Eddoe SelzerMuscle Tussle is a 1952 Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon short released in 1953 and directed by Robert McKimson and featuring Daffy Duck.-Synopsis:...
(1953), Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
's girlfriend appears with him on a visit to the beach. The girlfriend's design in this cartoon is markedly more stylized than Melissa's appearance in The Scarlet Pumpernickel
The Scarlet Pumpernickel
The Scarlet Pumpernickel is a 1949 animated Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in 1950, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese....
, but a contemporary comics adaptation of Muscle Tussle
Muscle Tussle
| Producer: Eddoe SelzerMuscle Tussle is a 1952 Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon short released in 1953 and directed by Robert McKimson and featuring Daffy Duck.-Synopsis:...
carried the name Melissa on to this new design as well. The voice of Melissa in this cartoon is obscure voice actor Gladys Holland, the narrator of UPA
United Productions of America
United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio of the 1940s through present day, beginning with industrial films and World War II training films. In the late 1940s, UPA produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Pictures, most notably the Mr. Magoo series. In...
's classic 1952 adaptation of Ludwig Belemans's 1939 classic Madeline
Madeline
Madeline is a children's book series written by Ludwig Bemelmans, an Austrian author. The books have been adapted into numerous formats, spawning telefilms, television series and a live action feature film...
.
Another blonde, female duck featured in the Greg Ford
Greg Ford
Greg Ford is an animator, director, historian and consultant to Warner Bros. Animation. He is perhaps best known for directing the films Daffy Duck's Quackbusters and Bunny .-Biography:...
and Terry Lennon 1987 cartoon The Duxorcist
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters is a 1988 Looney Tunes film with a compilation of classic Warner Bros. Cartoons shorts and animated bridging sequences, starring Daffy Duck. It is the final Looney Tunes project in which Mel Blanc provided the voices of the characters. The film was released to theaters by...
, the first Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
short released to theaters after the original series ended in 1969. A loose parody of William Friedkin's The Exorcist
The Exorcist
The Exorcist is a novel of supernatural suspense by William Peter Blatty, published by Harper & Row in 1971. It was inspired by a 1949 case of demonic possession and exorcism that Blatty heard about while he was a student in the class of 1950 at Georgetown University, a Jesuit school...
, the cartoon depicts the single, young duck as having become possessed by ghosts. Despite having paler feathers, the female duck from this cartoon physically appears very similar to Melissa from The Scarlet Pumpernickel
The Scarlet Pumpernickel
The Scarlet Pumpernickel is a 1949 animated Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in 1950, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese....
; even more so than the designs in Muscle Tussle and Nasty Quacks.
Melissa Duck was the inspiration for the Shirley the Loon character on Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures
Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures, usually referred to as Tiny Toon Adventures or simply Tiny Toons, is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. It began production as a result of Warner Bros....
, a spin-off series which follows the adventures of the next generation of Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
; each character being, to a degree, modeled after the original Looney Tunes. Shirley the Loon is a similar-looking blonde, female waterfowl
Waterfowl
Waterfowl are certain wildfowl of the order Anseriformes, especially members of the family Anatidae, which includes ducks, geese, and swans....
with a romantic interest in the male duck character, Plucky Duck
Plucky Duck
Plucky Allen Duck is a cartoon character from the Warner Bros. animated television series Tiny Toon Adventures. He is also the titular character in Gary A. Lewis's Plucky Duck in the Summer Job. He is arguably the third main character on the show after Buster and Babs. Plucky is voiced by Joe...
, who in turn is inspired by Daffy Duck. Despite the comparisons between Melissa and Shirley's characters, Melissa Duck never featured in an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, despite other original Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
having done so.
Baby Looney Tunes
Melissa Duck's most notable role is from the series Baby Looney TunesBaby Looney Tunes
Baby Looney Tunes is a Canadian-American animated television series that shows Looney Tunes characters as toddlers. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation....
, which casts the adult characters from the original Looney Tunes theatrical shorts as their infant selves. Melissa had a crush on Daffy Duck ever since she was an infant. However, unlike well-known male characters such as Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
and Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
, female characters were rare in the original shorts; with Melissa Duck, Petunia Pig
Petunia Pig
Petunia Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros. She looks much like her significant other, Porky Pig, except that she wears a dress and now has braided black hair, although the character did not originally have...
and the Tasmanian She-Devil only making a couple appearances each, whilst Baby Looney Tunes
Baby Looney Tunes
Baby Looney Tunes is a Canadian-American animated television series that shows Looney Tunes characters as toddlers. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation....
character Lola Bunny
Lola Bunny
Lola Bunny is a cartoon character from Warner Bros. Studios. She is an anthropomorphic rabbit and has been established as having a romantic involvement with Bugs Bunny, as well as being his main love interest and girlfriend.-Space Jam:...
was created for the 1996 movie Space Jam
Space Jam
Aside from Jordan, a number of NBA players and coaches appeared in the film. Larry Bird portrays a friend of Jordan who joins him for a game of golf. When the Monstars steal the NBA players' talent, they invade a game between the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks, causing the Knicks' Patrick...
. In Baby Looney Tunes
Baby Looney Tunes
Baby Looney Tunes is a Canadian-American animated television series that shows Looney Tunes characters as toddlers. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation....
, Melissa, a yellow duckling with darker hair than her adult self, acts as a comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
and enjoys making her friends laugh, even though her humor sometimes gets her into trouble. She is voiced there by Janyse Jaud
Janyse Jaud
Janyse Aldis Jaud is a Canadian actress, dancer and singer/songwriter. She is of Icelandic-French descent....
.
Tina Russo
A Melissa-like character appears as DaffyDaffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
's beautiful admirer in Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
's The Looney Tunes Show
The Looney Tunes Show
The Looney Tunes Show is a packaged show, created for Cartoon Network, and broadcast from 2002 to 2005. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The show featured cartoon shorts from the original Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon series produced from 1930 to 1969.-External links:...
, though her name and design have been inconsistent. Initially referenced as "Marisol Duck" during production, she was first renamed Tina Duck, then Tina Russo on the show's website. The character has also had several visual overhauls; at first given lavender feathers and purple hair, she was more recently redesigned to have yellow feathers and brown hair. Tina has appeared in the following episodes "Double Date", "Bugs & Daffy Get a Job", "That's My Baby" and "Beauty School".
Tina has a fairly rational personality, and seems to be more understanding of Daffy than anyone else, recognizing that despite his social awkwardness and mannerisms, he's just a lonely guy who needs some attention and affection. This makes her a significant contrast to Bugs, who is usually indifferent to Daffy's shenanigans and personality altogether, though she still gets mildly annoyed whenever her boyfriend doesn't quite get the message.
Comparison to Daffy Duck's other girlfriends and wives
Apart from his relationship with Melissa Duck, Daffy DuckDaffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
has also appeared married in other Looney Tunes cartoons. For the most, Daffy's wife, usually referred to as Mrs. Daffy Duck, holds dominance over him in the marriage, forcing him to take an interest in their eggs or ducklings. In all the cartoons, the wife is portrayed as identical to Daffy but wearing female items of clothing (much the same way as the wives of the Tasmanian Devil
Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)
The Tasmanian Devil, often referred to as Taz, is an animated cartoon character featured in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes series of cartoons. The character appeared in only five shorts before Warner Bros...
and Porky Pig
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
have been animated). In one short, Daffy's wife was given a name, Daphne Duck; she has also been nicknamed Honey Bunch and My Love.
In Wise Quacks
Wise Quacks
Wise Quacks is a 1939 Looney Tunes animated short film featuring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck.-Plot:A flock of ducks are migrating south, but Daffy is unable to keep up with them. As Daffy falls down, Elmer Fudd lures him to crash land on his farm...
(1939), Daffy is married to Mrs. Daffy Duck whose four eggs, which eventually hatch, must be protected by their father from a hungry buzzard. In The Henpecked Duck
The Henpecked Duck
The Henpecked Duck is a Warner Bros. cartoon released in theatres in 1941, directed by Bob Clampett and featuring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. The film is set in a court room, where Daffy tries to save his marriage after losing his wife's egg.-Plot:...
(1941), Daffy is unhappily married to his dominant wife, Mrs. Daffy Duck, who appears identical to her husband but with a brimmed hat and a skirt. She seeks a divorce from him as he, after commanded to sit on it, lost their egg. In the end, however, Daffy proves the egg is not lost and it hatches into a small black duckling, Junior. In The Stupid Cupid
The Stupid Cupid
The Stupid Cupid is a short Looney Tunes animated cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin and released in 1944.-Plot:Elmer Fudd plays a cupid shooting arrows at animals so they fall in love with their female species...
(1944), Daffy avoids being targeted by Cupid
Cupid
In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is the son of the goddess Venus and the god Mars. His Greek counterpart is Eros...
(played by fellow Looney Tune Elmer Fudd
Elmer Fudd
Elmer J. Fudd/Egghead is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters, and the de facto archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon . His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring...
) as he is still suffering from their last encounter which forced him to marry a very dominant duck (whose father also managed to pressure the wedding by pressing a shotgun against Daffy during the ceremony). Again she looks very similar to Daffy in appearance; other than her white wedding dress shown in the family album, and the red hat she wears during the short which closely resembles her hat from The Henpecked Duck. The pair gave birth to six black ducklings including one which is two-headed. In Stork Naked (1955), Daffy is married to a duck named Daphne who, once again, appears very similar to Daffy but this time wears a blue bow in her head. Although, Daphne wants to have (possibly more) children, Daffy is against the idea and attempts to stop the egg-delivering stork from arriving at their human-like house. According to the Big Cartoon Database
Big Cartoon DataBase
The Big Cartoon DataBase is an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows and cartoon shorts....
, Daphne Duck was intended to become the duck equivalent of Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
's girlfriend Honey Bunny
Honey Bunny
Honey Bunny is a female rabbit cartoon character, designed by Robert McKimson and is the former girlfriend of Bugs Bunny who was used for merchandising purposes beginning in the late 1960s.-Comic books and merchandising:...
, although she failed to become as popular as Honey had. Finally, in Quackodile Tears (1962), Daffy is once again married to a fairly dominant wife, nicknamed Honey Bunch, who forces Daffy to sit on their egg (similar to the scenario in The Henpecked Duck). She also appears very similar to Daffy, but wears a pink skirt and bonnet. In the end, the egg hatches into a black duckling but Daffy had, in the course of the short, lost the unhatched egg in the middle of an alligator's nest of eggs.
In the 1950 short, His Bitter Half
His Bitter Half
His Bitter Half is a Merrie Melodies animated short produced and copyrighted in 1949 starring Daffy Duck. Released May 20, 1950, the cartoon is directed by Friz Freleng...
, Daffy marries a different, large and grey duck for her money, but he soon runs away after experiencing her bossy ways and her son Wentworth's trouble-making which leads to Daffy getting scalped, beaten up and blown up by a firework.
See also
- Looney TunesLooney TunesLooney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
- The Looney Tunes ShowThe Looney Tunes ShowThe Looney Tunes Show is a packaged show, created for Cartoon Network, and broadcast from 2002 to 2005. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The show featured cartoon shorts from the original Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon series produced from 1930 to 1969.-External links:...
(2011) - Baby Looney TunesBaby Looney TunesBaby Looney Tunes is a Canadian-American animated television series that shows Looney Tunes characters as toddlers. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation....
- Daffy DuckDaffy DuckDaffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
- Shirley the Loon