Porky's Duck Hunt
Encyclopedia
Porky's Duck Hunt is an animated short film produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions
, directed by Tex Avery
, and released on April 17, 1937 by Warner Bros. Pictures. Porky's Hare Hunt
was the sequel to this one.
This short, starring Porky Pig
, is notable for being the first appearance of the character Daffy Duck
. Also notable is that this is the first cartoon in which Mel Blanc
voices both Porky and Daffy. Originally scheduled to voice the duck, Blanc won the part of Porky earlier that year. Joe Dougherty
, who was Porky's original voice, was fired following the cartoon Porky's Romance
because he could not control his stutter.
Porky's Duck Hunt was a very popular cartoon, well-known for popular gags and the debut of Daffy Duck, and met with very positive reviews. Only a year later, this cartoon was reworked by Avery as Daffy Duck and Egghead
, which was in color. In that cartoon, Porky's role was filled by another Avery-created character, Egghead (who evolved into Elmer Fudd
in the episode Elmer's Candid Camera
1940), and Daffy is given his name.
The scene changes to a lake, pre-dawn. Porky spies a duck, but before he can get off a shot, lots of other previously hidden duck hunters suddenly appear and shoot at it for several seconds. They all miss. The duck hunters say "Aw, shucks!" in unison when they fail to shoot the duck. A cross-eyed duck hunter tries to shoot the same duck (with a gun whose barrels are twisted apart) but instead shoots down two airplanes.
Porky puts out duck decoys. Daffy appears among them and acts like a fake duck. Porky tries to shoot Daffy after donning a decoy on his head and sneaking underwater, but the gun shoots out water instead of bullets. Daffy then flies onto a floating barrel (labeled 'XXX' - a period designation for whiskey). Porky shoots the whiskey-filled barrel but Daffy escapes. Some fish are attracted to the leaking barrel and get drunk. The fish come onshore, commandeer a boat and drunkenly sing 'On Moonlight Bay
'. Porky Pig observes that something is 'fishy' with those fish.
Porky then hears a quack nearby. When he looks into the grass, Daffy bites his nose. Daffy then takes to the sky; Porky shoots him with a single shot. Ecstatic, Porky instructs his dog ("Go get him, Rin Tin Tin
") and the dog swims out, but when he comes back, it's Daffy carrying the dog and throwing him back on the bank. Porky whips out a notepad, leafs through it and notes that this scene 'wasn't in the script' (an early instance of Avery's signature use of "breaking the fourth wall
") . Daffy yells out his first words, that he is "just a crazy, darn fool duck", and proceeds to do his signature 'crazy dance' on the lake.
After a humorous scene where Daffy eats an electric eel
and turns into a lightning bolt, Porky tries hunting from a rowboat but is taunted by the ducks when he stops for lunch; in his hurry to fire at them he inadvertently sinks the boat, cueing Joe Penner
to rise from underneath the water with his signature line "You wanna buy a duck?"
After being alerted by his dog that Daffy is back, Porky makes several attempts to cock the gun and shoot, but the gun fails to fire each time. Daffy comes out of the water, takes the gun and fires it after the first cock. After saying "It's me again," Daffy does another crazy dance.
Daffy takes to the air and is met by Porky shooting his gun rapid-fire and being driven into the ground by the recoil, apparently not hitting anything. Porky tries to use a duck call, but the other duck hunters mistake it for a real duck and shoot at Porky, who ducks for cover. Disgusted, Porky throws the duck call to the ground, but it bounces and his dog accidentally swallows it. The dog gets the hiccups, quacking with every one, drawing constant fire and forcing Porky and the dog to flee from the lake. Porky and the dog trudge home, disappointed with their failure to bag a duck. When Porky gets home, he sees the ducks outside doing a trapeze act in the sky at his window. Porky tries to shoot them with his gun but, thinking the gun empty, throws the shotgun to the floor. The gun fires into the ceiling. The cartoon ends with the man from upstairs, with his other butt cheek shot, coming down to punch Porky in the nose.
, which was released on November 1st, 2011 by Warner Home Video.
Warner Bros. Cartoons
Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was the in-house division of Warner Bros. Pictures during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, Warner Bros. Cartoons was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical...
, directed by Tex Avery
Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...
, and released on April 17, 1937 by Warner Bros. Pictures. Porky's Hare Hunt
Porky's Hare Hunt
Porky's Hare Hunt is a 1938 animated short movie directed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway and Cal Dalton, which starred Porky Pig as a hunter whose prey is an unnamed rabbit - a prototype of Bugs Bunny, Warner's biggest star and the second most popular character at that time behind Disney's Mickey Mouse...
was the sequel to this one.
This short, starring 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...
, is notable for being the first appearance of the 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...
. Also notable is that this is the first cartoon in which Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
voices both Porky and Daffy. Originally scheduled to voice the duck, Blanc won the part of Porky earlier that year. Joe Dougherty
Joe Dougherty
Joseph "Joe" Tapley Dougherty was an American voice actor who provided the original voice of the Warner Brothers animation character, Porky Pig, starting with the character's debut in I Haven't Got a Hat in 1935 until Porky's Romance in 1937. After that, Mel Blanc took over the role and voiced...
, who was Porky's original voice, was fired following the cartoon Porky's Romance
Porky's Romance
Porky's Romance is a 1937 Merrie Melodies cartoon that stars Porky Pig and for the first time, Petunia Pig. It is also siginficant in that it is the last cartoon that had Joe Dougherty as the voice of Porky Pig before Mel Blanc got the job and exclusive voice credit contract. The cartoon deals...
because he could not control his stutter.
Porky's Duck Hunt was a very popular cartoon, well-known for popular gags and the debut of Daffy Duck, and met with very positive reviews. Only a year later, this cartoon was reworked by Avery as Daffy Duck and Egghead
Daffy Duck and Egghead
Daffy Duck & Egghead is a 1937-produced, 1938-released Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series. It features the early, zany version of Daffy Duck, who spends the film harassing Egghead , marking the second appearance of Daffy Duck , his first in color, and first...
, which was in color. In that cartoon, Porky's role was filled by another Avery-created character, Egghead (who evolved into 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...
in the episode Elmer's Candid Camera
Elmer's Candid Camera
Elmer's Candid Camera is a 1940 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones, and first released on March 2, 1940 by Warner Bros.. It marks the first appearance of Elmer Fudd Elmer's Candid Camera is a 1940 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones, and first released on March 2, 1940 by...
1940), and Daffy is given his name.
Plot
The cartoon begins with the camera panning across several items on a table, including a book entitled "How to Hunt Ducks" and freshly opened boxes which recently contained a shotgun, hunting suit, duck decoys and shells. The camera then pans to Porky in front of a mirror, admiring himself in various poses with his new rifle and hunting suit. Porky points his shotgun at various imaginary aerial targets, then points it at his dog; the dog runs under and into a bureau. Porky tells him the gun is not loaded and pulls the trigger to prove it. However, the shotgun actually is loaded and it fires into the ceiling. The man upstairs, shot in one butt cheek, comes down to punch Porky in the nose.The scene changes to a lake, pre-dawn. Porky spies a duck, but before he can get off a shot, lots of other previously hidden duck hunters suddenly appear and shoot at it for several seconds. They all miss. The duck hunters say "Aw, shucks!" in unison when they fail to shoot the duck. A cross-eyed duck hunter tries to shoot the same duck (with a gun whose barrels are twisted apart) but instead shoots down two airplanes.
Porky puts out duck decoys. Daffy appears among them and acts like a fake duck. Porky tries to shoot Daffy after donning a decoy on his head and sneaking underwater, but the gun shoots out water instead of bullets. Daffy then flies onto a floating barrel (labeled 'XXX' - a period designation for whiskey). Porky shoots the whiskey-filled barrel but Daffy escapes. Some fish are attracted to the leaking barrel and get drunk. The fish come onshore, commandeer a boat and drunkenly sing 'On Moonlight Bay
On Moonlight Bay (song)
"On Moonlight Bay" is a popular song.The music was written by Percy Wenrich, the lyrics by Edward Madden. The song was published in 1912. It was often sung in a Barbershop Quartet style, such as by Billy Murray and the American Quartet:...
'. Porky Pig observes that something is 'fishy' with those fish.
Porky then hears a quack nearby. When he looks into the grass, Daffy bites his nose. Daffy then takes to the sky; Porky shoots him with a single shot. Ecstatic, Porky instructs his dog ("Go get him, Rin Tin Tin
Rin Tin Tin
Rin Tin Tin was the name given to a dog adopted from a WWI battlefield that went on to star in twenty-three Hollywood films. The name was subsequently given to several related German Shepherd dogs featured in fictional stories on film, radio and television.-Origins:The first of the line Rin Tin...
") and the dog swims out, but when he comes back, it's Daffy carrying the dog and throwing him back on the bank. Porky whips out a notepad, leafs through it and notes that this scene 'wasn't in the script' (an early instance of Avery's signature use of "breaking the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
") . Daffy yells out his first words, that he is "just a crazy, darn fool duck", and proceeds to do his signature 'crazy dance' on the lake.
After a humorous scene where Daffy eats an electric eel
Electric eel
The electric eel , is an electric fish, and the only species of the genus Electrophorus. It is capable of generating powerful electric shocks, of up to six hundred volts, which it uses for both hunting and self-defense. It is an apex predator in its South American range...
and turns into a lightning bolt, Porky tries hunting from a rowboat but is taunted by the ducks when he stops for lunch; in his hurry to fire at them he inadvertently sinks the boat, cueing Joe Penner
Joe Penner
Joe Penner was an American 1930s-era vaudeville, radio and film comedian. He was an ethnic Hungarian born as József Pintér in Nagybecskerek, Austria-Hungary...
to rise from underneath the water with his signature line "You wanna buy a duck?"
After being alerted by his dog that Daffy is back, Porky makes several attempts to cock the gun and shoot, but the gun fails to fire each time. Daffy comes out of the water, takes the gun and fires it after the first cock. After saying "It's me again," Daffy does another crazy dance.
Daffy takes to the air and is met by Porky shooting his gun rapid-fire and being driven into the ground by the recoil, apparently not hitting anything. Porky tries to use a duck call, but the other duck hunters mistake it for a real duck and shoot at Porky, who ducks for cover. Disgusted, Porky throws the duck call to the ground, but it bounces and his dog accidentally swallows it. The dog gets the hiccups, quacking with every one, drawing constant fire and forcing Porky and the dog to flee from the lake. Porky and the dog trudge home, disappointed with their failure to bag a duck. When Porky gets home, he sees the ducks outside doing a trapeze act in the sky at his window. Porky tries to shoot them with his gun but, thinking the gun empty, throws the shotgun to the floor. The gun fires into the ceiling. The cartoon ends with the man from upstairs, with his other butt cheek shot, coming down to punch Porky in the nose.
Censorship
- The redrawn version of this cartoon (which was shown on Nickelodeon) removed the "That's All Folks" end card where Daffy jumps and dances around the letters (the audio still played as normal). The beginning and end cards were replaced with 1960 beginning and end Looney Tunes cards.
Note
This cartoon made its DVD debut in The Essential Daffy DuckThe Essential Daffy Duck
The Essential Daffy Duck is a DVD set featuring cartoons focusing on Daffy Duck. It was released on November 1, 2011.-Contents:The contents are split over two discs...
, which was released on November 1st, 2011 by Warner Home Video.