Well, I guess I asked for it...
Now that the voting is closed in our Gottfredson Guessing Game, and the results will be posted soon, I volunteered, as a lead-in to the Big Event, to offer up "My Favorite Looney Tunes Short", followed by "My Favorite Carl Barks Story"...
...So, here they are! Looney Tunes today, Barks maybe in another day or three, and finally the glory of Gottfredson!
As I mentioned in the previous Comments Section, these things often come grouped in "Top Threes", and Looney Tunes and Barks are no exception. I'll run 'em all down with explanations as to why they fall where they do. Good fodder for your comments too!
FAVORITE LOONEY TUNES SHORT: "Rabbit Seasoning"! Chuck Jones, Michael Maltese, and Mel Blanc are ALL at the top of their game in this one! With Bugs, Daffy, and Elmer as the most perfect, textbook versions of the characters as we know them best!
This is the second of the "Duck Season, Rabbit Season Trilogy" and far and away the best, in terms of character design, character movement, witty dialogue (...which you all know that I LOVE), and voice performances!
But for me, as a writer, what REALLY sets "Rabbit Seasoning" apart from its predecessor "Rabbit Fire", and its successor "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!", is that it has the strongest ending of the three, paying off a gag bit expertly laid earlier in the cartoon by Michael Maltese! The now-immortal "Would you like to shoot me now, or wait 'till you get home?"
In comparison, the "Elmer Season" closing gag of "Rabbit Fire", and the "Baseball Season" closing gag of "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!", despite these cartoons' other fine moments, cannot help but fall flat!
Those who know me in real-life know that "Rabbit Seasoning" is chock full of go-to quotes for me:
"You keep outta dis, he doesn't have to shoot you now!" (from Bugs).
"Let's run through that again!" (lisping like Daffy Duck).
"Pronoun trouble!" (from Daffy).
"Well I say he DOES have to shoot me now - so SHOOT ME NOW!" (from Daffy)
"Yaess?" (from Bugs).
"Ohhh no you don't! Not again! Sorry!" (from Daffy).
"Yeah, you're so smart! If I was a rabbit, what WOULD you do?" (from Daffy).
"Right-o!" (from Daffy).
"No more for me, thanks! I'm drivin'!" (from a dazed Daffy).
David, Thad K., and Jonathan Gray, for instance, have heard most, if not all, of these at random moments in different and unrelated conversations!
And, while not a quote, I must also cite Elmer's "hat-erection" when kissed by Bugs in drag!
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Rounding out my "Top Three" at #2 is something as opposite from "Rabbit Seasoning" as a Warner/Schlesinger short can get... "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur" (1939, Chuck Jones).
In the stone age, a primitive, manically wild version of Daffy Duck, heckles a put-upon Jack Benny-inspired caveman and his clumsy pet dinosaur literally to death! And it IS that unexpected death of our three main characters that makes this one of my three favorite endings in cartoons! (I'll exclude modern things like "Rick and Morty" - Thanks, Thad! - from this list, because the "unexpected ending" has become more of a norm!)
Daffy has "died" at the end of at least two other cartoons, "Draftee Daffy" and "Show-Biz Bugs", but the novelty and execution of the triple-demise makes this one the best!
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Daffy has the honor of appearing in ALL THREE of my favorite Looney Tunes shorts... and this one just happens to have my *second-favorite* ending in all of cartoons... #3 is "Yankee Doodle Daffy" (1943, Friz Freleng).
Talent agent Daffy mercilessly hounds theatrical empresario Porky Pig into giving the lollipop-licking, almost silent, diminutive duck, Sleepy Lagoon, an audition.
What wins it a place in my "Top Three" is the ending of Sleepy not just unexpectedly demonstrating a shockingly beautiful operatic voice - that's great enough! But, what REALLY puts it over the top is the last-second addition of Sleepy CHOKING as he sings his last line!!!
It's that "going back for one more gag, once you think it's over" that truly appeals to me as a writer! Not seeing the originals of many of the stories I translate, you may not notice this, but adding an extra gag to compliment the one that precedes it is something I try to do whenever possible! ...and it just might have been this cartoon that would eventually inspire me to do so!
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Something I just realized at this writing... While Bugs Bunny is my favorite Looney Tunes character, it is Daffy Duck who stars in all three of my favorite shorts!
And a DIFFERENT VERSION of Daffy in each one, to boot! Primitive Manic Daffy, Obnoxious Huckster Daffy, and Jealous and Resentful Daffy! I'd say the duck has had quite an evolution over the years!
Drop some comments on us, and let us know what you think!
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