The Best Tune That is Looney!

 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! 

.........................

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!  

.........................

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. 

 Notice Friz Freleng (as Porky Pig!) in the portrait adorning Porky's office! 

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!  

.........................

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!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: The Case of the Migrating Penguin!

When it comes to PENGUINS, Warner Bros. Looney Tunes has a pretty memorable one that twice co-starred with Bugs Bunny...

Walter Lantz had a pretty memorable one of his own... CHILLY WILLY! 

But there must have been a brief period during Chilly's tenure at Lantz when he may have become dissatisfied with his contract... and briefly defected to Warner Bros.

Otherwise, how would you explain THIS?!    

WALTER LANTZ NEW FUNNIES #278 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: July-August, 1960) 

...Yes, really! Let's dolly in for a closer look... 

Maybe he was tired of working with SMEDLEY?  

...Or lower-tier players like Homer Pigeon?  

...And taking SECOND BILLING, NO LESS!  The unhappiness of that experience even caused him to put on TOO MUCH WEIGHT!   

The GOOD SCRIPTS, like "The Legend of Rockabye Point" (possibly the single funniest cartoon of all time)... 

...And "I'm Cold" stopped coming, much to the little guy's displeasure.  

Or maybe he just wanted to work with "that Oscar-Winning Rabbit, Bugs Bunny!" Or the rabbit's renowned animation director Chuck Jones?  

Ya, know... like that OTHER penguin did!  

But, alas, Chilly's experiences at Warner Bros. were not good... 

...Being a PENGUIN and all, they cast him in a BATMAN movie, as a "hench-peng" to THIS GUY!  

Chilly didn't like that AT ALL!  

Coincidently, at that time, Walter Lantz decided to lure him back with the promise of working with THEIR top star, Woody Woodpecker...

...And so, he once again became "Walter Lantz Chilly Willy"! 

...And remained happily so (though still "chilly") ever after! 

...OR... COULD IT HAVE BEEN MUCH SIMPLER THAN ALL THAT?  

Could it have possibly been nothing more than a... PRINTING ERROR?!  

Could THIS...

...Have been erroneously run in place of... THIS?   

                                         

...Eeeh, COULD BE!  

Speaking of DuckTales 2017 - Perhaps One "DuckBridge" Too Far!

As mentioned in the last post's Comments Section, I am finally in possession of the complete series of DuckTales 2017 on DVD, thanks to my favorite "private label physical media dealer".  

And, as I've done many times in the past when discussing such purchases, I once again emphasize that, if the Vast Many-Tentacled Media Giant Conglomerate that owns, or presently holds the copyright to, the property in question would release AUTHORIZED COMPLETE SERIES SETS of said intellectual property (or properties), on DVD, Blu-ray, or dare-I-dream 4K, I would be first on line (or online, as the case may be) to purchase it!  ... But, since you don't and, apparently have no intention to do so... well, here we are! 

Still slowly wending my way through this long-coveted collection as if it were "The Spear of Selene" itself,  I've since battled in "The Shadow War!", played "The Most Dangerous Game... Night!", and am next primed to see what an animated version of Fethry Duck is like!  

SO, NO SPOILERS ON ANYTHING PAST FETHRY... OKAY?!  

Also, in the previous post and its comments, I've discussed the many differences between the 2017 series, its 1987 predecessor, and the comics by Carl Barks and those who followed in his wake...

...Which brings us to the BACK COVER of the "10-DVD set" that I hope to complete before our country's next civil war... but that's another story - and an off-limits topic at this friendly and humble Blog!  

If you can't read all the descriptive text touting the series, fear not... I shall parse it out for you - and verify the veracity of each hyperbole-an paragraph as we go! ...Hyperbole-an?  Ahh, let's dive in! 

"Scrooge McDuck is back in this reboot of the late-'80s animated series. He gains guardianship of grandnephews Huey, Dewey and Louie when Donald Duck reluctantly takes them to McDuck Manor, the wonder of which enthralls the mischievous triplets."

CHECK! 

"While living with their trillionaire relative, the boys learn long-held family secrets and unleash symbolic artifacts from Scrooge's past."

CHECK! Except Scrooge as a "trillionaire" seems a bit of a comedown from Barks' proud and boastful self-made "fantasticatillionaire"!  ...Scrooge wouldn't be..., uh, um... "undervaluing his assets" to avoid taxes, would he?  Naww... that's someone else!  (Of course, I mean GLOMGOLD here, no references to any actual person living or dead  is intended - as those disclaimers used to say!)  

"The threesome's antics send the family on a number of adventures, which include Webby Vanderquack, the granddaughter of Scrooge's housekeeper, Mrs. Beakley." 

CHECK-A-ROONEY!  Three-for-three, so far! 

...And finally...

"The show's animation style is inspired by the classic comic designs of animator Carl Barks." 

WAIT... WHAT, NOW?  

"The show's animation style is inspired by the classic comic designs of animator Carl Barks." 

AH-OOO-GAH!  TILT!  REJECT!  YOU ARE FIBBING, FIBBING, FIBBING!  

  (...Or as our title says, "One DuckBridge too far!")  

"The show's animation style is inspired by the classic comic designs of animator Carl Barks." 

TIME FOR SOME SERIOUS FACT-CHECKING HERE! 

"The show's animation style is inspired by the classic comic designs of animator Carl Barks." 

True, Carl Barks *was* a Disney "animator", who worked on Donald Duck theatrical shorts...

...But that was ancient history! Then again, DuckTales is all about... "rewriii-ting hist-treee", isn't it? 

However, the Carl Barks we all know and love became an all-time historic figure by working in the field of COMIC BOOKS!  

Indeed it was THOSE VERY COMIC BOOKS created by Carl Barks that formed the basis for anything bearing the name "DuckTales" - 1987, 2017, and anything in-between or after!  

And, in those fabled comic books, Carl Barks drew his cast of game-changing characters LIKE THIS...

He never drew ANYTHING that looked like THIS...

Aww, but when ya enter the crazy, mixed-up (but now needed more than ever) world of "private labels", ya gotta expect occasional missteps... as long as the discs themselves are of high quality - and these are! 

...Just like the many wonderful works of Carl Barks himself! 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: When Aquaman's Away, SOMEONE'S Gotta Talk to Fish!

 
When Aquaman's away...

...SOMEONE'S gotta talk to fish!   

And, it might as well be THIS GUY! 

He seems to be doing a good job of it! 

So much so that even Aquaman approves!  

OUTRAGEOUS!