''Daffy's Southern Exposure'' is a 1942

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...

animated short Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

directed by

Norman McCabe Norman Hildreth McCabe (February 10, 1911 – January 17, 2006) was an American animator who enjoyed a long career that lasted into the 1990s. Early life and Warner Bros. McCabe was born in England and raised in the United States. He wor ...

. The cartoon was released on May 2, 1942, and stars

Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Me ...

Plot

Daffy Duck decides not to fly south for the winter, as he wants to "check up on this winter business" (gesturing to a newspaper he is reading, with a scantily-clad "snow queen" pictured). All the other ducks tell him " You'll be ''sorry!''", and continue flying south. Daffy initially marvels at the snow and ice that mark Winter's arrival, but as the conditions become progressively worse, he begins to starve and gets stranded in a snowstorm. He spots a log cabin, which he is overjoyed to find it has food. Little does he know, however, but it is the home of a

fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

and

weasel Weasels are mammals of the genus ''Mustela'' of the family Mustelidae. The genus ''Mustela'' includes the least weasels, polecats, stoats, ferrets, and European mink. Members of this genus are small, active predators, with long and slend ...

. The former complains about how all they have to get them through the winter is a stockpile of

beans A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are tradition ...

, and that he would rather have steak, baked ham or even roast duck. It is at this point that they see Daffy. The two disguise themselves as kindly old ladies in order to keep him in their home. They want Daffy for dinner, and so fatten him up by having him eat large portions of their stock of beans. Once Daffy realizes their intentions, he quickly tries to escape, outwitting the weasel but not the fox. Daffy forces the fox to chase him up a tree so he can kick him down, then runs further south, past two signs pointing "SOUTH", and one more which reads "And we do mean SOUTH!" Daffy ends up in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. A samba dancer, who is a pastiche of

Carmen Miranda Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha (9 February 1909 – 5 August 1955), known professionally as Carmen Miranda (), was a Portuguese-born Brazilian singer, dancer, and actress. Nicknamed "The Brazilian Bombshell", she was known for her signature ...

, is seen singing in a nightclub, and Daffy is finally shown hiding in the dancer's

fruit hat A fruit hat is a festive and colorful hat type popularized by Carmen Miranda and associated with warm locales. This type of hat has been worn by fashionistas, in films, by comic strip characters, and for Halloween. The fruit used tends to sit on ...

. Daffy, also wearing a fruit hat, emerges and says, "Si, si! I like the 'South' American Way. And I do mean SOUTH." Daffy winks at the audience before iris-out.

Production

''Daffy's Southern Exposure'' makes reference to topical humor of the era, including a poster encouraging the purchases of

war bonds War bonds (sometimes referred to as victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are ...

to finance the U.S. involvement in World War II and a parody of the Brazilian entertainer

—one of her songs, "

South American Way "South American Way" is a 1939 song with music by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Al Dubin. Carmen Miranda introduced the song in the 1939 Broadway musical '' The Streets of Paris''. Miranda performed it on-screen a year later in her breakout role for U ...

", is also referenced. The film also marked the first time that Warner Bros. used the tune of the wartime rally song "We Did It Before (And We Can Do It Again)" as background music in a cartoon.

References

External links

*
''Daffy's Southern Exposure (Colorized)'' on the Internet Archive
* 1942 films 1940s American animated films Films directed by Norman McCabe Daffy Duck films Films scored by Carl Stalling Looney Tunes shorts American animated black-and-white films 1942 animated short films {{LooneyTunes-stub