''Nasty Quacks'' is a 1945
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
''
Merrie Melodies
''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 197 ...
'' cartoon directed by
Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin (born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, February 19, 1913 – May 5, 1972), also known as Tish Tash and Frank Tash, was an American animator, cartoonist, children's writer, illustrator, screenwriter, and film director. He was best kn ...
.
The cartoon was released on December 1, 1945, and stars
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon fictional character, character created for Warner Bros. Cartoons, Leon Schlesinger Productions by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Styled as an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic American black duck, black ...
.
This was the final Daffy Duck cartoon, and the second to last overall, directed by Tashlin. The director is not credited as he had already left the studio. Voices of the male characters are performed by
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy ra ...
. The film also introduced a love interest for Daffy.
Plot
The father of a suburban family gets a black duckling for his daughter, Agnes, who dotes on the duck. The duck quickly grows up to become Daffy, whose loud and obnoxious behavior drives the man to distraction, but Agnes defends her pet at every turn.
The father then buys Agnes a yellow duckling, who immediately becomes the sole focus of her affection. The father comes at Daffy with murder in his eyes and chases him around the house. Kicked out, Daffy vows to get rid of his competitor. At first, he tries to kill the duckling, but he has a pang of conscience and decides to let it grow to adult size before killing it. To speed the process along, he pours vitamins down the duckling's throat. The duckling instantly becomes a grown, white, ''female'' duck, leaving Daffy nonplussed.
The father walks down the stairs, laughing to himself, thinking he has chased Daffy out of the house. He's stunned, however, to see Daffy and the other duck, their ducklings bouncing around the dinner table. Daffy launches into one of his raucous stories as the short irises out.
Reception
Animation historian
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'', ''Weezer Slander: The Movie'', and '' (Blooper) Bunny''.
Biography
During ...
writes, "A comparison might be made to the plot of the hit play ''
The Man Who Came to Dinner
''The Man Who Came to Dinner'' is a comedy play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It debuted on October 16, 1939, at the Music Box Theatre in New York City, where it ran until 1941, closing after 739 performances. It then enjoyed a number of N ...
'', in which an insufferable dinner guest becomes incapacitated and overstays his welcome for endless, grueling months. Daffy, as Warner Bros.' blue-collar answer to
George S. Kaufman and
Moss Hart
Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961) was an American playwright, librettist, and theater director.
Early years
Hart was born in New York City, the son of Lillian (Solomon) and Barnett Hart, a cigar maker. He had a younger brother ...
's patrician wordsmith Sheridan Whiteside, terrorizes the household not with acerbic putdowns but exuberant, palsy-walsy camaraderie... One of the cartoon's funniest bits finds the borderline bratty Agnes swooshing in to Daffy's defense before her father does the duck corporeal harm. While other animation directors showed an antsy reluctance to caricature females, Tashlin distinguished himself as an equal-opportunity exaggerator."
Home media
''Nasty Quacks'' is available on the two-disc DVD ''
The 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. The first disc features 15 classic Daffy Duck shorts (14 of which were previ ...
''.
See also
*
List of Daffy Duck cartoons
This is a list of the various animated cartoons featuring Daffy Duck.
Daffy Duck shorts 1937−1968
1937
*''Porky's Duck Hunt'' April 17, 1937 (LT, Tex Avery) - with Porky Pig
1938
*'' Daffy Duck & Egghead'' January 1, 1938 (MM, Avery) ...
*
Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1940–1949)
This is a listing of all the animated shorts released by Warner Bros. under the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' banners between 1940 and 1949.
A total of 307 shorts were released during the 1940s.
1940
1941
1942
This year m ...
References
External links
*
*
Short films directed by Frank Tashlin
Merrie Melodies short films
1945 animated films
1945 films
1940s Warner Bros. animated short films
{{MerrieMelodies-stub