''You Were Never Duckier'' is a 1948

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

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, produ ...

. The cartoon was released on August 7, 1948, 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 ...

and

Henery Hawk Henery Hawk is an American cartoon character who appears in twelve comedy film shorts produced in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series. His first appearance is in the 1942 theatrical release ''The Squawkin' Hawk'', which was directe ...

Plot

The National Poultry Show is being held, and Daffy Duck looks at the matinee showing the prizes for the judging. The first prize for best

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

is $5,000, and the best

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

is $5.00 (equivalent to $56,756.64 and $56.76 respectively in 2021). Daffy, having traveled all the way from

Dubuque Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a r ...

for the contest, is outraged that ducks rate such a low prize and decides to disguise himself as a rooster (using rubber gloves and the tail feathers of another rooster, affixed through a plunger head) to get the $5000. Meanwhile, Henery is being taught all about roosters by his father, George K. (or G.K.) Chickenhawk (a reference to

G.K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, ''Time'' observed: "Wh ...

). Henery decides to head to the poultry show and catch himself a rooster. Daffy's plan backfires when Henery decides to take him home ("Alright seagull, are you coming wit me quietly or do I have to slap you around some?"). Daffy says he is a special breed of rooster ("a genuine pedigree Red Island Rhode

Buff Orpington The Orpington is a British breed of chicken. It was bred in the late nineteenth century by William Cook of Orpington, Kent, in south-east England. It was intended to be a dual-purpose breed, to be reared both for eggs and for meat, but soon bec ...

"), and thinking that Henery's father, described as "the greatest judge of chicken flesh in the world," is the judge to give him the $5,000, he tags along ("Hey Pop! Look at what I brung ya, look at what I brung ya. A chicken!"). Daffy then realizes he is in a chicken-hawk's house, and tries to escape, but fails as Henery closes the door. Henery's father then starts to prepare Daffy as a meal. Daffy tries to prove he is really a duck, even trying to take his disguise off (to no avail). When he tries to escape, George grabs his "head" (the rubber glove), and the glove lands on ''his'' head after Daffy ricochets and stuns him, then Daffy stuns him a bit more with his "duck laugh" and kicks to the head. Henery's now-angry father then proceeds to chase Daffy, who is finally able to escape when Henery accidentally hits George with a mallet, missing Daffy. Getting back to the city before the contest begins, Daffy puts on another glove. Then, at the contest, Daffy proceeds to lose to Henery's father George, disguised as a

Rhode Island red The Rhode Island Red is an American breed of domestic chicken. It is the state bird of Rhode Island. It was developed there and in Massachusetts in the late nineteenth century, by cross-breeding birds of Oriental origin such as the Malay with ...

(he obviously stole Daffy's idea). Daffy then tries for the best duck prize ($5.00), but loses that as well - to Henery, wearing a disguise consisting of a clothespin and two flippers.

Production notes

''You Were Never Duckier'' marked the start of a direction change for Daffy, from a

screwball A screwball is a baseball and fastpitch softball pitch that is thrown so as to break in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball. Depending on the pitcher's arm angle, the ball may also have a sinking action. The pitch is sometimes known a ...

, to a greedy, self-centered one (though, according to commentary by Eric Goldberg on the ''

Looney Tunes Golden Collection The ''Looney Tunes Golden Collection'' is a series of six four-disc DVD box sets from Warner Home Video, each containing about 60 ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' animated shorts. The series began on October 28, 2003, and ended on Octo ...

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

ifth volume this cartoon showed Daffy as being ''both'' a greedy, self-centered character ''and'' a screwball one). This cartoon was also the penultimate Henery Hawk cartoon to ''not'' be directed by

Robert McKimson Robert Porter McKimson Sr. (October 13, 1910 – September 29, 1977) was an American animator and illustrator, best known for his work on the ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons from Warner Bros. Cartoons and later DePa ...

, and one of only three to be directed by creator

(after ''

The Squawkin' Hawk ''The Squawkin' Hawk'' is a 1942 ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on August 8, 1942, and is the first to star the young Henery Hawk. It was animated by Phil Monroe and was written by Michael Maltese, th ...

'' and followed by ''

The Scarlet Pumpernickel ''The Scarlet Pumpernickel'' is a 1950 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' theatrical cartoon short, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The cartoon was released on March 4, 1950, and features Daffy Duck, along with a number of ''L ...

''). The title is a play on the 1942 musical film ''

You Were Never Lovelier ''You Were Never Lovelier'' is a 1942 American musical romantic comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth. The supporting cast also features Adolphe Menjou, Xavier Cugat and Adele Mara. The music was com ...

''.

References

External links

* {{s-end 1948 films 1948 animated films 1948 short films Merrie Melodies short films Short films directed by Chuck Jones Daffy Duck films Films scored by Carl Stalling 1940s Warner Bros. animated short films Henery Hawk films

Plot

Production notes

See also

References

External links