Drip-Along Daffy

Our favorite duck goes into an old Western town to clean it up. The number of dead sheriffs is off the charts. He and Porky come in and what follows are a series of great moments. When he confronts the bad guy, he is faced with a literal monstrosity. There are great visuals, like a place called "Custard's Last Stand." Overconfident, Daffy find himself saved by an interesting event.

Hilarious western parody directed by Chuck Jones and starring Daffy Duck as a "western type hero" and Porky as his "comedy relief" sidekick. The duo try to bring law to a lawless town which doesn't sit well with notorious outlaw Nasty Canasta. Porky sings an amusing song called "The Flower of Gower Gulch." So many funny parts of this one. Love all the signs for the people and places. The horse wearing a mask and holding up the blacksmith for horseshoes may be the most priceless gag I've seen all year. Some very funny dialogue from Daffy. Great voice work from Mel Blanc. Lively music from Carl Stalling. The animation is excellent with nice colors and well-drawn characters, backgrounds, and action. It's a real classic; one of my favorite Daffy & Porky shorts.

Followed-up by My Little Duckaroo, Drip-Along Daffy is one of my favorite cartoons. Daffy is the star, playing a Western-type hero who becomes sheriff of a town in disarray, accompanied by his one-man fanclub, comedy relief in Porky Pig. The antagonist is Nasty Canasta, the core of all the trouble. So if our inept hero can rid the town of Canasta in a one-on-one shootout, all the problems will be solved. With Daffy responsible for the fate of the town, the prospect seems bleak, doesn't it? The animation is excellent. Jones' simple use of subtle expressions is at its glorious best here. Canasta can't really be called a character since he's just a one-dimensional prop, part of the background for Daffy and the show-stealing Porky. For any fan of the greedy, overly confident Daffy, a must-see.

Drip-Along Daffy (1951)

*** (out of 4)

Daffy Duck and his comedy relief Porky Pig arrive in a lawless town so Daffy decides to become sheriff and clean the place up. Before he can do that he must deal with the ruthless Nasty Canasta. This spoof of the Western genre is a winning entry into the Merrie Melodies series and I'm sure fans of the genre will get a nice little kick out of it. It's certainly not the best the series ever offered up but it's still 7-minutes worth of nice entertainment. The best thing about the movie is of course Daffy who really goes all out in his maniac-type of way. The scene involving the mixed drinks was priceless as was another sequence when Daffy first kicks through the bar doors. Being from Jones I always look for that small little thing that some might not notice and this time out it was the great whiskers on Porky.

Daffy Duck is the `western hero type' and Porky Pig his `comedy relief' sidekick. They arrive in a `typical lawless town' to find violence and lawlessness is rife. Things get off to a shaky start but Daffy soon learns that all the crime comes from one man - a man that Daffy must face up to.

I'm a really big fan of Daffy Duck and always feel that he is at his best when he is in his early persona of being manic and wacky. Even when he becomes more cynical and greedy he still manages to be one of my favourite Warner Brothers characters. Here he is played as a bit of a pompous duck, so a touch of his later side here; he is the butt of most of the gags as he tries to be heroic but really flops. The material is reasonably good as he is defeated again and again by the main outlaw; it isn't hilarious but Daffy takes it well.

He doesn't carry the film himself though; in fact Porky actually does a great deal of the hard work and manages to slowly steal the cartoon from under Daffy. Daffy is still good though, but the fact that he is the joke here takes away from him being the leading character. The outlaw is a nice bit of stereotypical animation and works on that level - but you wouldn't call him a character in that way.

Overall this isn't hilarious but it works as a nice little western spoof. As a Daffy fan it was difficult to see him being the brunt of every joke here, but he works it well. Not a great example of Daffy at his best but still worth seeing; Porky also continues his habit of stealing scenes from Daffy despite always playing a minor role.