Conrad the Sailor

When I put: "An interesting episode", I'm talking more about how and when and why the episode was made instead of just what happens in it. It is interesting because it was made just before the Americans entered the Second World War, it has a song that was later partly used in "Duck Amuck" ("Over the sea, let's go men" etc) and the actor for the cat Conrad is the same person who voiced Goofy - Pinto Colvig! It is easy of course to recognise his voice - but I was very surprised when I heard it!

As for the episode, I like it. The farce may be overdone somewhat (for me anyway), but luckily it makes up with good jokes and the theme of the episode. There is good singing, good quotes from Daffy and Conrad, though he is horrible to Daffy, is quite a likable character anyway (guess in the same way we feel about Yosemite Sam and Wile Coyote, eh?).

On a Navy ship, there is a cat sailor called Conrad, who is merrily swabbing the deck (easily with our "modern" mop). He sees strange muddy footprints and then the little black duck and is very angry with Daffy that he has wandered on board with muddy duck feet. Hyper antics follow when Daffy decides that he does not like Conrad...

Mainly for people who prefer the older Daffy Duck and farce, enjoy "Conrad the Sailor"! :-)

Conrad is a sailor, seen swabbing the deck and singing "Shoving Right Off From Home Again" to himself. He's happy.....until he spots Daffy Duck above on a mast. His day is now ruined; he just doesn't know how badly.

Daffy goes to work, aggravating Conrad in a big way, first by substituting red paint for water in his bucket, later by having a huge torpedo chase he (and Daffy) around the boat. That latter scene is pretty funny but most of this is not.

I have yet to see a Conrad cartoon that had any humor and Daffy didn't hit his stride and become the totally wacky duck until a few years after this. Overall, a lame cartoon.

There are some good things to Conrad the Sailor, primarily the excellent voice acting of Mel Blanc and Pinto Colvig(original voice of Goofy). The music was very nice, Conrad singing Shoving Right Off From Home Again was a nice touch. One or two of the visual gags are funny, namely the chase around the deck and when Conrad fires the deck gun with Daffy in it. However, what didn't impress is that the other jokes don't work, they are either unfunny or repetitive and the dialogue is lame on the most part. Also the animation isn't up the usual standard, instead of being colourful and solid, it looks somewhat dull, and Conrad especially is drawn poorly. Speaking of Conrad, the only exceptional element to him was Colvig's voicing, other than that he is a very dull foil for Daffy. As for Daffy, we all know he has a wacky, manic and outrageous persona, though he can be cruel as well, but the poor dialogue does not put him to good use. Finally, the pacing, there are some cartoons that suffer slightly from being a little too quick, though others are perfect, but the pacing if anything was too slow here. Overall, it had its moments but sorry I didn't think it was that great, that was furthermore spoilt by an abrupt ending. 4/10 Bethany Cox

One of the things that I notice about Chuck Jones's "Conrad the Sailor" is that it got released about two months after the United States entered WWII. I suspect that Chuck filmed it (at least most of it) before we entered, so he didn't realize his perfect timing! But that's just speculation. The cartoon itself is a riot, as Daffy Duck teases Conrad, a deck-cleaner looking like a cross between a cat and a dog (although I think that he's supposed to be a cat) and having a face like the humans chasing Bugs Bunny in "Wackiki Wabbit" and "Hare Conditioned". Daffy makes a complete mess of everything that Conrad does. It's a true representation of Daffy back when his name really described his personality: acting totally silly for no discernible reason. Beyond that, it shows something else: during Chuck Jones's first few years as director, his cartoons were more like Disney cartoons (if you've seen any Sniffles cartoons, you'll know what I mean); but once Chuck's work took a turn for the outright zany, he went all out! Anyway, a timeless classic.

PS: Pinto Colvig, who provided Conrad's voice, also voiced Goofy in the Disney cartoons.

When Daffy Duck (Blanc) feels ornery, others suffer the consequences.

And no one suffers more that Conrad (Colvig) in "Conrad the Sailor", who is simply trying to keep a battleship clean by swabbing the deck, polishing the rails and such. But with Daffy around, nothing stays clean (or sane) for long.

Director Jones and writer Monahan make rotten antics good clean fun as Daffy thwarts Conrad at every turn by switching his mop water with paint, planting a mop on Conrad's head, belittling his cleaning abilities ("You're a slovenly housekeeper!"), besting him in patty-cake and outsmarting a freshly-launched bomb, pausing only long enough to snap a salute to the passing Admiral.

That's Daffy and we wouldn't want him any other way.

Of course, I can't speak for Conrad.

Ten stars for "Conrad the Sailor"; high seas hijinx with a felonious fowl!