Farce au canard

There is nothing here that hasn't been said already. This is by far one of the better Daffy Duck cartoons, for it is witty, inventive and hilarious like a Looney Tunes cartoon should be. The concept has been done before, so it just loses out on the originality element, but I overlook this every time I watch this, because everything else works brilliantly. Where to begin praising it? The genius script, Daffy's performance or the animation?

Well I'd best start off with the animation. The animation is wonderful, colourful and solid looking, looking so good after all these years and the backgrounds themselves are picturesque. The music is a real joy to the ears, if there is anything I love more than anything else in the world it is good music, and I loved it here. And the script? I seriously need to think of another Daffy cartoon where I was laughing so hard non- stop. The script was a gem, full of witty asides and quotable lines. Mel Blanc's absolutely fantastic vocal performance is to be praised too, Daffy was at his manic and cynical best here, and Blanc delivered flawlessly.

All in all, as far as I can see there is nothing wrong with Duck Amuck. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Already as a boy I could understand the humor in 'Duck Amuck' - but perhaps not it's meta-ambitions! If I knew then how good this short movie is I would never ever let my father erase it!

Quotes like: "NOW WHAT?" and "Give me a close-up!" can't leave my head! Duffy (or Daffy) has since this movie always been my personal cartoon favorite.

Don't miss this incredible masterpiece, then you will miss one of the best movies ever made!!!

Rating: 10 of 10.

One of Chuck Jones' most beautifully crafted short cartoon pieces, Duck Amuck is one of the first (or the first?) cartoons to work the element of the theatre into an animated short. As Woody Allen did in Annie Hall (though that was twenty-four years later), the filmmakers here create that acknowledgment of there being an audience- and, more amusingly, their acknowledgment of themselves being apart of the process. I'm certain there were other animated shorts from Looney Tunes where a character may have one or twice looked at the 'audience' and asked a question or said a joke, but I'm also certain it wasn't done to such a length as this. Quite possibly, this is one of the greatest one-joke/in-joke stretches ever put on film.

At the start, Daffy Duck thinks he's about to be in a piece as a musketeer- that is, until the background is pulled right out from under him. He'll never get back to that background again, but Daffy will keep on trying to persuade the animator to bring back some sense into the works. By the end he's exasperated, and the joke comes full circle to be totally satisfying.

Throughout the short what keeps it so funny on repeat viewings is that the absurdities of each new backdrop and each run-in Daffy keep their validity. There's a lot of creative juice flowing through this one, and since the turns are unexpected on the first viewing, on the following ones you laugh at yourself for laughing at it again. Another plus is that Daffy Duck is a superb character when he's kept on his toes- like when he's put against a city backdrop that looks like it was drawn by a five-year old. He asks, "Now, how about some color, stupid!" And then is painted over in bizarre hues. The joke that follows that is one of Chuck Jones' most surreal executions.

Overall, a classic for its time, influential; on a level that will perhaps get the adults laughing more so than the kids, and for those in youth who discover it for the first time on TV or on the new DVD, it isn't old- this is the kind of sense of humor found on other modern cartoons (Simpsons, for example).

This is probably the most clever and inventive short I have ever had the opportunity to watch. It shows Daffy Duck, being made VERY VERY ANGRY by being drawn into many different messes. Daffy Duck is perfect in this episode. He is well-animated, nice enough and gets angry easily when necessary (In some episodes, I feel as if he is being unnecessarily cruel and he's not in this one, he's trying to be nice!).

This short also has some MASSIVE humour. Just when you have finished laughing, yet ANOTHER joke comes on - and of course - you HAVE to laugh again!

Recommended for all Daffy Duck and cartoon animation fans! Enjoy!

The Duck has been a favorite cartoon character of audiences from his inception, but in Chuck Jones' hands, Daffy was at his greediest, all too human like best (worst?).

In this cartoon, Daffy Duck is manipulated by some unseen, omnipotent force that keeps changing the scenery, the sound, and even the appearance of Daffy himself, much to his horror. The humor in most of the gags go deeper than the usual Warner Bros. cartoon, with claustrophobia, an exact duplicate of Daffy and instant deformity inflicted upon him has us laughing at our own fears.

But it's Jones' vision of Daffy that is the true star of this and many other of his cartoons. The other directors, the great Friz Freleng and the unfairly maligned Robert McKimson, never really had the grasp of the new Daffy Duck that emerged in the mid 40's, but he really was a new creation of Michael Maltese and Chuck Jones, only faintly reminiscent of the crazy antics that handlers such as Frank Tashlin, Tex Avery and Robert Clampett portrayed him as possessing. That old Daffy was wild and wacky and good, the new Daffy always has us humans at a disadvantage by making fun of our own weaknesses.