La chasse au canard

...I thought it would be too much of a remake of "Porky's Duck Hunt", which is what this episode is partly based on. P'sDH was Daffy's debut and I was afraid that this episode would just redo it as "Dough for the Do-do" did. Luckily - the plot turned dramatically and most of the episode was hardly like P'sDH at all! :-)

In this episode, we first see Porky and his dog out hunting ducks. Daffy, of course, comes along and ruins Porky's chances without him realizing it by taking out the gunpowder in his cartridges. Despite this, Porky's dog manages to catch Daffy and he is taken to Porky's house, where his two new enemies plan to eat him...

I thought some of the jokes here were pretty good - in addition to a good plot line. There were a few repeated jokes became very boring for me, but the end is one of the best I have yet seen in Looney Tunes. The animation was good as well. It may be a shock for certain people to see Porky with a darker heart, but I can tell you, he is like this in many previous episodes and it does make him a stronger character.

I recommend this to people who like Daffy, Porky being mean and faithful cartoon dogs. Enjoy "Daffy Duck Hunt"! :-)

Porky is in the blinds duck hunting. Daffy sneaks up from behind and empties his shotgun shells, saying, "Duck hunters is the cwaziest people."

The cocky Daffy then flies overhead and announces, "Here I am, fat boy. Here's your target!" Then, even more of an outrageous scene, Daffy reappears in back of Porky, dons a frilly skirt and sings a can-can. He then "moons" the pig with a bullseye drawn on his butt (knowing the shells are blanks). Porky shoots, Daffy dramatically pretends he is hit, but flies away laughing. Porky is ticked off, to say the least!!! He sends his dog out after him.

The dog is smarter than Porky and fools Daffy and a couple more minutes of fantastic material is presented. The first four minutes of this seven-minute short are about as good as it gets. The last three minutes are so-so. Overall, still very entertaining.

In the late '40s and early '50s while Chuck Jones was making Porky and Daffy cartoons that had the latter the "hero" while the former the "sidekick", Robert McKimson was bringing back the adversarial relationship they originally had when they first met in Tex Avery's Porky's Duck Hunt. This short is similar to that in that Porky is once again a hunter who's looking for ducks. Daffy, of course, becomes the target but because he emptied many bullet shells of pellets, the shooting Porky does won't hurt him. At this point, the dog makes a deal with the duck for him to surrender to him so his master won't throw him out. Many funny gags involving the duck and dog follow. And dig the holiday twist that ends this short. So on that note, I highly recommend Daffy Duck Hunt.

I think this is the only short where The barnyard dog does not co star with Foghorn Leghorn. I like it when daffy calls the dog lassie. I find the plot where daffy is making noise in order to get porky's attention to the pluto cartoon 'Pantry Pirate'. I like the ending where the iris closes on daffys eye.

Daffy Duck Hunt (1949)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Porky Pig goes hunting and ends up bringing Daffy Duck back with him. However, Porky's dog decides he has his own plans for the duck, which includes accidentally letting him out of the freezer. This is a decent short from the Merrie Melodies gang but it's certainly no classic. This is certainly fairly entertaining but when you've got Daffy and Porky together I expect a lot more. The best sequence in the film happens towards the start when the dog and Daffy come up with an agreement to make the dog look good. When the action heads back to Porky's house things get a little weak but this is still worth watching at least once.