Robin Hood Daffy

This Daffy Duck short is similar in style to Chuck Jones' Road Runner shorts with its unique backgrounds and fast moving gags. I especially like the scene in which Daffy uses his buck and a quarter quarter staff. Also very funny is the character design of the rich traveler Daffy attempts to rob. The unique shape of this character and his horse combined with the way they prance across the screen is a hilarious visual. This is among the best Daffy Duck shorts.

One of the great classics of animation, Chuck Jones's 'Robin Hood Daffy' is a sumptuous and hilarious short from the late era of Warner Bros. cartoons. Based on the glorious Warner production 'The Adventures of Robin Hood', 'Robin Hood Daffy' combines subtle character comedy and broad slapstick with an astonishingly perfect balance. The famous "buck and a quarter quarterstaff" scene that opens the film is the finest example of this. Daffy's wild thrashing around is punctuated by his quiet run through of how the routine should go as he takes time out to establish just where he went wrong. It's a classic scene with some terrific animation as the chortling Porky Pig defeats Daffy Duck at a duel with very little effort. Compare this scene and the laughing fits that the characters break into afterwards with the same scene from 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' and it becomes even funnier as you realise how close to the source material it actually is.

There are plenty of other classic moments in 'Robin Hood Daffy' ("Yoiks and away"), each punctuated by the frolicking image of the weary traveller that Daffy is attempting to rob obliviously passing by the latest scene of Daffy's humiliation. Apart from the gorgeous layouts, the brilliant gags and the wonderful performance by Mel Blanc, 'Robin Hood Daffy' is also notable for how Jones uses the characters, particularly Porky Pig. Porky had long been a straight man whose star billing was contradicted by the way his co-stars upstaged him. Relegating Porky to supporting player breathed new life into him and, as is the case with all Jones's Porky and Daffy genre parodies, Porky excels himself. His laidback, overly-jolly friar is the perfect foil to inspire escalating frustration in Daffy as he tries in vain to prove he's Robin Hood, never thinking to just point out one of the many Wanted posters bearing his image. 'Robin Hood Daffy' is an exceptional piece of work that everyone of a certain age remembers fondly. It's another in an extraordinarily long line of Chuck Jones classics.

Robin Hood Daffy (1958)

*** (out of 4)

Not quite as great as RABBIT HOOD, here's another Chuck Jones directed take on the Robin Hood legend. This time out Daffy Duck is wearing the tights and after running into Friar (Porky Pig) he must convince him that he is the real Robin. Of course, with Daffy this isn't going to be too easy and he keeps making one big mistake after another. ROBIN HOOD DAFFY contains some very good animation and a rather cute story but at the same time I don't think it comes together as good as it could have. Yes, it's a good movie but it's still middle-ground in terms of Looney Tunes and some of the classics they've done over the years. Some of the highlights includes a scene towards the end where Duffy flashes past the man he's trying to "take" and we see a great scene of him going into some water up up a draw bridge. The animation here is very effective and so is the laugh. The rest of the film contains some fast action but none of it is as funny as it should have been.

Daffy is a Robin Hood type who fights the sheriff and is famous from his wanted posters. His reputation is given a knock when he falls into a river and is laughed at by a fat friar pig (Porky). All Daffy's attempts to prove himself and impress the jolly Friar just seem to backfire and he can't convince him that he is the Robin Hood that Porky seeks.

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 very much the butt of the film's jokes - a role that I'm never totally happy to see him in as I do like him as a character more than a fall guy. However here the jokes are funny and imaginative so I didn't mind so much in this case. The character he plays is basically a fall guy but the ways in which he falls had me laughing out loud - whether it was the rope swing or the shaft fight, I was loving it!

I don't like to see Daffy just plain mocked but he takes it very well here and is funny himself rather than just being a patsy. Porky is also good but doesn't manage to steal the show from Daffy in the way he often can in these combination films of theirs. With no other characters to speak of, Daffy carries the film very well and gets the majority of the laughs - I still prefer to see him giving rather than getting, but this is funny nonetheless.

Overall this cartoon is very funny with a good sense of cruel wit running through it. Fans of the original little black duck may be upset to see him take such punishment but I personally was relieved that Daffy managed to make this film as funny as he did.

This one always cracks me up. Especially when Daffy Mocks Friar (Porky) Tuck with, "Guffaw, Chortle, Nyuk, it is to laugh." The "Yikes and away!" is great too. They don't write 'em like this any more.

Another favorite: "In the classic Warner Bros. cartoon 'The Scarlet Pumpernickel,' Daffy Duck is earnestly pitching his new script to the unseen Jack Warner. As Daffy tells the story, we see it unfold, performed by the great stock company of Daffy, Porky Pig, Sylvester and Elmer Fudd. But it soon becomes clear that Daffy does not have an ending for his movie. Warner presses him, Daffy keeps reaching, and Warner keeps asking for more. Poor Daffy. In his zeal, he forgot that adding any old plot development is not enough to make a gripping story. You've got to have something important on the line, something that matters. Daffy should have been asking himself, Who cares?

That's a question all novelists must repeat. If you can create a character worth following and a problem that must be solved — and then along the way raise the stakes even higher—you're going to have the essential elements of a page-turner."