Patolino no Velho Oeste

Of all Chuck Jones's brilliant genre spoofs featuring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, 'Drip Along Daffy' is one of the best loved and is only dwarfed by the classic duo of 'Robin Hood Daffy' and 'Duck Dodgers in the 24th ½ Century'. A hilarious parody of Westerns, 'Drip Along Daffy' finds Daffy all too willingly taking on the role of cowboy hero. A bewhiskered Porky, we are informed by a caption, is the comedy relief. This proves to be somewhat of a misnomer as it is in fact Daffy who provides the majority of the laughs as his heroic posturing is quickly diminished by his trademark buffoonery and a frightening encounter with villain Nasty Canasta. Despite some impeccably timed physical comedy, the biggest laughs in 'Drip Along Daffy' come from the verbal gags, a particularly on form Mel Blanc nailing every line with hysterically accurate observation. I find myself particularly floored every time by Daffy's disbelieving "You wouldn't dare", as he witnesses Nasty Canasta's horrifyingly toxic drink being mixed. 'Drip Along Daffy' is another typically classy Jones film which shows exactly why he's such a treasured director. Porky's final line is the icing on the cake.

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.

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.

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.

The graphics set this one up. We see decked-out cowboy Daffy Duck riding on a beautiful horse and the screen reads: "Western-type hero." Following him is Porky Pig riding a donkey. It says, "Comic Relief." Then, after some Monument Valley-type scenery, we see "Lawless Small Town." The sign says, "Snake-Bite Center: population 350, which quickly changes to 349 followed by another sign that comes out saying, "sheriff wanted." The next thing we see is the cemetery where the sign reads, "Population: 23,472,987 sheriffs."

You get the picture. This is a rough town where the small ice-cream booth is called "Custard's Last Stand" and horses are even shooting each other!

Daffy is going to clean up this "one-horse town." Well, he does...... sort of. This is one of the funniest cartoons I have ever seen - just fabulous. Great artwork, too!