Daffy recruté

Anyone who's seen enough Daffy Duck cartoons should know that he's...well, daft. In "Draftee Daffy", he maintains that personality, only it's now like he's on steroids. In this case, he's a super-patriot until the government tries to draft him into the army. Maybe it's just me, but this reminds me of the average chicken hawk (a politician who never fought in a war - and most likely never even got drafted - but sends people to fight in wars; sound familiar?).

But that's just a side note. This is a really hilarious cartoon, and the beginning of Daffy developing his greedy side. Included in "Bugs and Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons".

Daffy is reading today's paper which says, "U.S. Army announces a smashing frontal attack on enemy rear." He suddenly gets a surge of patriotism, racing around the room and waving a flag, imitating Teddy Roosevelt, singing patriot songs, saluting a picture of Douglas MacArthur and on and on.

Suddenly the phone rings and it's the draft board calling to say they are bringing him a notice. Wow, Mr. Patriot has a change of heart and now starts crooning, "It had to be me....poor me," sobbing big tears. His knees start shaking and he loses it - so much for bravado and patriotism!

I have to admit; Daffy doing everything he can to avoid being drafted sure reminds me of stories I used to hear in the late '60s concerning guys trying to get out of the Vietnam War. Daffy would have fit in with those guys. I laughed at the rocket ship on his roof with the billboard underneath that said, "Use in case of induction only."

Daffy still had that stupid laugh he had the first decade of his existence but you can see he's changing into the real wise guy he was in the '50s cartoons.

The direction in this cartoon from Robert Clampett is fantastic, so good it was more than noticeable, such as the angles in which we see Daffy racing around the house, trying to avoid the man from the draft board. The confetti-like sparks denoting speed was fun to see, too.

In all, an extremely entertaining and colorful cartoon.

I saw this movie some time in the 1970s, and was absolutely stunned by it. I've seen it since on cable TV channels, and am always amazed. Daffy Duck's attitude towards being drafted was exactly the same as mine just a few years earlier! Yeah, I am all for America! I'll wave the flag and whatever... But--you want me to join the army? And carry a gun? And go through basic training? And kill people?

LATER FOR YOU, BROTHER!!! GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!!!!!!!

And so it goes with our hero, Daffy Duck (always my favorite WB cartoon character since he is the least sentimental of them all--even W. C. Fields took a back seat to this bastard!). I even think it's possible that this cartoon convinced little children who watched it in the 1950s on television to become 1960s draft dodgers...

This cartoon contains some of the most shocking imagery ever to be seen in an animated cartoon before the 1960s. When Daffy lands in Hell at the end of the cartoon and is still being pursued by the draft board, it's quite a statement (even though it was probably just a joke back in the day)... It's Daffy Duck versus Big Government. In fact, that is what the whole F'N cartoon is about: Daffy Duck versus government bureaucracy. Clampett's portrayal of the faceless bureaucrat is as chilling as anything Kafka ever invented.

This cartoon also has more manic energy than ANY other WB cartoon ever made. It's like an acid trip. It's weird. It's... almost psychedelic. It's INSANE!!!

You have to think that the filmmakers meant to make some kind of political statement with this little cartoon. What's amazing about this is that the cartoon was made at the height of World War Two, which has always been seen as the war every single US citizen supported without question... This "harmless" little cartoon makes you question all of that, and brings WW2 back to the reality of Japanese detention camps, zoot suits, shortages, and other stark realities of the 1940s. (Just read your history books, people!)

What can I day about this that hasn't been said by those above. After "Daffy the Commando", to "Scrap Happy Daffy" (or was that after this one?) Daffy as DRAFT DODGER? Even Daffy wouldn't.. but in (unlike much later and to the day) a very funny fashion he constantly and outrageously runs right into that little man kindly serving him ye ole draft notice, and who looks like Elmer Fudd (though his character's borrowed from a radio comic character of the day, Peavy the Druggist on the "Great Gildersleeze", right down to the "Oh well, now, I wouldn't say that!" shtick.), and does the "Tex Avery/Droopy" bit that itself is equally hard to get away from.

But this is a riot, yet if a later Vietnam or today Sept. the 11th counterpart were done with Daffy, dodging the draft..NO WAY would Daffy be this symphatetic (though I disagree that W.C.Fields "took a back seat" to ANYBODY.)

(To the tune of "Marine's Hymm"-aka "From the Halls of Montezuma") "Oh-oh, the lit-tle man from the dra-aft board/ Is comin' to see me"..then realizes what he's just singing about.

I'd see anything from Looney Tunes and Daffy Duck as I am such a huge fan. And Draftee Daffy from the first time I saw it has been one of my favourite cartoons of all time. The animation looks absolutely beautiful and is very detailed right from the facial expressions and Daffy's manic energy. The music is beautifully orchestrated and energetic, while the writing is witty and the gags right from the opening to even the smallest details imaginative. What is also remarkable is how the subject matter is treated, there is no glorification but personified in Daffy's slow realisation expression it is very realistically done. Daffy himself is just brilliant, manic, greedy and moving all in one. Mel Blanc gives a bravura performance. All in all, Draftee Daffy is a superb cartoon, one of my favourites ever. 10/10 Bethany Cox