Characters on book covers come to life, including Porky and Daffy. The "Wolf of Wall Street" chases Daffy through "The Hurricane," "The Storm" and across "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" before ... Read allCharacters on book covers come to life, including Porky and Daffy. The "Wolf of Wall Street" chases Daffy through "The Hurricane," "The Storm" and across "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" before expiring in "For Whom the Bell Tolls."Characters on book covers come to life, including Porky and Daffy. The "Wolf of Wall Street" chases Daffy through "The Hurricane," "The Storm" and across "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" before expiring in "For Whom the Bell Tolls."
- Director
- Writer
- Star
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
The whole story takes place in a bookstore, where the characters of the books come to life every evening. So we have, among others, the Ugly Duck (Daffy) and the wolf of Wallstreet. They wind up in a chase after the wolf tricked Daffy with a phony duck (hence the title).
And chase is all there is in this little cartoon, that doesn't have any real appeal nowadays. Only fun if you're a true fan of the Looney Tunes I guess...
4/10.
"A Coy Decoy" was probably one of the placeholders that the Warner Bros. animation department cranked out in between the really famous cartoons, especially since 1941 saw Bugs Bunny's undeniable ascension to super-stardom. The cartoon is really obvious as a Bob Clampett cartoon when Daffy is unwittingly hugging the wolf, and the wolf's snout starts looking rubbery. But without a doubt, the really fine phase of Clampett's, Daffy's and Porky's careers began in 1942, and was fully evident in Clampett's 1943 cartoon "A Corny Concerto".
So, this one is OK, not great.
Every cartoon had to have a song in these days, so we start off with a medley by The Westerner' Porky and Ugly Duckling' Daffy. Porky is really only there at the beginning because they needed somebody to set up the punchline at the end. The rest of the movie belongs to Daffy. The Duck cracks a rather racist gag involving 'Black Beauty' at the beginning, but since he's black himself he can probably get away with it.
Daffy moves to another book, The Lake', while the Wolf of Wall Street' uses a toy duck (the title character) from yet another book to snare that screwy duck. When Escape' is blocked Daffy makes use of Hurricane', The Mortal storm' and Lightning' to get rid of the wolf, For whom the bell tolls'. We also find out that The Bridge of San Luis Rey' is about a pair of dentures.
The main characters don't really have to act, just be themselves: Daffy has to be crazy, the Wolf has to be hungry and Porky, well he never had much reason to be anywhere anyway. In the end 'A Coy Decoy' does not amount to much more than a song, a chase sequence, lots of puns and of course a reference to the war.
5 out of 10
We get here one of Clampett's typical racist jokes: Daffy falls into a copy of 'Black Beauty' and emerges riding a kerchief-headed 'mammy' stereotype.
One thing that bothers me about both this 1941 cartoon and its remake 'Book Revue' is that most of the so-called 'book' titles in both toons -- such as 'The Wolf of Wall Street', seen here -- are actually movie titles. In cases where a title could apply to both a book and a film (such as 'The Bridge of San Luis Rey' here, or "Dante's Inferno" in 'Book Revue'), it's obvious that the audience were expected to think of the movie rather than the book. Either the Warners scriptwriters didn't know many book titles, or else they wouldn't give their audience credit for being literate. In 'A Coy Decoy', I was pleasantly surprised to see references to 'The Yearling' and 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', best-selling books which (as of 1941) hadn't yet been filmed.
'A Coy Decoy' gets its title from a plot development here which wasn't used in the remake: the wolf uses a clockwork female duck to entice Daffy. This is a running theme in many Clampett cartoons, continuing right into his 'Beany and Cecil' era: a male protagonist is lured by an artificial female; either a male in disguise, or else a mechanical surrogate (a fembot?). Clampett seemed reluctant to put genuine female characters into his toons.
There's a nice tinkling music-box motif for the she-duck (Warners cartoons almost always had excellent music tracks), and there's a cheeky final gag, one of Clampett's less obvious sexual entendres. That final gag is the only place where this cartoon surpasses its remake 'Book Revue', which is superior all down the line until it ends in a weak 'cissy' joke (another of Clampett's predilections). I'll rate 'A Coy Decoy' five points out of 10. Take out that unnecessary racist joke, and I might bump it up to six.
Aside from this point, "A Coy Decoy" is basically a fun, interesting short where Daffy meets characters in books and does things in books. I liked this short quite a lot (despite the other reviewers on here). The way Daffy is so in love with the clockwork duck is vaguely disturbing, yet highly amusing at the same time. Porky is a nice edition to the episode, though it was not vital for him to be there. The wolf is an example of how people thought of wolves in those days as well, blood-thirsty, terrible animals, which of course they never really have been (unless they are very hungry). I also liked the style of animation used - and the theme of the episode.
For people who are totally into Daffy Duck and for people who do not mind the occasional racist joke in cartoons, enjoy "A Coy Decoy"!
Available on YouTube.
Did you know
- GoofsIn the computer colorized print, instead of the correct 1941-1945 theme, the 1938-1941 theme plays over the opening titles.
- Quotes
[Daffy seeing a female decoy duck]
Daffy Duck: [to the audience, acting like he's love-crazy] Well, beat me Daddy, eight to the bar!
- Alternate versionsThis cartoon was colorized in 1968 by having every other frame traced over onto a cel. Each redrawn cel was painted in color and then photographed over a colored reproduction of each original background. Needless to say, the animation quality dropped considerably from the original version with this method. The cartoon was colorized again in 1990, this time with a computer adding color to a new print of the original black and white cartoon. This preserved the quality of the original animation.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Futurama: Bendin' in the Wind (2001)
- SoundtracksRide, Tenderfoot, Ride
(uncredited)
Music by Richard A. Whiting
Lyrics by Johnny Mercer
Sung by Porky Pig by the campfire
Also played toward the end
- Which series is this from: Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies?
- List: Warner Brothers cartoons with books that come to life
Details
- Runtime7 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1