Farce au canard

This has to be the wackiest Daffy Duck cartoon ever....maybe the wackiest (and most clever) cartoon ever. There is no story; just Daffy getting "jerked around," so to speak by the cartoonist drawing both he and the background scenery.

For example, Daffy, dressed as a musketeer, sword in hand, yells "en guarde," and soon the screen is totally white in back of him. After a few seconds of silence, Daffy turns to the camera (us) and says, "Can we get some scenery here?" So, an artist paints us a rural picture. Daffy changes clothes and is a now a farmer. Suddenly it's a winter scene. Daffy stops and asks the not-seen cartoon artist, "Is it too much to ask to make your mind?" Now, he changes outfits again in a flash and is skiing.

This goes on and on, and then really weird things happen with the screen and with Daffy as he's erased, redrawn, erased, muted, given his voice back, etc. All of this is driving him crazy....and it's fun to watch because you have no clue what crazy things is going to happen next.

This is an incredible cartoon. If ever the word "unique" would be appropriate, it's here.

Chuck Jones has to be the greatest Looney Tunes director ever, he directed Whats Opera Doc, Rabbit of Seville and the classic Duck Dodgers, but this surreal masterpiece is his pure genius. The cartoon focuses around Daffy, who thinks he is in a Musketeer set, then as he progress left, the background fades, leaving only Daffy hiding behind the frame of the film asking where the scenery is.

From that moment, Daffy goes on to one wacky situation to another and so on. This episode producers one of the best lines ever said in a Looney Tunes cartoon

"Hey Come Here, Come Here, Give me a close up, A Close Up! (Screen Blackens except the top right corner). This is a close up? A CLOSE UP YOU JERK, A CLOSE UP!!!!!!!! (Camera zooms in)"

That line has got to be one of my favourites. SO is this cartoon

Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny are Looney Tunes' most recognized faces. Bugs Bunny is calm yet sly while Daffy is animated and hot-headed. In Duck Amuck, its Daffy's time to shine or rather get smudged, erased, abused, tormented, and blown! In a matter of six minutes, Chuck Jones delivers a tour de force short, with full (in) justice given to Daffy's character- be it its arms, legs, stomach, voice, face, even its tail. The opening scene, in which Daffy originally plans to take on enemies, is sword is interrupted by a white screen. Daffy himself seems perplexed, and whispers to the 'the guy in charge around here' to add some 'tschenry!' Every time the wrong scenery is added till Daffy gets fed up and confronts the creator. This is a genius part because when we look at it, we as audiences feel Daffy is talking to us as we laugh at his misery.

My favorite moment is when Daffy tries to vent his anger but his voice changes. The way he gets agitated and embarrassed, with the constant gesticulations (clenched fist, hand on mouth, shaking hands) is a joy to watch. Another highlight is the ab(use) of the scenery with the vivid distortion of 'Close Up' and contortions in Daffy's character when he demands the creator to give him a body.

I can now realize Chuck's intentions- with every little distortion created, Daffy still remains the main focus. When the creator 'erases' Daffy's character, we recognize his distinctive voice, when he gives Daffy an amorphous body, we recognize his bill, and even though his temper reaches boiling point, there is always a quirky touch to it (referring to the 'double duck sequence').

The most inventive moment was when the screen literally falls on him and he keeps a stick under it to hold it. It's a pity such humor is missing now because most of the target audience would not appreciate it now. Even watching those Mickey Mouse shorts made in 1930s makes me wonder why the new animation focuses on being so 'realistic' and does not want to experiment? At least some shorts can come up on cartoon channels that tend to break the rules and give life to anything and everything ( in Mickey Mouse, even a steam engine was given life in one short!)

Duck Amuck is where Chuck Jones' jackpot struck! My rating: 9/10

The Duck has been a favorite cartoon character of audiences from his inception, but in Chuck Jones' hands, Daffy was at his greediest, all too human like best (worst?).

In this cartoon, Daffy Duck is manipulated by some unseen, omnipotent force that keeps changing the scenery, the sound, and even the appearance of Daffy himself, much to his horror. The humor in most of the gags go deeper than the usual Warner Bros. cartoon, with claustrophobia, an exact duplicate of Daffy and instant deformity inflicted upon him has us laughing at our own fears.

But it's Jones' vision of Daffy that is the true star of this and many other of his cartoons. The other directors, the great Friz Freleng and the unfairly maligned Robert McKimson, never really had the grasp of the new Daffy Duck that emerged in the mid 40's, but he really was a new creation of Michael Maltese and Chuck Jones, only faintly reminiscent of the crazy antics that handlers such as Frank Tashlin, Tex Avery and Robert Clampett portrayed him as possessing. That old Daffy was wild and wacky and good, the new Daffy always has us humans at a disadvantage by making fun of our own weaknesses.

Daffy D'Artagnon strikes again! Except......where's the scenery? A paintbrush adds scenery - but it's the wrong kind! So it's Daffy Duck, farmer, and on this farm he had an igloo......duh? Skiing eskimo Daffy, skiing right into Hawaii.....eeeeeeeeeeeee.

And so is Daffy Duck subjected to the whims of an offscreen animator, erased, redrawn, his voice changed, everything is done to him except the proper contextualization, which steadily drives Daffy bonkers. A demand for a closeup gets an iris-out, then we see just how bloodshot Daffy's eyes are.

A rubbery black background blob smothers Daffy, so he destroys it and demands the picture begin - so we iris out to THE END - NO! NO!!!!!!!

Two Daffys (the result of the film projector sticking between frames) nearly come to blows, then eventually we get the answer to the mystery that has Daffy yelling his lungs out - and the audience laughing at a film parody to end all such. It's been said this cartoon breaks the fourth as well as fifth and sixth walls - but they forgot to mention the seventh and eighth walls it breaks as well.