Farce au canard

One of Chuck Jones' most beautifully crafted short cartoon pieces, Duck Amuck is one of the first (or the first?) cartoons to work the element of the theatre into an animated short. As Woody Allen did in Annie Hall (though that was twenty-four years later), the filmmakers here create that acknowledgment of there being an audience- and, more amusingly, their acknowledgment of themselves being apart of the process. I'm certain there were other animated shorts from Looney Tunes where a character may have one or twice looked at the 'audience' and asked a question or said a joke, but I'm also certain it wasn't done to such a length as this. Quite possibly, this is one of the greatest one-joke/in-joke stretches ever put on film.

At the start, Daffy Duck thinks he's about to be in a piece as a musketeer- that is, until the background is pulled right out from under him. He'll never get back to that background again, but Daffy will keep on trying to persuade the animator to bring back some sense into the works. By the end he's exasperated, and the joke comes full circle to be totally satisfying.

Throughout the short what keeps it so funny on repeat viewings is that the absurdities of each new backdrop and each run-in Daffy keep their validity. There's a lot of creative juice flowing through this one, and since the turns are unexpected on the first viewing, on the following ones you laugh at yourself for laughing at it again. Another plus is that Daffy Duck is a superb character when he's kept on his toes- like when he's put against a city backdrop that looks like it was drawn by a five-year old. He asks, "Now, how about some color, stupid!" And then is painted over in bizarre hues. The joke that follows that is one of Chuck Jones' most surreal executions.

Overall, a classic for its time, influential; on a level that will perhaps get the adults laughing more so than the kids, and for those in youth who discover it for the first time on TV or on the new DVD, it isn't old- this is the kind of sense of humor found on other modern cartoons (Simpsons, for example).

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.

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

Already as a boy I could understand the humor in 'Duck Amuck' - but perhaps not it's meta-ambitions! If I knew then how good this short movie is I would never ever let my father erase it!

Quotes like: "NOW WHAT?" and "Give me a close-up!" can't leave my head! Duffy (or Daffy) has since this movie always been my personal cartoon favorite.

Don't miss this incredible masterpiece, then you will miss one of the best movies ever made!!!

Rating: 10 of 10.