Studio: Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures / The Vitaphone Corporation
Short Synopsis
On a farm, Daffy Duck waits frantically for the postman to bring his new Dick Tracy comic. When it arrives he devours it, and in his excitement knocks himself out. He dreams that he is the great detective "Duck Twacy", and that his own piggy bank has been stolen, along with every other piggy bank in town. Daffy investigates with total confidence, flinging open doors and mistaking a mousehole for the hideout of "Mouse Man". The trail leads him to the gangsters' lair, where he faces a grotesque gallery of villains in the style of Chester Gould's comic strip: Snake Eyes, 88 Teeth, Hammerhead, Pussycat Puss, Bat Man, Double Header, Pickle Puss, Pumpkin Head, Neon Noodle, Jukebox Jaw, Wolfman, Flattop, Rubber Head and more. They pile on him, and Daffy beats them all with his own brand of slapstick, turning Neon Noodle into a neon sign and riddling the rest with a tommy gun. Triumphant, he finds the stolen piggy banks, including his own, and plants a joyful kiss on it, then wakes up on the farm kissing a real pig. He runs off in horror, and the pig sighs after him.
Why It Matters
- The villains' attack is one of the most frenzied sequences in animation, a nightmare of grotesque faces, rapid cuts and impossible angles, with noir lighting and staging lifted from the crime films and comic strips Clampett loved. Steve Schneider called its images among the most indelible in cartoon history.
- It was Clampett's next-to-last Warner cartoon, made just before he left the studio, and it shows his style at its most extreme. John Kricfalusi, creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, called it his favourite cartoon, and it is the only Daffy parody of a famous hero in which Daffy is actually competent.
Notes and Trivia
- The opening gag of Daffy waiting for the Dick Tracy comic echoes the watchdog in Clampett's Farm Frolics (1941).
- See also: Book Revue (1946), Farm Frolics (1941).