Yankee Doodle Daffy
Yankee Doodle Daffy is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released on June 5, 1943,[1][2] directed by Friz Freleng and written by Tedd Pierce. The short was the second Technicolor Looney Tunes entry to feature Porky Pig and Daffy Duck (after My Favorite Duck).[3] It is also one of the handfuls of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies to have fallen into the public domain.
| Yankee Doodle Daffy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | I. Freleng |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Story by | Tedd Pierce |
| Starring | Mel Blanc Billy Bletcher (both uncredited) |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Animation by | Richard Bickenbach Gerry Chiniquy Manuel Perez Phil Monroe |
| Layouts by | Owen Fitzgerald |
| Backgrounds by | Paul Julian |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | Leon Schlesinger Productions |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
Release date | June 5, 1943 (US) |
Running time | 6:43 |
| Language | English |
The title and introductory music are inspired by the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy, a major hit and a Warner release. Other than the fact of both films being about show business, they have no plot elements in common.
Plot
At Smeller's Productions, Porky Pig, a producer, loaded down with luggage and a golf bag, hangs a sign on his office door reading "No casting today" and leaves his office in a hurry to board an airplane. However, Daffy Duck, a talent agent, stops Porky from leaving, wanting to secure an audition for his client, droopy-eyed child performer Sleepy Lagoon (a reference to the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon murder). The pitch, intended to demonstrate Sleepy's allegedly wide and varied repertoire, consists of Daffy himself performing an array of musical and stage acts in his usual, absurd and unoriginal fashion. Sleepy meanwhile stays seated, nonchalantly licking an enormous lollipop and silently commenting on Daffy's ludicrous behavior using signs bearing rebuses, such as "ham" ("excessively theatrical"), "screwball" ("crazy and absurd"), and "corn" ("corny").
The songs that Daffy performs include I'm Just Wild About Harry, William Tell Overture and Angel in Disguise (the same song that Bugs Bunny and Sylvester the Cat would sing in The Wabbit Who Came to Supper and Back Alley Oproar, respectively).
Porky, with mounting frustration, (as it is his day off) repeatedly tries to escape from the pitch. Daffy handily foils each attempt in increasingly improbable ways, including by turning out to be the pilot of Porky's plane and then turning out to be the parachute Porky uses to escape said plane. After Daffy finally takes it upon himself to harass Porky with an outrageous finale, Porky decides to just get it over with by allowing Sleepy to audition.
Sleepy calmly leaves his seat and begins to sing the song, The Garden of My Heart, in a strong, operatic baritone (provided by Billy Bletcher) that is not only surprising given his small stature but also substantially more dramatic than any of the acts Daffy used in the pitch. However, during a high note near the end, he erupts into a long coughing fit before weakly croaking the rest of the line.
Analysis
Authors Michael S. Shull and David E. Wilt consider it ambiguous as to whether this cartoon contains a World War II-related reference. When Daffy is revealed as the pilot of the plane, he is wearing an aviator's goggles and helmet. In this guise, Daffy sings "We watch the skyways o'er the land and the sea, ready to fly anywhere the duty calls, ready to fight to be free". (A theme originating in the Warner picture Dive Bomber.) This could be a reference to military aviation.[4]
Home media
US
Yankee Doodle Daffy is available on DVD as part of Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1.
UK
| VHS Title | Release Date | VHS Studio | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hollywood Cartoon Superstars – Volume 4 | September 1989 | Virgin Video And Maple Entertainment | Yankee Doodle Daffy (Compilation Cartoon VHS with 'Bugs Bunny', 'Daffy Duck', 'Porky Pig', 'Elmer Fudd', 'Casper', 'Felix The Cat' and 'Mighty Mouse'. – Bugs Bunny: Case of the Missing Hare, Porky Pig: Porky's Railroad, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig: Yankee Doodle Daffy, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd: The Wacky Wabbit, Casper: The Friendly Ghost, Felix The Cat: Neptune Nonsense and Mighty Mouse: Wolf! Wolf!.) |
See also
- Yankee Doodle Dandy, a 1942 American biographical musical film starting James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, and Richard Whorf.
Sources
- Shull, Michael S.; Wilt, David E. (2004), "Appendix E.", Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939-1945, McFarland & Company, ISBN 978-0786481699
References
- Webb, Graham (2011). The Animated Film Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to American Shorts, Features and Sequences 1900-1999 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 391. ISBN 978-0-7864-4985-9.
- Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice And Magic: A History Of American Animated Cartoons (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Plume. p. 427. ISBN 0-452-25993-2.
- Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 142. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
- Shull, Wilt (2004), p. 216
