Elmyra Duff
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| Elmyra Duff | |
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| Promotional image of Elmyra Duff | |
| First appearance | Regular on Tiny Toon Adventures since the series premiere "The Looney Beginning" (1990). |
| Voiced by | Cree Summer[1] |
Elmyra Jessica Duff is a cartoon character from the Warner Bros. animated television series Tiny Toon Adventures. She is one of the main characters from the show. Elmyra is voiced by Cree Summer[2] in all of her appearances. Elmyra is a young, redheaded, female human with a white skirt, light blue shirt and bowed ribbon in her hair that has an animal's skull in the middle, black shoes and white socks. She attends Acme Looniversity and lives in Acme Acres. She also serves as the school nurse.
Elmyra Duff is based superficially on her name derivative and mentor, Elmer Fudd; 'Elmyra' being a female form of 'Elmer' and her last name, 'Duff', as 'Fudd' pronounced backwards. Elmyra strongly resembles a younger version of the feminized Elmer Fudd from the 1946 cartoon The Big Snooze, in which Elmer's peaceful retirement dream became a nightmare where he was transformed into a shapely female by Bugs Bunny. She behaves quite a bit like Little Suzie, a child from a fairly obscure 1955 Freleng short called "A Kiddie's Kitty". Here a girl adopts Sylvester Pussycat and unwittingly abuses him with her childish antics, to the point that he decides he would rather take his chances with a bulldog who had been tormenting him earlier in the picture.
Elmyra is quite young and obsessed with animals and cute things (which is probably why she works as a nurse at Acme Looniversity), even chasing after animals whom she knows are her classmates at Acme Looniversity, obliviously causing great discomfort or serious injury to potential pets from her overenthusiastic affection and complete lack of even the most rudimentary knowledge of pet care. In this she is reminiscent of the aforementioned Suzie, or even Hugo the Abominable Snowman (who, in turn, is influenced by Lenny from Of Mice and Men). This is in contrast to Elmer's well-armed actual intent to violence, although she is dismissed by Buster and Babs Bunny in the pilot as extremely lame for a 'villain'. The two share a distinct similarity in that both hunt animals; while Elmer hunts them for sport, Elmyra hunts them to love and baby them to death (sometimes literally)--often even diapering the animals (such as Plucky in the episode Pollution Solution). She does not really mean to mistreat her pets, she simply doesn't understand the negative effects of her behavior. Curiously, at least once, Elmyra was shown to be bald like her inspiration, and wearing a wig (although whether or not she is really bald or if this is simply cartoon humor at its most absurd is up for debate. However, she IS shown to be bald in Babs' Big Break on the Game Boy, after completing the bike segment).
This danger is balanced by her complete and utter gullibility. Her abject stupidity is pocked with occasional instances of cleverness, and her character is toned down as needed. Buster Bunny and Babs Bunny explain in the series' pilot that Elmyra is a pushover — unlike Montana Max — but that they needed nominal "villains" to pitch their series. This is a nod to the original Looney Tunes, in which Yosemite Sam (the basis for Montana Max) was created due to the fact that Elmer Fudd was seen as too easy and mild-mannered to be an effective enemy for Bugs Bunny.
Elmyra looks sweet and is somewhat a major dunce (in one episode it shows that mayonnaise has a higher IQ than her), she speaks in semi-perpetual baby talk, and her hair bow is decorated with a small gerbil skull, which may hint at her sinister side. Elmyra sometimes removes the skull to tell Mr. Skullhead stories.
One of the animals in her vast menagerie is Byron Basset, a near-gelatinous basset hound who drew most of his humor from his odd appearance. In contrast to her other pets, Byron seems to feel a grudging love for his owner despite her clumsiness. Li'l Sneezer was also shown to be one of the few "pets" capable of enduring Elmyra's well intentioned zeal, but even Elmyra had trouble coping with Sneezer's allergies. Less enthusiastic pets have included Buster, Furrball, Fifi La Fume, and Tyrone the Turtle.
One of the few characters that Elmyra doesn't think is cute and cuddly is Hamton J. Pig, for she thinks he's a dirty pig in need of a good bath, which is ironic, because Hamton is obsessed with cleanliness and dislikes filth and bad odors.
Elmyra's end tag credit is "Let The Show Begin!"
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[edit] The Duffs
As the character of Elmyra was popular among the show's viewers, the creators decided to give her character two entire episodes later in the series. The family, which had been previously unmentioned, appeared in two episodes, "Take Elmyra Please" and "Grandma's Dead." Soleil Moon Frye voiced Elmyra's eldest sister, Amanda; Matt Frewer was her frazzled inventor father, Mac. As these episodes featured none of the rest of the regular Tiny Toons cast, other than Furrball and Byron Basset, they may have been a test to see if Elmyra's character could get her own spin-off series, centered around her family. Elmyra's dad is a spaced-out inventor whose inventions either succeed, fail, or are used in another purpose. Elmyra's mom, Emily, voiced by Tress MacNeille, is patronizing and doesn't pay too much attention to her children's behavior, save for her baby son who demonstrates incredible strength, a cause of concern. Elmyra's brother, Duncan (voiced by Whitby Hertford), thinks he's a superhero and usually winds up saving Elmyra every time she gets in trouble. Amanda is the typical version of a teenage girl and is embarrassed by her family's behavior. They also have a dimwitted maid, Queegee, also voiced by Tress MacNeille, who shows superhuman strength at some times. Elmyra's grandmother is voiced by Fran Ryan.
Also of note in these episodes is the introduction of the character Mr. Skullhead. Mr. Skullhead was created by Elmyra's imagination from the small skull she wears as a hair ornament. He starred in his own show, The Mr. Skullhead Show. The character later appeared regularly on the show Animaniacs as the central character in a skit called "Good Idea, Bad Idea," in which Mr. Skullhead and the various members of his family would be violently maimed.
[edit] Quotes
"I'm gonna hug you and kiss you and love you forever (and never use you up)"
As said by Elmyra while squeezing her cat, Furrball, to death.
From "Tiny Toons: How I Spent My Vacation & The Pink Phink"
"I love kittens I love kitties, squeeze them into itty bittys!"
As she rubs a sleeping tigers belly: "I'm gonna start his motor!"
"I Love The Pink Cool Kitty Like The Pink Panther"
"Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone? There,there!"
[edit] Spin-offs
Though Animaniacs was not technically a follow-up to Tiny Toons, several of the characters from Tiny Toons made cameos. The most notable of all of these is Elmyra's in the short "Lookit the Fuzzy Heads." Believing the Warners were dogs, Elmyra chased Yakko, Wakko, and Dot out of Dr. Scratchansniff's office and through the city, until finally the three tricked Elmyra into following Mindy, which resulted in Elmyra continually getting hurt (not to mention saving Buttons the trouble of the pursuit). In a way, this ending was especially appropriate in that Mindy and Elmyra were similar characters. Both are young girls who love their pets but are oblivious to the pain they inflict upon them.
Elmyra later acquired newly-homeless Pinky and the Brain in a short-lived series in 1998 (in which Pinky is adjusting well to his new life but the Brain has problems living with his mistress, Elmyra) — notable only for the Christopher Walken-esque madman who was pursuing the two mice for his own world domination plans. Although she has essentially the same personality and lives in Acme Acres, her character on Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain is different from her character on Tiny Toon Adventures in several ways: she goes to school with other human kids rather than her Tiny Toons co-stars, and she harbors an unrequited crush on a different boy, Rudy Mookich (voiced by Nancy Cartwright), who does not return her affections either. A running gag here is that Elmyra continually washes Brain's mouth whenever he says either something that she would find offensive or merely scientific jargon that she can't understand (she calls it "naughty-waughty potty talk"). Curiously, Pinky and the Brain had earlier made a cameo as two of Elmyra's caged pets in the Tiny Toons Spring Break special. Also, when Brain makes a cameo in the Tiny Toons Night Ghoulery Special, Elmyra remarks, "I'll play with you later," a possible foreshadowing. Elmyra appears in A.F.L.O.A.T. along with the rest of them like Plucky, Hamton, Dizzy, Little Beeper, Calamity Coyote, Shirley, Fifi, Furball, Sweetie, Sneezer, Concord, Barky Marky, Mary Melody and others for a cameo.
[edit] References
- ^ T. Mike Childs, The Rocklopedia Fakebandica (Macmillan, 2004), 225.
- ^ T. Mike Childs, The Rocklopedia Fakebandica (Macmillan, 2004), 225.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Tiny Toon Adventures at the Internet Movie Database
- Tiny Toon Adventures at the Big Cartoon DataBase
