Porky's Duck Hunt

Porky's Duck Hunt
Daffy Duck as he first appeared in Porky's Duck Hunt
Directed by	Tex Avery
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger
Animation by	Robert Cannon Virgil Ross
Color process	Black and White (later colourized)
Production company	Leon Schlesinger Studios
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Running time	8:47

Porky's Duck Hunt (1937) is an animated short film produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, directed by Tex Avery, and released on April 17, 1937 by Warner Bros. Pictures.

This short, starring Porky Pig, is notable for being the first appearance of the character Daffy Duck. Also notable is that this is the first cartoon in which Mel Blanc voices both Porky and Daffy. Originally scheduled to voice the duck, Blanc won the part of Porky earlier that year. Joe Dougherty, who was Porky's original voice, was fired following the cartoon Porky's Romance because he refused to control his stutter.

Porky's Duck Hunt was a very popular cartoon, well known for popular gags and the debut of Daffy Duck, and met with very positive reviews. Only a year later, this cartoon was reworked by Avery as Daffy Duck and Egghead, which was in color. In that cartoon, Porky's role was filled by another Avery-created character, Egghead (who evolved into Elmer Fudd in the episode Elmer's Candid Camera 1940), and Daffy is given his name.

The short made its DVD debut in The Essential Daffy Duck, which was released on November 1, 2011 by Warner Home Video.

Plot

The cartoon begins with the camera panning across several items on a table, including a book entitled "How to Hunt Ducks" and freshly opened boxes which recently contained a shotgun, hunting suit, duck decoys and shells. The camera then pans to Porky in front of a mirror, admiring himself in various poses with his new rifle and hunting suit. Porky points his shotgun at various imaginary aerial targets, then points it at his dog Rover; the dog runs under and into a bureau. Porky tells him the gun is not loaded and pulls the trigger to prove it. However, the shotgun actually is loaded and it fires into the ceiling. The man upstairs, shot in one butt cheek, comes down to kick Porky in the butt.

The scene changes to a lake, pre-dawn. Porky spies a duck, but before he can get off a shot, lots of other previously hidden duck hunters suddenly appear and shoot at it for several seconds. They all miss. The duck hunters say "Aw, shucks!" in unison when they fail to shoot the duck. A cross-eyed duck hunter tries to shoot the same duck (with a gun whose barrels are twisted apart) but instead shoots down two airplanes.

Porky puts out duck decoys. Daffy appears among them and acts like a fake duck. Porky tries to shoot Daffy after donning a decoy on his head and sneaking underwater, but when Daffy covers his ears with his hands the gun shoots out water instead of bullets. Daffy then flies onto a floating barrel (labeled 'XXX' - a period designation for whiskey). Porky shoots the whiskey-filled barrel but Daffy escapes. Some fish are attracted to the leaking barrel and get drunk. The fish come onshore, commandeer a boat and drunkenly sing 'On Moonlight Bay'. Porky Pig observes that something is 'fishy' with those fish.

Porky then hears a quack nearby. When he looks into the grass, Daffy bites his nose. Daffy then takes to the sky; Porky shoots him with a single shot. Ecstatic, Porky instructs his dog Rover ("Go get him, Rin Tin Tin") and the dog swims out, but when he comes back, it's Daffy carrying the dog and throwing him back on the bank. Porky whips out a notepad, leafs through it and notes that this scene 'wasn't in the script' (an early instance of Avery's signature use of "breaking the fourth wall") . Daffy yells out his first words, that he is "just a crazy, darn fool duck", and proceeds to do his signature 'crazy dance' on the lake. (This is the first time Daffy says his first words.)

After a humorous scene where Daffy eats an electric eel and turns into a lightning bolt, Porky tries hunting from a rowboat but is taunted by the ducks when he stops for lunch; in his hurry to fire at them he inadvertently sinks the boat, cueing Joe Penner to rise from underneath the water with his signature line "You wanna buy a duck?"

After being alerted by his dog that Daffy is back, Porky makes several attempts to cock the gun and shoot, but when Daffy covers his ears with his hands once again the gun fails to fire each time. Daffy comes out of the water, takes the gun and fires it after the first cock. After saying "It's me again," Daffy does another crazy dance.

Daffy takes to the air and is met by Porky shooting his gun rapid-fire and being driven into the ground by the recoil, apparently not hitting anything. Porky tries to use a duck call, but the other duck hunters mistake it for a real duck and shoot at Porky, who ducks for cover. Disgusted, Porky throws the duck call to the ground, but it bounces and his dog accidentally swallows it. The dog gets the hiccups, quacking with every one, drawing constant fire and forcing Porky and the dog to flee from the lake. Porky and the dog trudge home, disappointed with their failure to bag a duck. When Porky gets home, he sees the ducks outside doing a trapeze act in the sky at his window. Porky tries to shoot them with his gun but, thinking the gun empty, throws the shotgun to the floor. The gun fires into the ceiling. The cartoon ends with the man from upstairs, with his other butt cheek shot, coming down once again to kick Porky in the butt.

The cartoon ends with Daffy jumping around the standard "That's all, Folks!" closing title, accompanied by "The Farmer In The Dell."

Changes in Redrawn Version

• The redrawn version of this cartoon (which was shown on Nickelodeon) removed the "That's All Folks" end card where Daffy jumps and dances around the letters (the audio still played as normal). The beginning and end cards were replaced with 1960 beginning and end Looney Tunes cards.
• The 1990 computer-colorized version restores the original opening and closing credits.

External links

• Porky's Duck Hunt at IMDb
• Official Looney Tunes Website