Draftee Daffy

Draftee Daffy is a 1945 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Bob Clampett.[1] The cartoon was released on January 27, 1945, and stars Daffy Duck.[2]

Draftee Daffy
Title card
Directed byRobert Clampett
Story byLou Lilly
StarringMel Blanc (uncredited)
Music byCarl W. Stalling
Animation byRod Scribner
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
  • January 27, 1945 (1945-01-27) (U.S.)
Running time
7 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The film depicts Daffy as a draft dodger, who desperately tries to avoid an agent of the draft board. Part of the film is set in hell, but Daffy is unable to end this pursuit.

Plot

Having read about the United States Armed Forces pushing the Nazi German troops back during World War II ("A smashing frontal attack on the enemy rear?"), Daffy Duck is in a patriotic mood. However, his mood quickly changes to fear when he gets a phone call that "the little man from the draft board" wants to see him. Hiding in his house, Daffy looks out, eventually seeing the little man, who attempts to hand him a telegram (presumably with Daffy's conscription order). Daffy starts whining, and continues to try to outrun the little man, who seems to be everywhere that Daffy happens to be at the moment. Daffy even goes so far as to plant a bomb near the man. Finally, he locks him in a safe, bricks the safe up, puts up a wall over the bricks (chortling: "So long, Dracula!"), runs to the roof and takes off in a rocket.

However, the rocket soon plunges back to earth, causing Daffy to crash-land in Hell without Daffy actually saying the word. Shrugging off this turn, Daffy spots a demon (seen from the rear) and tells him: "Oh well, anyway, I sure put one over on that dope from the draft board!" The demon takes off his mask to reveal that he is the man from the draft board, who then replies with a popular catchphrase of the "Richard Q. Peavey" character from The Great Gildersleeve: "Well, now, I wouldn’t say that" (same as what Bugs Bunny says at the end of The Old Grey Hare and which he said over and over again) and proceeds to chase Daffy into the distance, letter still in hand, at iris out.

Reception

Animation historian Jerry Beck writes that in this film, Clampett "gives Daffy Duck the first nuance to his zany personality—something Chuck Jones would expand upon in later shorts—by making the duck an out-and-out coward. Even funnier, the little man from the draft board is portrayed by a nerdy 4F reject, who personifies government intrusion in our lives."[3]

Home media

References
  1. Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 157. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 70–72. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  3. Beck, Jerry, ed. (2020). The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons. Insight Editions. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-64722-137-9.
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