24 1/2th Things I Love About Duck Dodgers

Daffy-blogging, essay 14 of 15 blog entries on

Duck Dodgers in the 24 ½th Century

Maurice Noble's sleek rocket design in Duck Dodgers in the
24 1/2th Century (1953).

Part One, 24 1/2th Things I Love About Duck Dodgers

1.  24 1/2th—I love that 1/2th

Following the taxi, the camera
pulls up and up in the opening
crane shot in Duck Dodgers.

2.  The opening crane shot that introduces the space city

3.  The office is on the 17,000th floor

4.  The giant eye

5.  The “Unknown” cloud where Planet X is located on the map

6.  The way Daffy says, “Indubitably”

7.  The Evaporator that leads “To Studio”

8.  The floppy antennae on Daffy’s and Porky’s head coverings

9.  Porky calls Dodgers “Your heroship, sir.”

10.  Daffy’s sheepish expression after he puts rocket in reverse

11.   “South by downeast” in Daffy’s directions to Planet X.  Downeast???

A tree on Planet X.

12.  The X trees on Planet X

13.  The cloud X on the mountain behind Marvin’s spaceship

14.   “Little does he realize that I have on my disintegration-proof vest.”

15.  Daffy’s vest turns from green to red during the disintegrator blast

16.  Porky’s Acme Integrating Pistol

17.  Daffy gets so angry at Porky that he sticks his hand through his head

18.  Porky doesn’t mind that Daffy’s hand went through his head

19.  Daffy’s disintegrating pistol that disintegrates

20.  Porky calls Marvin, “You thing from another world”

Marvin stands on
a pile of books.

21.  Marvin standing on a pile of books to reach his weapon of mass destruction

22.  The bedraggled uniforms of our heroes after the explosion

23.  The roots that dangle off the bit of dirt left of the planet at the end

24.  Final iris-out on Porky

24½.  All this in 6 minutes and 55 seconds

Part Two, Return to Space

Chuck Jones returned for more science fiction comedy on at least
five occasions after Duck Dodgers, but these later efforts never
reached the heights of Duck Dodgers, The Hasty Hare (1952),
or Haredevil Hare (1948).  In 1955, Jones teamed Porky and
Sylvester for a UFO trip into space in Jumpin' Jupiter. This short
introduced the bird-like alien shown here.  He turns up in several
later Jones' cartoons.

Rocket Squad from 1956 had an excellent script by Tedd Pierce that
parodied 1950s  TV detective shows like Dragnet.  Background
artist Ernie Nordli provided a number of imaginative designs
but the short also borrows backgrounds straight from Duck Dodgers,
as in this shot.

Rocket-Bye Baby, also from 1956, was an unusual effort for Chuck
Jones who was working without most of his usual collaborators.
Ernie Nordli provided the very UPA-like background art and Daws
Butler and June Foray did the voices (no Mel Blanc involvement!).
The story concerned an alien baby mix-up.

Bugs Bunny fought Marvin the Martian again in Hareway to the
Stars (1958).  Background artist Maurice Noble provided a memorable
floating space city and the bird-like aliens from Jumpin' Jupiter
returned to torment Bugs.

Coming at the very end of Chuck Jones' long run at Warner Bros.,
Mad As a Mars Hare (1963) boasted an imaginative design,
courtesy of co-director Maurice Noble, but the story and the
animation were much weaker than the standard in the golden days.

Reference Sources

Chuck Amuck by Chuck Jones

Chuck Reducks by Chuck Jones

Hollywood Cartoons by Michael Barrier

Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide by Jerry Beck

Warner Bros. Animation Art by Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald

7 Minutes by Norman M. Klein

That's All Folks by Steve Schneider
Stepping Into the Picture by Robert J. McKinnon

Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume One DVD set, Duck Dodgers commentary by Michael Barrier

Friends at the IMDb Classic Film message board including Rollo Treadway, Chloe Joe Fassbender, Illtdesq, and Fish Beauty

... and an occasional sneak glance at Wikipedia entries (but always double-checking everything!)

Watch Duck Dodgers...

Purchase Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume One DVD set at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Rent Disc Two of Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume One DVD set at Netflix or other rental service.

© 2011 Lee Price