Porky's Duck Hunt

Porky's Duck Hunt
Looney Tunes (Porky Pig/Daffy Duck) series
Daffy Duck as he first appeared in Porky's Duck Hunt
Directed by	Tex Avery
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger
Story by	Tex Avery
Voices by	Mel Blanc Billy Bletcher (both uncredited)
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Virgil Ross Robert Cannon Bob Clampett (uncredited) Chuck Jones (uncredited)
Studio	Leon Schlesinger Studios
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	April 17, 1937
Color process	Black and White (later colourized)
Running time	8:47
Language	English

Porky's Duck Hunt is a 1937 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 could not 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

Porky is well equipped and ready to begin duck hunting. Porky practices with his rifle, frightens his dog, Rover and shoots a man upstairs, who comes down to punch Porky in the snout.

At a lake, Porky spies a duck, but other duck hunters suddenly appear and shoot at it for several seconds. They all miss. A cross-eyed duck hunter tries to shoot the same duck but instead shoots down two planes.

Porky puts out duck decoys. Daffy arrives and blends among them. Porky wears a decoy on his head, walks underwater and tries to shoot Daffy, but the gun shoots out water instead of bullets. Daffy then flies onto a floating barrel (labeled 'XXX' - a period designation for whiskey^[1]). 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'.

Daffy bites Porky on the nose as he peers through the grass. Porky shoots Daffy down and instructs Rover to bring the duck back, 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'. 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.

After a humorous scene where Daffy eats an electric eel and it shocks himself, 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?".

Alerted by Rover 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. 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. Disgusted, Porky throws the duck call to the ground, but it bounces and Rover accidentally swallows it. Rover gets the hiccups, quacking with each one, drawing constant fire and forcing Porky and Rover to flee from the lake.

Porky and Rover 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 is empty, throws the shotgun to the floor. The gun fires into the ceiling, getting the man from upstairs to come and punch Porky again.

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.

References

External links

• Porky's Duck Hunt at the Internet Movie Database
• Porky's Duck Hunt on the Internet Archive
• Official Looney Tunes Website
• Watch Porky's Duck Hunt here