Patriotic Duck

Daffy Duck in Bob Clampett’s hands is either emotional or hyper-emotional. Take “Draftee Daffy,” for instance.

The little black duck lets his American patriotism fuel his reactions in one of the early scenes. He’s not overly hyper, just enthusiastic. It’s a shame there’s a lamp in the foreground and the shot is so tight because they get in the way of some of Daffy’s histrionics. You can see what I mean in some of these frames when he leaps up and back into his chair then bounces onto the floor.



The scene carries on with some quick morphing. These pairs are consecutive frames. Daffy whips out an American flag from nowhere as he sings “Hurray For the Red, White and Blue.”



He switches to “Yankee Doodle,” and switches patriotic guises at the same time.



For a line of dialogue he turns into Teddy Roosevelt.



And changes back.



Daffy’s patriotism turns out to be the let-the-other-guy-go-into-battle variety. When the man from the draft board shows up, the duck spends the rest of the cartoon in a panic trying to get away from him. He fails.

Rod Scribner gets the only animation credit.