Why he did it, I don’t know know. Maybe the studio was falling behind deadlines and needed some cartoons pumped out quickly.
Ernie Gee gagged the original short with Clampett, while Mike Maltese is credited with “story,” so I presume he added the few new gags.
One is at the start, where a cycle march by a soldier stops, and the dogface (literally) says to the audience: “Have you folks seen any Indians around here?” Indians pop up in the background and say “No, no, no, no, no!” and duck back down again.
The walk cycle seems to get re-used in the Freleng cartoon, but the animation when the sentry talks to the audience isn’t the same (he doesn’t have those long Clampett eyes). Mel Blanc’s dialogue is different: “Say, does you see any Indians around here?” A different set of Indians pops up and, this time, borrows the line from Mr. Kitzel of the Al Pearce show: “Mmmmm. Could be!” before ducking back down again.
Seeing Clampett’s Daffy with a long thin beak is a little disconcerting in a Freleng cartoon.
Maltese adds some enjoyable gags which would be at home in a Tex Avery cartoon. There’s one where an Indian scout looks around. When he turns his head, his feather bonnet belongs to a turkey, who is also looking around. (See Nick’s comment below).
The scout spots something and jumps on his horse. Naturally, we expect him to make a ride back to his settlement. Wrong! The horse takes one leap and stops in front of a pay phone. (Note the same trees in the background).
Freleng cuts to a phone gag. Instead of the dial moving, the pay phone moves. (Hmm. It appears the finger isn’t in the hole in the second frame).
Virgil Ross gets the animation rotating credit in the Freleng version.
The other major change in "Slightly Daffy" is that Daffy's voice is a bit lower, owing to the character's vocal evolution since 1939.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Porky whistles "As Time Goes By" while snoring in the remake, whereas in the original it's just generic snoring.
I way prefer Friz to Bob. At least Friz was into character development, and had consistent personalities.
ReplyDeleteFreleng had a way of controlling the Clampett zaniness without sacrificing charm. Same with "Porky in Wackyland"/"Dough for the Do-Do." And color doesn't hurt, either. I do prefer "Porky's Badtime Story" to "Tick Tock Tuckered," though; the situation seems to suit Gabby more than Daffy, plus the timing's better.
ReplyDeleteThe Indian scout gag is actually reused animation from Tex Avery's Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas. Some the other Indian gags are reused from Freleng's The Hardship of Miles Standish. There is very little completely new animation in Slightly Daffy.
ReplyDeleteAs for why Freleng directed the remake, supposedly it was him picking up the slack for Clampett who was so behind schedule he didn't have time to complete it. Given the number of Clampett cartoons in this period which were either remakes or heavily reused animation or footage (Tin Pan Alley Cats, What's Cookin' Doc?, Tick Tock Tuckered, Wagon Heels, Bacall To Arms, etc), it would make sense that it originated with his unit.