Porky goes for his shotgun. I like how the ducks simply fly up with their butts in air, like someone hit the reverse button on them.
The second time, Porky somehow gets his gun twisted around shoots a hole in the boat.
Out of the lake comes Joe Penner and Goo-Goo (his duck). This gives Penner a chance to shout one of his catchphrases—“Wanna buy a duck?” The scene ends.
Director Tex Avery didn’t know it, but this cartoon was the forerunner of another hunting cartoon starring a different character, a rabbit in complete control of the situation instead of a darn-fool duck being crazy. It also launched the duck on a wild career of several personalities.
Boxoffice magazine had this to say in its issue of June 7, 1937:
The grown-up kiddies, as well as those of school age, will doubtless find enjoyment in this first-rate Looney Tune produced by Leon Schlesinger. The little stuttering pig decides to go duck shooting and, although well equipped with bullets, decoys and a complete hunting outfit, he has difficulty locating the elusive ducks. When he finally finds one it proves to be entirely too smart for him, so much so that it even shows Porky the proper way to fire his gun. After many more mishaps Porky returns home empty-handed where the scornful ducks outside his window give him the “bird.” Deserving a spot on any program, this cartoon is lacking in only one element, that of color.Interestingly, about the same time, Walter Lantz released a duck hunt cartoon starring Oswald the rabbit and his dog Elmer. It was the forerunner of, well, nothing.
Bobe Cannon and Virgil Ross are the credited animators of this landmark Warners short, with the best drunken fish in cartoondom.
Tex knew very well that the music was a justification for the animation, so you can just see him thinking, how do I mess with this one?
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall reading that Bob Clampett animated the end, with Daffy doing loop-de-loops over That's All Folks.
I meant to say that today almost nobody would get the Joe Penner reference, but he was really big back then. It was also short-lived, because he had that one line, plus, "oh, you nahhhhsty man," and if you have only two catchphrases, you won't last long.
DeleteThat's always been part of the fun and challenge of watching the old cartoons: working out the then-topical references and "discovering" long-forgotten celebrities. Often it was still funny even if you didn't get the specific reference: to a viewer who never heard of Joe Penner, this scene just seems like a zany non sequitur.
DeleteHe did inspire Egghead,though! much .later, in 1958, 17 years after 1941 (the year of Joe Penner's premature death, too early to even be in a WWII USO show),Joe was still fresh enough in the minds of many grownups,including those who did the cartoons, to make it into a Yogi cartoon with a certain duckl;ing, SLUMBER PARTY SMARTY (Yogi:"DON'T ever DOO that")..
DeletePokey aka Steve C.