The Night of the Living Duck
The Night of the Living Duck is a six-minute 1988 Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Daffy Duck, directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon.[1] It was released to theatres as a part of Daffy Duck's Quackbusters on September 24, 1988 and is shown before the film in all of its releases.
| The Night of the Living Duck | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Greg Ford Terry Lennon |
| Produced by | Steven S. Greene |
| Story by | Greg Ford Terry Lennon |
| Starring | Mel Blanc Mel Tormé (singing voice) |
| Music by | Music from previous cartoons by Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn |
| Animation by | Brenda Banks Norm McCabe Frans Vischer Rebecca Rees Mark Kausler |
| Layouts by | Robert Givens Lin Larsen |
| Backgrounds by | Richard H. Thomas Alan Bodner |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date | September 23, 1988 (released at New York Festival) September 24, 1988 (released with Daffy Duck's Quackbusters) |
Running time | 6 min. |
| Language | English |
The title is a pun on Night of the Living Dead, although the cartoon has nothing to do with that film's theme of a zombie apocalypse.
This short was also one of Mel Blanc's final performances, as it was released less than a year before his death.
Plot
Daffy Duck, indulging in his comic book fandom in a sequence reminiscent of his earlier film The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, is reading a scary comic book called "Hideous Tales" (issue #176). The comic's "Noseman" story ends in a cliffhanger involving Smogzilla, and Daffy rifles his bookcase looking for the next issue ("It's a veritable collector's item!"). While doing so however, a monster clock falls and beans Daffy, knocking him out.
In his dream, Daffy finds himself as the featured act in a nightclub where the customers are classic movie monsters. Daffy appears unable to sing, but there was a bottle of "Eau de Tormé" in Daffy's dressing room, which makes him sing like Mel Tormé. After drinking the spray's entire contents for maximum effect, he sings "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives" to the room with a ghost named "Ghouley" playing the piano. The monsters (among them Pumpkinhead from The Great Piggy Bank Robbery and Alfred E. Neuman) love the song.
Then he goes around the room, greeting the patrons. But his good-natured ribbing of Smogzilla doesn't go over well with the giant lizard ("Say, Smog baby, leveled any major cities lately?", "You know, Smogzilla's just like any unemployed actor, except when he pounds the pavement, it registers a ten on the Richter scale!", "Oh, what's the matter? The public not buying those cheap special effects anymore?") who then eats Daffy.
Daffy wakes up to find himself stuck in a wastebasket, along with the comic he was looking for (Hideous Tales issue #177) with "Smogzilla" on the cover. Daffy scoffs and Smogzilla on the cover comes to life saying "You were expecting maybe Calvin Coolidge?"
References
- Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 386. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
