Release Date:

July 5, 1952

Main Character(s):

Daffy Duck, Porky Pig

Summary:

Having flown south too late, Daffy Duck crashes into Porky Pig’s house during a blizzard and finds a stuffed duck on the mantle that looks exactly like him. Initially assuming the stuffed duck is a snob after it doesn’t respond to him, he literally knocks the stuffings out of him and upon realizing it’s stuffed, decides to take his place. As Porky is busy with his income taxes, Daffy instead has to deal with his suspicious, overweight dog, Rover.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1205 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue.

This is Freleng’s final Porky Pig cartoon (coincidentally, he directed Porky’s debut appearance in “I Haven’t Got a Hat”, all the way back in 1935. And when you think about it, Freleng actually used Porky a lot less than Clampett, Jones, and McKimson did).

Although continuity doesn’t matter in cartoons, it is interesting that this is the very next cartoon for both Daffy and Porky, following “Thumb Fun”.

Oddly, only Daffy’s name appears above the title.

The cartoon’s plot was reused for the Pink Panther cartoon, “Slink Pink” (1969), which Hawley Pratt directed.

The cartoon was used in the 1982 compilation movie, “Bugs Bunny’s 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales”, with two changes made. When Daffy puts the beaten-up stuffed duck in the closet, he originally says, “We’ll just put him away in storage for the winter”, while in the movie, he instead says, “Thermopolis will just have to wait” (as in the movie, Daffy and Bugs are rival book salesmen from the same company selling books, with Daffy being assigned to go to Thermopolis, Wyoming. When the weather starts to change, he instead heads south which leads into this cartoon). The other change involves an alternate ending. The actual cartoon ends with Daffy’s friends partying in Porky’s house when Daffy shows him “dependents” for his income taxes. In the movie, a new scene is added with Porky deciding, “S-S-S-So you want a party, huh? I’LL give you a party! A BUCKSHOT party!”, and shoots at them, scaring Daffy and all the ducks into flying away.

The stuffed duck is labeled by the common name “Black Duck” and the species name “Ilex Opaca”. An “Ilex Opaca” isn’t actually a bird, but rather an evergreen tree known as the “American Holly”.

The two lobby cards for the cartoon depict Porky hunting for Daffy in the woods, but that doesn’t happen in the actual cartoon.

I love the rendition of “Down in Nashville, Tennessee” over the opening credits.

Favorite Scene:

Daffy restuffs the stuffed duck and in order to fool Rover into thinking the stuffed duck is him, and enables it to walk across the hallway by putting it on the other end of a wooden plank and then slightly lifting it up so it waddles down the plank and across the hallway in full view of Rover. Thinking it’s Daffy, Rover attacks the stuffed duck, only for Porky to catch him in the act and scold him. Porky threatens to put Rover’s tail in the pencil sharpener if he does something like that again, and mistakenly stuffs the real Daffy with cotton.

What Happens in This One:

We begin with Daffy flying through a blizzard. Tired, he remarks, “What a blizzard! I should’ve flew south sooner!” Visibility then becomes poor in the snowstorm as he is heard wondering, “Hey! What’s that up in front there?” and crashes into something. It turns out he hit the roof of Porky’s house and landed on a windowsill. Popping up out of the snow, Daffy exclaims, “Holy smoke! That building ran right out in front of me!” (animated by Arthur Davis)

Daffy then looks into the house and spots the stuffed duck on the mantle, assuming it’s one of his fellow ducks. “Well! THERE’S one of our boys that’s got this flying south business licked! Since I’m in the neighborhood, I’ll drop in”. He opens the window and goes up to the mantle to talk to the stuffed duck, “Say! Some joint ya got here, bub! (animated by Davis) I see you’ve done pretty well for yourself. A little lonesome, though, I guess. Should have a companion for the long winter evenings. So I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do. I’ll spend the winter months with ya, but mind ya, I got to leave in the spring. What do ya say, deadpan? Is it a deal? Put it right there, brother!”, holding his hand out for a handshake. Getting no response due to this duck being inanimate, Daffy begins to ask, “Eh, HALF brother? Cousin? Total stranger?”, before assuming, “Oh ho! A snob, eh? Listen, sphinx-puss! Don’t give me any of that uppity-pupperly stuff! You’re nothing but an old canvasback duck like I’m!”, poking it several times to the point that it tilts backward, before leaning forward again, happening to hit Daffy. “Hey! Who ya pushin’? Who ya pushin’!? Well, I’m pushing ya right back! There!” and does so, but it leans forward into him again. Daffy assumes this was an attack, “Huh! Hit me when I’m not looking, eh?”, and proceeds to beat it up, “I-yah, I’ll knock the stuffings out of ya! Take that! And-take that! And that! And, oof, take that!” He now realizes this is stuffed, “Hey! I DID knock the stuffings out of him! Well, what do ya know, he’s a stuffed duck!” (animated by Ken Champin)

Getting an idea, Daffy says to himself, “Stuffed duck, eh? Hmm. This is where this ingenious little black duck gets himself some free room and board” (animated by Champin). He gets down from the mantle to put the beat-up stuffed duck in the closet, “We’ll just put him away in storage for the winter”, before deciding, “Now for the refrigerator, and the goodies therein!” Sneaking off to the fridge, he comes across Porky in his office as he’s busy working on his income taxes. Rover comes out and lands his body in front of the fireplace. Daffy sneaks past him and quickly zooms up (animated by Manuel Perez) to the mantle in the stuffed duck’s place, to which Rover suspiciously looks up at him (animated by Virgil Ross).

Time passes from 2:02 to 4:31 and Rover is still looking up at him suspiciously. Sweating, Daffy realizes, “I can see where this moron is gonna give me trouble” and shoves a vase off the mantle with his foot. It crashes on Rover offscreen, who barks angrily at this. A fly then lands on Daffy’s beak and he tries to get it off by wiggling his beak around. The fly then goes up to Daffy’s eyes so he smacks it with the middle of his brow, causing it to fall all the way to the ground in front of Rover. Upon coming to, the fly explains to Rover in a sped-up, high-pitched voice, “He’s not a stuffed duck at all. He’s a live duck. He put it over on ya. He intends to take over the joint. He had ya fooled all the time. He’s a live duck I tell ya. Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack!” (animated by Ross)

Rover barks up angrily at Daffy, which causes Porky to come out of his office. “Hey, uh, wh-wh-what’s goin’ on here? Now, eh, s-s-stop it! Stop it, Rover!”, slapping him with a rolled-up paper before continuing, “Wh-wh-wh-what’s the matter with you? Y-y-you burn out of bearing or something? Y-you silly dog! Th-th-that’s a stuffed duck! I-it’s been stuffed for years! Here, d-do I have to PROVE it to ya?” Porky takes Daffy down by holding him by the legs. “Eh, l-l-look, bright boy! St-stuffed with cotton, a-a-and-and his head is wood, see?”, and then slams Daffy’s head on the ground repeatedly, unknowingly giving him lumps, “W-wood, wood, wood!” Porky puts a dazed Daffy back on the mantle (animated by Ross).

Later, Daffy sneaks to the refrigerator to eat a piece of ham. Rover catches him and attempts to sneak up on him. Daffy notices his presence and picks up the bone as a distraction by having Rover fetch it by throwing it out the window. Being a dog, Rover leaps out the window to fetch it, and makes a take upon seeing he’s in mid-air outside before running back and catching onto the windowsill. Daffy shuts the window on Rover, but feels guilty: “Aw, shucks. I can’t stand to see a dumb animal suffer. So-”, and shuts the curtain to not look at him (animated by Davis).

Working on his taxes again, Porky sees Rover knock on the window. He obliviously thinks this is another dog while turning around to where he thinks Rover is, “Oh, eh, R-Rover, there’s a dog here to see ya”, before realizing this IS him, “Eh, R-R-ROVER!” Porky opens the window and pulls Rover back in, scolding him again, “Eh, g-get in here! What’s the matter with you!? B-b-b-bewitched or something!? Any more trouble from you, and ou-out you go!”, before pointing the other way to send him out of the room (animated by Perez).

As Rover is sulking in the living room, Daffy is shown to have restuffed the stuffed duck as he puts it on one end of a wooden plank and lifts it up to make the stuffed duck waddle down the plank and across the hallway to make it look like it’s Daffy walking across. Rover mistakes it for Daffy and proceeds to tear it to shreds. Porky comes in, furious. “Eh, s-s-stop it! Stop it, you idiot!” before taking the ruined duck and slapping Rover on the head with it. Daffy watches as Porky drags Rover by the collar into another room for him to stay there. “Y-y-you try that again, and I’ll, uh, put your tail in the pencil sharpener!” Daffy begins to sneak off, but Porky opens the door to the room and grabs him, mistaking him for the stuffed duck, “N-n-now I’ll have to stuff that duck all over again!” (animated by Ross)

The next scene fades in to Porky shoving several pieces of cotton into Daffy’s mouth in tune to “Shortnin’ Bread”. After he has been stuffed, Daffy is seen on the mantle with his torso now being an abnormal square-shape from all the cotton stuffed into his mouth (animated by Perez).

A flock of ducks who all look like Daffy fly in, as one of them notices Porky’s house, “Hey, fellas! Look!” They all fly in towards Porky’s windowsill and take a look at the overstuffed Daffy, “Now there’s one of our boys that got this flying south business beat!” (animated by Davis) Meanwhile, Porky has become annoyed with trying to figure out his taxes as he walks out of his office, “Oh, eh, th-this darn income tax would come alright if I only had a f-f-few dependents”. Daffy asks, “Did you say ‘dependents’?” and runs off the mantle to open the door to another room, answering, “You got ‘em, brother!” Porky silently reacts in shock as to what Daffy is referring to (animated by Perez): the room is full of the flock of ducks having a 1950’s-style party with dancing, card-playing, etc. in tune to “Charleston” (animated by Ross).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕