Release Date:

January 27, 1945

Main Character(s):

Daffy Duck

Summary:

Excited over the latest US victory, Daffy Duck goes all out in his patriotism, but when the “little man from the draft board” comes to his house to deliver Daffy’s induction letter, Daffy desperately tries to avoid him.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1-15, the first Looney Tune in the 15th release season.

The cartoon uses the premise of “no matter where a character runs to, the character pursuing them always shows up in that spot”. Tex Avery used this premise before in both “The Blow Out” and “Tortoise Beats Hare”, and also did so in two of his masterpieces at MGM, “Dumb Hounded” (1943) and “Northwest Hounded Police” (1946) with both involving Droopy pursuing a wolf who escapes prison. Here, Clampett borrows the idea and the result is one of his most energetic cartoons.

Even though this one’s premise is Daffy trying to run away from getting drafted, he was proudly a war hero in “Scrap Happy Daffy”, “Daffy the Commando”, and “Plane Daffy”.

Not counting the remaining Private Snafu cartoons, this is the very last Warner cartoon centered around World War ll due to the war finally ending a few months later (even though wartime references would still pop up occasionally in subsequent cartoons).

A painting of Douglas MacArthur is signed by “Cornett Wood”, a layout man at Warner Bros. who would be Robert McKimson’s layout man from the start of his directorial stint in 1946 up until 1951.

This is the second time where Daffy dies with the first being in “Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur”. Unlike that one however, he ends up in the other place.

The cartoon is in the 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons book.

“The Penguin” plays when Daffy believes the man from the draft board was “blown to smithereens”.

This is a rare instance where “It Had to Be You” plays during a scene that doesn't have anything to do with romance or stripteasing. In this case, it plays when Daffy sadly bemoans, “It had to be me” when he realizes the man from the draft board is coming.

What I Like About This One:

Daffy’s reading of the newspaper: “US Army announces a smashing frontal attack on enemy rear!” and then getting all excited about it: “A smashing frontal attack on enemy rear!? Hooray!” He then goes into a chorus of “Oh hooray for the red, white, and blue!”, a brief snippet of Yankee Doodle, imitates one of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, and ends with “And this is no baloney!” (animated by Basil Davidovich) Daffy continues by saluting a picture of General MacArthur while singing parody lyrics of “If I Could Be with You One Hour Tonight” and imitating machine gun fire with a lampshade on his head as if it were a war helmet (animated by Robert McKimson).

Next singing, “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli” (animated by Manny Gould), Daffy’s patriotism is interrupted by the phone ringing which he sings about in the same tune: “Hear those bells of freedom ringing, oh no it’s just the phone for me” (animated by Davidovich). Hearing on the phone that the “little man from the draft board” is bringing him a letter from the president (animated by Rod Scribner), he absentmindedly puts this in to the same song still singing in the same tune: “Oh, the little man from the draft board is coming to see me! Oh, the-” before realizing to his horror as to what this means. “D-d-d-d-d-THE MAN FROM THE DRAFT BOARD!? WO-HO! YIPE!” (animated by Gould)

With his knees knocking, a beyond nervous Daffy literally tries to get a hold of himself (animated by Gould) and becomes very jittery when looking out his window with a spyglass (animated by Scribner). Thinking, “I don’t see no man from the draft board!”, Daffy’s spyglass suddenly comes into a view of a realistic-looking eye. It’s of the man from the draft board of course, and he greets Daffy with “Howdy doody son?” (animated by McKimson)

Daffy then barricades the door with several objects (animated by Davidovich) and races like a rocket upstairs in tune to a very energetic rendition of “In the Stirrups”. Stopping to catch his breath near a window, Daffy assumes, “I guess he’s gone now”, but finds the man from the draft board at the window answering, “Well, now I wouldn’t say THAT!” Daffy then puts on a straw hat, glasses, and gray beard hoping the man from the draft board won’t recognize him when he looks again, but is instead met by the man from the draft board wearing the same disguise, accompanied by a hilarious trombone warbling sound effect (animated by Gould).

Now racing like lightning, Daffy calls the Transoceanic Airport to give him a one-way ticket to the North Pole, but skids to a stop before he can go out the front door (animated by Davidovich) due to the man from the draft board standing there and asking, “Is this trip REALLY necessary, son?”, which refers to the urging of not using a lot of fuel during the war (animated by McKimson). As the man from the draft board waddles into the house, Daffy shuts the door on him (animated by Davidovich)

Daffy running into a closet (animated by Gould) and heavily panting only to be tapped on the shoulder by the man from the draft board who asks him, “What’s all the hubbub, bub?” Daffy whispers to him, “Shh, there’s a little man from the draft board outside but he’ll never catch me in a million years! (chuckles) The dope!” The man from the draft board again responds, “Well, now I wouldn’t say THAT!” (animated by Scribner) Realizing what he just heard, Daffy’s eyes move to the side of his head (animated by McKimson) before he does a wild take (animated by Davidovich) and runs out of the closet, shutting the door on the man from the draft board waddling out of said closet (animated by Gould).

Daffy then attempts to get rid of the man from the draft board by popping up from a door on the floor and putting a bomb under his behind. “This’ll be a killer! A KILLER!”, Daffy chortles as he does the same rocket-like run backwards down the stairs (animated by Gould).

Anticipating the explosion, Daffy is tapped by the man from the draft board who asks him, “Hey, son. Did you forget this?”, and hands Daffy the bomb. Daffy absentmindedly answers, “Oh, yeah. Thanks, pop!” (animated by Gould)

After the explosion, the man from the draft board asks Daffy if he’s alright. Coming to his senses, Daffy responds, “Oh, I’m a little shaken up. But you should’ve seen what happened to that dope from the draft board! He was blown to smithereens, see! Smithereens!” The man from the draft board is once again about to say his catchphrase before Daffy starts to get more and more frantic: “No. No. You wouldn’t say THAT! It’s you! It’s you!” before crying maniacally and tearing through the wall (animated by McKimson).

Banging into a safe, Daffy goes inside it and tricks the man from the draft board into following him in there. Daffy then traps him in the safe and constructs an entire wall in front of it. “So long, Dracula! You dope!”, Daffy chortles as he runs to the top of his house and jumps on a rocket marked “In Case of Induction Only”. “If I never see him again, it’ll be too soon!” (animated by Davidovich)

Unfortunately, the rocket goes downward with the explosion killing Daffy and sending him to Hades (animated by Davidovich). Realizing, “I AM in!”, Daffy confides to a nearby devil, “Oh well. Anyway, I sure put it over on that dope from the draft board!” The devil responds, “Well, now I wouldn’t say THAT!” and reveals that he’s the man from the draft board in disguise! He then chases Daffy around the fiery inferno as the cartoon irises out (animated by McKimson).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕