Release Date:

January 22, 1949

Main Character(s):

Daffy Duck

Summary:

A hillbilly named “Paw” brings home a turkey named Tom and puts him in the yard with several food for him to eat and be fattened up for Thanksgiving. Daffy Duck, who also resides on the farm, is jealous that Tom is getting more food than him, and after scaring him with an overdramatic tale of the fate of turkeys on Thanksgiving, puts him on an exercise program while Daffy eats all the food himself. When Thanksgiving day arrives, Tom is as thin as a rail while Daffy is now fat with large drumsticks. Daffy also realizes that apparently you can have duck for Thanksgiving as Paw now intends to cook him after seeing how healthy he is.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1098 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was produced in Cinecolor, resulting in it being finished early. It was also the penultimate cartoon to use the Cinecolor process, and uses the 1949 orange rings with the blue background.

The cartoon wasn’t restored for HBO Max, but Warner Archive did restore it for the Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice Volume 4 Blu-ray set in 2024. This restoration also retains the original end card as all prints seen prior used the 1957-1959 blue rings with the red background.

In production order, this is the penultimate Davis cartoon and the last cartoon written by Lloyd Turner.

The title is a pun for the song “Holiday for Strings”.

The cartoon is a follow-up of sorts to “Tom Turk and Daffy” in that both involve Daffy and a turkey and have Daffy trying to avoid becoming Thanksgiving dinner. Also, like the previous cartoon, the turkey in this cartoon is named Tom, but this is a completely different character.

"Maw” in this cartoon is voiced by Mel Blanc in another instance where he voices a female character.

What I Like About This One:

The drum-heavy rendition of “All the Time” over the opening credits.

To the tune of “Arkansas Traveler”, Paw’s very slow car goes up the hill into his driveway and then comes apart upon stopping. One of the hillbillies from the family he’s feuding with shoots a bullet through his hat as Paw greets his wife, “Hi, Maw”. Maw greets him back and holds out her coffeepot so that it gets shot full of holes and can pour two cups at once. Paw also uses the next bullet shot to get the match for his pipe lit. After explaining he got a turkey for Thanksgiving, Paw presumably kills one of the hillbillies from the other family as evidenced by an agonized scream, before instructing Maw, “You go get some grub for him and uh…. I’ll put him out in the yard”. He then walks over to the wall where several tally marks are, and adds one, which signifies how many from the other family he’s killed. The one he just now shot makes it a total of 74 (animated by Emery Hawkins).

After Tom is put into the yard, Daffy walks in time to a lively tune and is insulted at what he sees: “How do ya like that? Puttin’ another bird in here! Another mouth to feed! There’s hardly enough food for ME to eat around this place! Oh well. I don’t have to worry. I’ve got seniority on him. (chuckles) He won’t get any more food than m- Huh?” (animated by Don Williams) Daffy sees that Tom is about to sit down to eat a large pile of food and stops him before he can bite into an ear of corn: “Hold it, Thomas! Boy! Am I glad I was in time to save you!” (animated by Bill Melendez)

“Save me from what?”, Tom asks. “This food,” Daffy answers before lamenting, “I’ve seen ‘em come and I’ve seen ‘em go”. He then warns him about Paw and Maw’s true intentions with him, “Don’t you see what their little game is? They want you to get all fattened up for Thanksgiving, so they give you all of this food, and you eat and eat till you’re nice and fat!” He then goes dramatic, “Then on Thanksgiving, you get the ax. They stick you in an old hot stove. The next thing you know, you’re on a table. It’s time to carve. He picks up the knife. He starts toward ya and then-!” Before he can imitate a stabbing, Daffy finds (animated by Melendez up to here) Tom wrapped around a tree, shaking in terror. Daffy pulls him down and advises, “Now what YOU’VE gotta do is fool ‘em and not eat. In fact, you’d better start reducing. You weigh too much now”. He then shows Tom his fortune by walking him over to a scale although Daffy himself steps on it (animated by Hawkins). It reads, “You will soon be surrounded by friends and cranberries!” (animated by Basil Davidovich).

Courtesy of Daffy, Tom goes on an exercise routine while Daffy eats all the food. Tom is seen tied to a tree while running on banana peels left from the bananas Daffy is eating and then does rowing in the water trough while Daffy eats grapes and orders him, “Come on. Come on. Let’s put some speed into it. Only 16 days until Thanksgiving, ya know.” Tom rows so fast that he pulls the trough apart with Tom not falling until he sees he’s in mid-air (animated by Davidovich).

Tom next does some jumping with a jump rope as Daffy is sampling cobs of corn, runs on the treadmill while Daffy is eating a pie, and lifting a barbell before sinking into the ground from the weight as Daffy eats various sandwiches. After Tom pole vaults and hits the bar headfirst, a montage is shown as days pass, Daffy eats more food, and Tom does more exercising (animated by Davidovich).

When Thanksgiving arrives, Daffy is now shown to be fat and Tom comes out of the reducing cabinet very thin and panting heavily. Daffy assures him, “Well, here it is. Thanksgiving Day, and you’re safe as a bug in a rug. Thanks to me. What a wreck. Nobody would eat you, now” (animated by Hawkins).

Paw tells Maw, who’s in the middle of knitting, that he’d better go out and get the turkey, but upon seeing Tom’s condition, remarks, “Land sakes! This turkey’s sure a bony-lookin’ critter! Don’t look very healthy to me!” Daffy adds, “Yeah, ain’t he a mess!?” and then walks over to Paw who starts to look very intrigued upon seeing Daffy, “Too bad he ain’t healthy like me! Here, look at this wing. Have you ever seen a wing like that on a duck before? Yes, sir. I’m all fat tendered duck. Now take this drumstick for instance. Ain’t that a beauty? Yeah, but it’s a shame ya can’t eat duck on Thanksgiving!” Paw’s wide grin tells him otherwise, as Daffy nervously gulps, “Or can ya?” (animated by Williams)

Daffy desperately tries to lose weight fast but Paw keeps shooting at him and his exercise equipment, such as shooting the barbell in half and causing the reducing cabinet to shrink all the way down to the point where it tightens around Daffy’s neck (animated by Davidovich). Daffy pleads for Tom to hide him, but Tom instead gets back at him for making him go on that exercise program and cheating him out of the food, and so “hides” him in various places such as under a rock (animated by Williams), down a well, in a house that has a brick wall behind its door, and up a rope and pulley system (animated by Davidovich).

Tom advises Daffy, “Hey, look. You had better leave the country. Go to Rio where they don’t have Thanksgiving”. Tom gives a dazed Daffy his bag and tickets for “the boat” which is actually the oven set up to look like an ocean liner complete with gangplank and Maw and Paw dressed as sailors and saluting. After the oven door is shut on him, Daffy says to himself, “Hmm. Inside state room. I’ll have to talk to the steward” (animated by Hawkins).

Later, when the lethargic cuckoo rings the triangle for meal time, Paw asks Maw, “Is that duck cooked yet, Maw?” Maw answers, “No and it don’t look like it ever will be. I keep lightin’ the matches and he keeps blowin’ ‘em out!” Maw, surrounded by thousands of burned out matches, has every match she lights blown out by Daffy, indicating this has gone on for quite a while (animated by Hawkins).

Where Can I Watch It?

On YouTube!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕