Ding Dog Daddy

Ding Dog Daddy
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Airdate:	5 December 1942
Runtime:	8 min. 12 sec.
Series:	Merrie Melodies
MPAA Number:	8198
Production Number:	MM-5-12
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc Sara Berner Pinto Colvig
Director:	I. Freleng
Written By:	Ted Pierce
Producer:	Leon Schlesinger
Animated By:	Gerry Chiniquy Ken Champin (uncredited) Manuel Perez (uncredited) Phil Monroe (uncredited)
Layout Artist:	Owen Fitzgerald (uncredited)
Background Artist:	Paul Julian (uncredited)
Film Editor:	Treg Brown (uncredited)
Musician:	Carl W. Stalling

Ding Dog Daddy is a 1942 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng.

Title

The title is a play on the 1928 song "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas".

Plot

A goofy, bumpkin dog sees a bird couple. Wanting to find love, he sees a female dog, and he asks her if she would like but be his girl, but she quickly rejects him. Devastated, the dog eventually finds a metal statue of a female dog, with the name "Daisy" on her collar inside a homeowner's garden. He falls in love with it, not knowing that it is not a real dog. He kisses the statue, and lightning strikes and sends a shock through his system, and he thinks she loves him.

He also has to constantly contend with a vicious bulldog, who is guarding the gate to the garden. After getting kicked out, he tries to get himself back inside. His first attempt in siphoning the key from the gate results in the bulldog being pulled out instead of the key. He then tries to hide inside a bush, which quickly backfires once he takes it off in an attempt to kiss the statue. He eventually gets rid of the bulldog by locking him outside.

Afterward, he kisses the statue again, and again, lightning strikes and sends a shock through his system, and he thinks she still loves him. While resting in the flower garden, the statue is carted away in a truck marked "Scrap Metal for Victory" for fighting World War II.

He frantically runs behind the truck to the ammunitions depot, calling out "Daisy!" numerous times. He cries, thinking that he has lost her, and will never see her again. A bomb labeled "Daisy" rolls off the other bombs and into the dog's arms. Overjoyed, he takes her back with him to the garden. Devastated over "Daisy's" transformation, he kisses the bomb, and it explodes in his face. He happily yells out: "Wow! She hasn't changed a bit!"

Caricatures

• Red Skelton - "Now, don’t get nosey, bub."

Availability

(1992) Laserdisc
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 3, Side 4: Friz Freleng

(2023) Blu-ray
Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 2 (restored)

Streaming

HBO Max (2020 - 2020) (restored, removed)

Goofs

• When the female dog bluntly rejects the goofy dog: "Nah, I wouldn't like to be your girl-!", there appears to be an abrupt cut-off in her dialogue, where after her line ends with "girl", her mouth moves without saying anything before completely finishing her line of dialogue.
• When the 2020 restoration was first released on HBO Max, it starts at the Merrie Melodies title card instead of the WB shield zoom-in title card. This was either an error or a result of HBO Max using a print with the title card spliced out. This error led to the cartoon being quickly removed from the service upon its discovery. A new print with the error corrected was first aired on Sunday Night Cartoons from the MeTV subchannel MeTV+, then released on the Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 2 Blu-ray.

Notes

• This is the first collaboration of writer Tedd Pierce and director Friz Freleng.
• The American Turner "dubbed version" replaces the 1941-55 ending rendition of Merrily We Roll Along with the 1938-41 rendition. The European Turner "dubbed version" retains the original ending cue.
• This short entered the public domain in 1971 due to United Artists failing to renew the copyright in time.
• Vitaphone release number: 825

Music-Cues

• When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano (by Leon René)
  • Plays during the opening scene
• You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby (by Harry Warren)
  • Plays when the female dog is walking by
• Blues in the Night (by Harold Arlen)
  • Plays when the dog is walking alone
• I'm Happy About the Whole Thing (by Harry Warren)
  • Played when the dog is talking to the audience and after the dog kisses the lady dog statue
• Frühlingslied (by Felix Mendelssohn)
  • Plays when the dog is dancing in the flowers
• The Red, White and Blue aka ["Columbia, Gem of the Ocean"] (by David T. Shaw & Arranged by Thomas A. Beckett)
  • Plays when "Scrap Metal for Victory" appears
• Where, Oh Where, Has My Little Dog Gone? (rom German folk song)
  • Played when the dog chases the lady dog statue.
• Symphony No. 5 Op. 67 I. Allegro con brio (by Ludwig van Beethoven)
  • Played during the factory scene
• Am I Blue? (by Harry Akst)
  • Played when the dog is crying
• I'm Happy About the Whole Thing (by Harry Warren)
  • Plays again at the end

Gallery

Title card (unrestored)

Title card (1995 Turner print)

Cropped screenshot of 2020 restoration

Partially cropped lobby card

External Links

• "Ding Dog Daddy" at the Big Cartoon Database
• "Ding Dog Daddy" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Ding Dog Daddy" at the Spotlight Cartoon Archive