Scrap Happy Daffy is a 1943 Looney Tunes short directed by Frank Tashlin.
Title[]
The title is a play on "slap-happy."
Plot[]
Daffy is a guard at a scrap pile, encouraging Americans to "Get the tin out," "Get the iron out," and especially "Get the lead out." Singing "We're In to Win", Daffy goes over the various things Americans can send to help with the war effort. However, this doesn't go down well with Adolf Hitler, who reads about Daffy's scrap pile helping to beat Benito Mussolini. Out of frustration, he bites through a large rug like a beaver to his desk, and orders his men, "Destroy that scrap pile!"
With the word out, a Nazi submarine sends a missile to the scrap pile - which has a billy goat inside, who immediately starts eating everything in sight. Daffy, hearing the noise, tries to find out what's making the noise. After temporarily pointing a rifle at a reflection of himself (thinking that he cornered someone else), Daffy finds the goat hiccuping with the garbage inside him and amiably offers him a bicarbonate. However, when Daffy sees the swastika that the goat (whom he derides as a "tin termite") is wearing, he starts messing with the goat. Temporarily getting the better of the goat, Daffy is almost undone when he tries to whack the goat with a mallet - but the mallet gets stuck in the goat's horns and the goat knocks Daffy around.
Daffy is ready to call it quits, but is encouraged by the ghosts of his 'ancestors' - ducks who landed on Plymouth Rock, who sailed with George Washington and who stood in for Abraham Lincoln. His spirits back up (since "Americans don't give up, and I'm an American... duck!"), Daffy turns into 'Super American'. Daffy flies after the goat, knocking him around. The goat makes a run for the submarine, but Daffy repels all bullets shot at him and starts yanking on the periscope. Just then, the scene changes to Daffy yanking on a fire hose and getting hosed down. Daffy wakes up, thinking it was all just a dream - until he looks up at the Nazi submarine sitting on top of the scrap pile, where the Nazis tell Daffy, "Next time you dream, include us out!"
Caricatures[]
- Benito Mussolini
- Adolf Hitler
- Hideki Tojo
- George Washington
- Daniel Boone
- John Paul Jones
- Abraham Lincoln
Availability[]
Goofs[]
- At the end when the Nazis are yelling at Daffy, the goat's mouth doesn't move.
Notes[]
- This short is the final appearance of Daffy Duck in black-and-white.
- The purpose of this cartoon was to encourage people at that time to donate any scrap material to help the U.S. military make more weapons and vehicles to fight in the war.
- Daffy says, "What I'd give for a can of spinach now," an indirect reference to Popeye, whose theatrical cartoons are now owned by WB.
- In ToonHeads (The Wartime Cartoons), Cartoon Network used an unrestored Sunset Productions print of the short. Curiously, it was low-pitched and lacked the opening and ending titles; they added those from "Confusions of a Nutzy Spy".
- This cartoon was colorized in 1995, with a computer adding color to a new print of the original black and white cartoon. This preserved the quality of the original animation. However, this new colorized version was never broadcast on American television due to its heavy World War II references and depiction of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. A clip of the computer-colorized version was shown on a special episode of Cartoon Network's ToonHeads about World War II-era cartoons and in a documentary about the works of director Frank Tashlin on the third volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection.
- This cartoon has fallen into the public domain because the copyright was not renewed after 1971 by Warner Bros., the holder of the cartoon at the time.
- The goat from this cartoon reappears during the "Toon Meeting" scene in Space Jam.
Music-Cues[4][]
- This Is Worth Fighting For (by Sam H. Stept)
- Played during the opening credits and at the beginning
- We're in to Win (by Morris Orenstein)
- Sung with substitute lyrics by Daffy Duck (Mel Blanc)
- Symphony No. 5 Op. 67 I. Allegro con brio (by Ludwig van Beethoven)
- Plays when the newspaper is shown
- Rienzi (uncredited) (Opera) Written by Richard Wagner
- Plays briefly when the Nazi's say "DESTROY!"
- Oh Du Lieber Augustin (by Marx Augustin)
- Plays when the Goat is eating and when the Goat is goose stepping
- Why Don't You Fall in Love with Me? (by Mabel Wayne)
- Plays when Daffy gives the goat the stomach remedy
- Yankee Doodle (traditional)
- Sung with substitute lyrics by various characters
- The Battle Hymn of the Republic (Music by William Steffe & Lyrics by Julia Ward Howe)
- Sung with substitute lyrics by various characters
Gallery[]
See Also[]
- "Daffy - The Commando" - a similar cartoon released later in 1943.
- List of cartoons featuring Daffy Duck
References[]
- ↑ (3 October 2022) Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 (in en). BearManor Media, page 108.
- ↑ https://youtu.be/aAy54qaQYUo?t=25
- ↑ https://www.sakugabooru.com/post/show/178912
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036334/soundtrack/