Stork Naked is a 1955 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng.
Title[]
The title is a play on the phrase "stark naked."
Plot[]
The Drunk Stork is delivering babies, and at every stop he celebrates with a drink with the parents. Meanwhile at Daffy's house, his wife Daphne is knitting a tiny sweater. He tries it on, only for Daphne to tell him it's for a new baby. Daffy, not taking to the idea of having another mouth to feed, sets up all manner of anti-stork measures in an attempt to keep the stork away; anti-aircraft guns on the roof, bear traps in the bushes, a trampoline in the fireplace, a guillotine in the doorway, and alligators in the basement. The stork tries to deliver him an egg, and somehow evades all of the traps as Daffy falls into them. Legs pop out of the egg, so the stork lets it wander into Daffy's house, and he leaves. When the egg hatches, it looks just like the stork, so Daffy flies it back to him, happy to finally give him a dose of his own medicine.
Availability[]
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Notes[]
- The stork's first stop is the apartment of Mr. & Mrs. Pierce. This is a reference to longtime Termite Terrace veteran writer Tedd Pierce.
- Unlike most cartoons featuring The Drunk Stork, the stork starts out sober and becomes increasingly intoxicated with every delivery due to the parents requesting to celebrate with alcoholic beverages.
- This short was included in The Bugs Bunny Mother's Day Special.
- Though Daffy is depicted as a greedy, selfish, neurotic, sarcastic, immature, and spotlight-hungry antihero in the 1950s to the early-1960s since 1951's "Rabbit Fire", Daffy here is nastier and more prone to violence, upsetting his wife when he tells her he doesn't want a baby and going to great lengths to keep the stork away, even if it means using dangerous booby-traps. However, Daffy at least retains some good nature in this short whilst interacting with his wife, Daphne.
- This is one of the only two cartoons from the "classic" (pre-1965) era where Daffy is depicted as nastier than he is usually depicted in the "classic" (pre-1965) era. The other one is "The Iceman Ducketh" (1964), the final pairing of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck from the "classic" era (as well as the last appearance of Daffy during the "classic" era), in which Daffy played the antagonist role.
- Interestingly, Daffy's extremely unlikable side from this cartoon would be exaggerated a decade later during the DePatie-Freleng and W-7 eras when Daffy became an antagonist to Speedy Gonzales.
- The animation of Daffy escaping the cellar hatch whilst batting down the alligators and panting after closing the hatch doors would later be used in "China Jones".
- Likewise, the guillotine gag would be repeated later in "Here Today, Gone Tamale", with Sylvester repeating the exact same "forgot all about that silly thing!" line.
Gallery[]
External Links[]
- "Stork Naked" at the SFX Resource
- "Stork Naked" at SuperCartoons.net
- "Stork Naked" at Google Photos