Underplayed Gems

Duck Amuck (1953)

Duck Amuck poster
Directed by
Chuck Jones
Genre
fantasy film, comedy film, family film
Country
United States
Runtime
7 min
Rated
NR
Rating
8.1 of 10 from 249 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

Daffy Duck tries to act in a cartoon but an unseen animator keeps changing everything around and about him. Each time Daffy tries to get things back to normal, the animator makes things worse until Daffy loses his temper.

surrealchaoticcomedicfast-pacedfrustratingplayfulwhimsicalunpredictable

What happens

Duck Amuck is an American surreal comedy animated short film directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The short was released on February 28, 1953, as part of the Merrie Melodies series, and stars Daffy Duck. In the cartoon, Daffy Duck is tormented by an unseen and mischievous animator, who constantly changes Daffy's locations, clothing, voice, physical appearance and even shape, much to Daffy's aggravation, embarrassment and finally rage. Pandemonium reigns throughout the cartoon as Daffy attempts to steer the action back to some kind of normality, only for the animator to either ignore him or, more frequently, to over-literally interpret his increasingly frantic demands. In the end, the tormenting animator is revealed to be Bugs Bunny. In 1994, Duck Amuck was voted #2 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, behind only What's Opera, Doc?, also directed by Jones and written by Maltese. In 1999, Duck Amuck was added to the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The short inspired the 2007 Nintendo DS game Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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