The Ducksters

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = The Ducksters
series = Looney Tunes (Daffy Duck and Porky Pig)


caption = The title card of "The Ducksters".
director = Chuck Jones
story_artist = Michael Maltese
animator = Lloyd Vaughan Ken Harris Phil Monroe Ben Washam
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
musician = Carl Stalling
producer = Eddie Selzer
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
release_date = September 2 1950 (USA)
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 minutes
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0042418

"The Ducksters" is a Warner Brothers "Looney Tunes" theatrical cartoon short animated in 1949 and released in 1950. It was directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese.

ynopsis

Porky Pig is on a radio quiz show called "Truth or AAAAHHH!!", a parody of the popular quiz show "Truth or Consequences" hosted by Daffy Duck and sponsored by "Eagle Hand Laundry", in which the object is answer near-impossible questions (such as "Who, mind you WHO, was the referee for the New Zealand heavyweight title fight in 1726?" or "At what latitude and longitude did the wreck of the Hesperus occur?") or "pay the penalty". These penalties include Porky being crushed by the Rock of Gibraltar, rained upon by Niagara Falls, tied up and blown up with dynamite, severe pounding with a mallet, thrashing by a gorilla, threatened by a buzz saw, crushing by safes, and other forms of abuse. In the end, however, Porky wins $26 million and three cents which he uses to buy the Ajax Radio Network (costing exactly $26,000,000.03!) and then submits Daffy to the same "penalties" that he had received earlier. Daffy is then tied to a long plank being cut by the same buzz saw Porky was on to begin the cartoon, quickly irising out after Daffy screams at his studio audience, "Have you got a doctor in the balcony, lady?!"

Production details

There are several references to well-known people in this cartoon, such as Eli Whitney, George Washington, and even Lauren Bacall.

A reference to one of the "Censored Eleven" shorts, 1938's "Jungle Jitters", pops up, but the context makes it clear that Daffy is referring to a different (presumably fictitious) film by the same name, since the original cartoon did not feature any character fitting the description of "Mamie, the 600-pound gorilla", whom Daffy claims starred in "Jungle Jitters".

This is one of several post-1948 Warner Bros. cartoons whose original title cards have been cut and replaced in the Blue Ribbon reissue version. [ [http://www.davemackey.com/animation/wb/1950.html#Ducksters Dave Mackey's 1950 Warner Bros. Cartoon Releases] ] In such films, the Blue Ribbon "Merrie Melodies" title fades to a replaced title card, which then cuts to the credits from the original version. In all other post-'48 films' reissues, the Blue Ribbon title cuts right to the original title card. It remains unknown why such edits were made, as noone has been able to recover any original prints of most such cartoons.

Censorship

*When Nickelodeon aired this cartoon as part of its "Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon" installment show, the part where Daffy asks Porky if he'd like to continue with the game, to which an audience member shouts, "You'll be sorry", prompting Daffy to shoot the man dead, is cut. This same cut was made when this cartoon aired on Boomerang (though its parent channel, Cartoon Network, left that scene intact).

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0042418|title=The Ducksters
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZgfnpJKePU]