Duck Dodgers is the star of a series of cartoons produced byWarner Bros., featuringDaffy Duck in the role of a science fiction hero.
He first appeared in the1953 cartoon shortDuck Dodgers in the 24½th Century, directed byChuck Jones as a spoof of the popularBuck Rogers in the 25th Century andFlash Gordonscience fictionserials of the 1930s, casting the brash, egomaniacal Daffy Duck as the hero of the story.[1] The plot of the cartoon involves Duck Dodgers' search for the rareelement Illudium Phosdex, "theshaving creamatom", the only remaining supply of which is on the mysterious "Planet X". Just after Dodgers has claimed Planet X in the name of the Earth,Marvin the Martian lands on the same planet and claims it in the name ofMars. The stage is set for a battle of wits, not to mention various forms of weaponry, most of which tend to backfire comically on Dodgers.
Considering the period in which the cartoon was produced (theRed Scare was in full swing during the 1950s era), some scholars have used the cartoon to parallel the supposed futility of theCold War and thearms race.
The second short, also produced byChuck Jones and withMel Blanc reprising his roles, was titledDuck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century and was released in 1980.[2] The plot of this sequel cartoon was nearly a carbon copy of the original though this time, Marvin says he is trying to solve the Earth's energy crisis (by blowing up the Earth); Marvin succeeds in launching his missile and at the end of the cartoon reminds everyone that it's only a cartoon.
A fourth short, titledSuperior Duck was released in 1996, withFrank Gorshin as Duck Dodgers. In this short, the character instead went by the name Superior Duck.
A fifth short, titledAttack of the Drones, was made in 2003 and featuredJeff Bennett as the voice of Duck Dodgers. This short was part of a series of new shorts, but because of the failure ofLooney Tunes: Back in Action, it was not released theatrically. However, the short was included as a special feature on disc two ofThe Essential Daffy DuckDVD set.
Duck Dodgers (voiced byJeff Bergman) also made an appearance in aTiny Toon Adventures segment titled "Duck Dodgers Jr." (in the episode "The Return of the Acme Acres Zone"), where Daffy Duck's pint-sized protégé and studentPlucky Duck also visited the futuristic world of Duck Dodgers. HereMarvin the Martian appears with his niece, Marcia. Duck Dodgers also makes an appearance inStar Warners.
The original cartoon also appeared in a 1994 episode of the science fiction seriesBabylon 5 (also produced by WB), where it was revealed thatDuck Dodgers in the 24½th Century was Security ChiefMichael Garibaldi's "second favorite thing in the universe". One episode shows Garibaldi laughing uproariously at the cartoon, as AmbassadorDelenn watches it with him, appearing totally bewildered.
Duck Dodgers, again voiced by Alaskey, appears in the 2003 featureLooney Tunes: Back in Action when Daffy notes that the only character that could save the film's proverbial day was Duck Dodgers; Daffy then realizes that Dodgers is hisalter ego. He ends up defeating Marvin and saving humanity, after several jet packs exploded when he said his name.
Duck Dodgers as seen in the 2003Duck Dodgers episode "Wrath of Canasta".Duck Dodgers as aGreen Lantern.
From 2003 to 2005,Cartoon Network aired aDuck Dodgers TV series.[5] In this show, which had Joe Alaskey returning as the titular character's voice, Duck Edgar Dumas Aloysius Eoghain Dodgers started out as a hapless soul that was accidentally frozen for over three hundred years for reasons not known. He was later revived by Dr. I.Q. Hi in the 24½th century. Through scheming and lies he managed to trick everyone into believing he was a 21st-century hero. In reality, he was only awater boy for the Midstate Universityfootball team, and "Quarterback Quack" shows that he only carried out this façade at the insistence of a time-traveling Martian Commander X-2, who unwittingly made Dodgers into the hero he was known as. Dodgers is arrogant, selfish, greedy, lazy, cowardly, gullible, and not particularly intelligent. However, he occasionally displays surprisingly high levels of heroism and competence, suggesting that he is not quite as daft as he appears to be, although he mostly succeeds through sheer dumb luck and the work of the Eager Young Space Cadet. Martian Commander X-2 actually caused Dodgers to become a minor football star in the final game of the season, which is what he used to parlay himself into captaincy in the Protectorate, meaning that he is, technically, not lying when he claims he won a championship football game in his own time. It is implied that he can't read, though this is contradicted several times. He also has shown to have quite the ego, when he caused the energy core of his ship to explode while using the lasers to carve his name on a nearby planetoid for example, and burning out the auxiliary core to make toast. In "The Green Loontern", Duck Dodgers accidentally got his costume mixed up withHal Jordan'sGreen Lantern costume at the dry cleaners where the rest of theGreen Lantern Corps mistook him for Hal Jordan. He ended up fightingSinestro until Hal Jordan arrived and regained his costume to help defeat Sinestro.[6] Though he doesn't show it often, Dodgers cares deeply for his Cadet, even though he often demeans and puts him through humiliating situations. In "Of Course You Know, This Means War and Peace" Pt. 1, he is described by Psy Q. Hi as an ego-maniacal, bipolar, narcissist, and pathological liar with sociopathic tendencies.
Duck Dodgers' Green Loontern appearance appears as a playable character in the 2014 video gameLego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. This was also Alaskey's final performance as the character before his death in 2016.[7]
In theBugs Bunny Builders episode "Rock On", Daffy's costume is Duck Dodgers. When the other Looney Builders glare at him, he asks "Wrong galaxy?"
