| Scrap Happy Daffy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Frank Tashlin |
| Story by | Don Christensen |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Starring | Mel Blanc Dorothy Lloyd Tedd Pierce[1] |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Animation by | Art Davis |
| Color process | Black-and-white |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 7:56 |
| Language | English |
Scrap Happy Daffy is a 1943Warner Bros.Looney Tunes short directed byFrank Tashlin.[2] The cartoon was released on August 21, 1943, and starsDaffy Duck.[3]
Daffy is a guard at a scrap pile duringWorld War II, encouraging Americans to "Get the tin out", "Get the brass out", "Get the iron out" and especially "Get the lead out". SingingWe're in to Win, Daffy goes over the various things Americans can send to help with the war effort. He calls Hitler "Schikelgruber", which is the birth name ofhis father. However,FuehrerAdolf Hitler who reads about Daffy's scrap pile helping to beatBenito Mussolini, is furious about this and responds to this by giving his men the following order: "Destroy that scrap pile!"
With the word out, aNazi German submarine fires a torpedo — which has a billy goat inside — at the scrap pile. The goat 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, Daffy finds the goat hiccupping with the garbage inside him and amiably offers him a glass ofAlka-Seltzer. However, when Daffy sees the swastika on the goat’s collar, 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.
Daffy is ready to call it quits (saying "What I'd give for a can of spinach now", a reference toPopeye), but is encouraged by the ghosts of his ancestors who encamped atValley Forge withGeorge Washington, who explored withDaniel Boone, who sailed withJohn Paul Jones, and who stood in forAbraham Lincoln. Daffy's spirits back up when he realizes, "Americans don't give up, and I’m an American... duck!", and then he turns into "Super American" in a reference toSuperman. 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 they tell Daffy, "Next time you dream, include us out!".
AnimatorEric Goldberg writes, "Despite the film's jingoistic nature, it still boasts all the hallmarks of a great Tashlin cartoon: Dynamic, stylized poses in the animation. Graphically styled layouts and backgrounds. And outrageous humor — we dissolve from the back end of a horse with a black tail to the forelock on Adolf's face; the goat is capable of doing a four-footed military goosestep.Scrap Happy Daffy is one of the classic World War II propaganda cartoons."[4]
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. A clip of this black-and-white cartoon was shown on a documentary about World War II-era cartoons ("ToonHeads: The Wartime Cartoons") and on a documentary on Frank Tashlin onthe third volume of theLooney Tunes Golden Collection. The full black-and-white cartoon is featured independently on theLooney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5 and theLooney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3.
The original black-and-white cartoon is also available as a special feature for the DVD release of the 1943 Warner Bros. movieAir Force. This cartoon is in the public domain.