Ducking the Devil

Ducking the Devil
Lobby Card
Production company	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributor	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date	August 17, 1957
Starring	Mel Blanc
Producer(s)	Edward Selzer
Music composed by	Milt Franklyn
Story by	Tedd Pierce
Animation	George Grandpré Ted Bonnicksen
Director(s)	Robert McKimson
Series navigation
← Previous	Next →
Title card

Ducking the Devil is the four hundred and twenty-eighth Merrie Melodies theatrical short. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation on August 17, 1957. It was written by Tedd Pierce, produced by Edward Selzer, and directed by Robert McKimson.

When the Tasmanian Devil escapes from the zoo, Daffy Duck becomes his prey! But when the craven little coward of a duck learns of a $5K bounty placed on Taz, he also learns that Taz can become tame when he's exposed to music. So he uses it to his advantage to lure Taz back to the zoo.

Memorable quotes

Daffy: Like I said... I'm a coward... But I'm a GREEEEEDY little coward."

Characters

Legend
Character debut	Speaking debut	Ep. debut	No lines	Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character	Actor
Daffy Duck	Mel Blanc
Tasmanian Devil	Mel Blanc
Tasmanian Devil	Mel Blanc
Armored Van Driver	Mel Blanc
Radio Announcer	Mel Blanc

Locations

• Earth
  • United States
    • City Park and Zoo
    • Daffy Duck's Duck Pond

Objects

• HAM Radio
• Trombone
• Bagpipes

Vehicles

• Armored Van

Behind the scenes

• This short is one of the few times Daffy goes after a large sum of money and not only succeeds in getting it, but keeps it by the cartoon's end.
• Zookeeper Burton is likely a reference to John W. Burton, who would later take over as the producer of Warner Bros. Cartoons following Eddie Selzer's retirement the following year.
• The sequence where the patrons run away from the zoo in fear at the beginning of the cartoon is reused animation from the 1953 Looney Tunes cartoon, Wild Over You.
  • Additionally, the sequence where Taz encounters Daffy combines reused animation from both of the previous Taz cartoons: Devil May Hare (1954) and Bedevilled Rabbit, a cartoon made earlier that year.
• Ducking the Devil is notable for being the only pairing of Daffy Duck and Taz in the Golden Age, and the only Taz cartoon in the Golden Age without Bugs Bunny in it.
• The concept of Taz becoming docile when exposed to music in this short is based all too literally on the metaphorical phrase, 'music soothes the savage beast'.
  • Despite Zookeeper Burton stating that Taz becomes docile when exposed to music, Taz seems to not be affected by certain types of music that might sound unpleasant to his ears. An example in this case, such as Scottish bagpipe music, results in Taz snatching away the bagpipe from Daffy and smashing it to pieces.

Errors

• When this cartoon got restored for the Looney Tunes Super Stars' Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl DVD, it was cropped to a widescreen format. It was later restored to fullscreen format in both the Tasmanian Devil DVD release of Stars of Space Jam, and on the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1 Blu-ray/DVD set.

Legacy

• Elements from this cartoon such as the armored truck, Taz's exposure to music, and the zookeeper enemies would be used in the video game, Taz: Wanted.

Home availability

• In the United States:
  • August 10, 2010: Warner Home Video releases Looney Tunes Super Stars' Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl on DVD.
  • July 21, 2011: Warner Home Video releases Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1 on Blu-ray and DVD.