The Great Piggy Bank Robbery

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The Great Piggy Bank Robbery
File:The Great Piggy Bank Robbery lobby card.png
Production company Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributor Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date July 20, 1946
Run time 7:35
Starring Mel Blanc
Producer(s) Eddie Selzer
Music composed by Carl W. Stalling
Story by Warren Foster
Animation Rod Scribner
Manny Gould
C. Melendez
I. Ellis
Director(s) Robert Clampett
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Title card
File:The Great Piggy Bank Robbery title card.png

The Great Piggy Bank Robbery is the two hundred and sixteenth Merrie Melodies theatrical short. It was released by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation on July 20, 1946. It was written by Michael Maltese, produced by Edward Selzer, and directed by Bob Clampett.

After reading a Dick Tracy comic, Daffy imagines himself as "Duck Twacy," a detective motivated by the crime wave of stolen piggy banks.

Detailed summary

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Memorable quotes

Daffy: Sufferin' succotash! WHY DON'T IT GET HERE!


Daffy: Say, it looks like a piggy bank crime wave. Why don't people keep their piggy banks on a safe place, like I do?
(He opens his safe; it's empty)
Daffy: It's gone! My piggy bank's been stolen! Oh, agony! A-go-ny!


Daffy: Scram, Sherlock. I'm working this side of the street!


Daffy: Snake Eyes! AGH! 88 Teeth! Hammerhead! Oh no, Pussycat... Pussycat Puss! Bat Man! Doubleheader! P-P-Pickelpuss! P-P-P-Pumpkinhead! Neon Noodle! Jukebox Jaw! Wolfman!
Wolfman: Woof! Awooo! Woof!
Daffy: You're all under arrest!

Characters

Legend
Character debut Speaking debut Ep. debut No lines Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character Actor
Daffy Duck/Duck Twacy Mel Blanc
Dick Tracy
Sherlock Holmes N/A
Porky Pig N/A
Mouse Man Mel Blanc
Snake Eyes N/A
88 Teeth N/A
Hammerhead N/A
Pussycat Puss N/A
Bat Man N/A
Doubleheader N/A
Picklepuss N/A
Pumpkinhead N/A
Neon Noodle Mel Blanc
Jukebox Jaw N/A
Wolfman Mel Blanc
Flattop N/A
Rubberhead N/A
Pig Mel Blanc


Locations

Objects

  • Dick Tracy comic book
  • "Long distance" phone
  • "French" phone
  • Tommy gun
  • Daffy's piggy bank

Vehicles

  • Tom's Taxi
  • Tram

Production

Development

Music

The music was composed by Carl W. Stalling.

Crew credits

Release

Dates are in order of release:

  • United States: July 20, 1946 in theatres

Behind the scenes

  • The short is a parody of the comic strip series Dick Tracy.
  • The title is likely a play on the 1903 film The Great Train Robbery.
  • When this short aired on The WB, a scene where Daffy locks all the criminals in a closet and shoots them with a Tommy gun was removed.[1]

Errors

Critical reception

In the July 25 1946 edition of The Film Daily, the short was ranked "very good" and stated:

"Daffy Duck, that exuberant spirit, out-does himself while admiring Dick Tracy, and experiences some of the thrills and chills that come to the super sleuth."[2]

In 1994, it was voted No. 16 in The 50 Greatest Cartoons, as selected by members of the animation field.[3]

John Kricfalusi (the creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show) cites this short as his favorite cartoon, and states in a DVD commentary that, "I saw this thing and it completely changed my life, I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen, and I still think it is."[4]

In The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons, Steve Schneider wrote, "Banners and bouquets to the great Bob C. for this still-astonishing melange of ultra-silliness and film noir. He creates a realm where stylizations feed into the fugue states so beloved of the director, where animation's capacity for compressing and distending space and time (and bodies!) is stunningly realized, where terror and hilarity are shown to be natural bedmates, and where the whacked-out visions come so fast and thick that the thing seems to anticipate MTV by forty years."[5]

Everlasting influence

  • The line, "Sufferin' succotash," is first uttered by Daffy in this short. It would later become synonymous with Sylvester as his catchphrase.
  • A sequel to this cartoon would be made in 1988, titled The Night of the Living Duck, and released as part of the feature film Daffy Duck's Quackbusters. Pumpkinhead also makes a cameo in that short.
  • The short was homaged in "The Return of Pluck Twacy," a segment in the Tiny Toons Adventures episode "New Character Day," where Plucky Duck takes a mantle similar to Duck Twacy.
  • In the Batman: The Brave and The Bold episode "Legends of the Dark Mite," Bat-Mite is pitted against an assortment of Batman's rouges gallery, in a scene reminiscent to Daffy's encounter with the gangsters in the short. A few of the scenes referenced include Bat-Mite calling out the villains' names, and miniature figures of Kite Man launching out of the Mad Hatter's hat.
  • The scene where Daffy lists the gangsters' names became a meme in 2024, due to it being spread on X/Twitter as early as April 30 of that year.[6]

Home availability

References

  1. ↑ "The Censored Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Guide: B". The Internet Animation Base. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  2. ↑ "The Film Daily (Jul-Sep 1946)". Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  3. ↑ Beck, Jerry (1994). The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals. Turner Publishing. ISBN 978-1878685490. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  4. ↑ Kricfalusi, John (2004). Looney Tunes: Golden Collection Volume 2 (DVD); commentary for the short The Great Piggy Bank Robbery. Warner Home Video. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  5. ↑ Jerry Beck Beck, Jerry, ed. (2020). The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons. Insight Editions. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-64722-137-9.
  6. ↑ "Daffy Duck Listing Villains ". Know Your Meme.
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