Nasty Quacks

Nasty Quacks
Directed by	Frank Tashlin
Story by	Warren Foster
Produced by	Edward Selzer
Starring	Mel Blanc Sara Berner (uncredited) Robert C. Bruce
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Art Davis I. Ellis Richard Bickenbach Anatolle Kirsanoff (uncredited)[1][2]
Layouts by	Bob Givens
Backgrounds by	Richard H. Thomas
Color process	Technicolor
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date	December 1, 1945 (1945-12-01)
Running time	7:08
Language	English

Nasty Quacks is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin, released on December 1, 1945, and starring Daffy Duck.[3][4]

Plot

In a suburban household, a father gifts his daughter, Agnes, a black duckling that soon matures into the infamous Daffy Duck. Daffy's disruptive antics test the father's patience, but Agnes staunchly defends her beloved pet. When a yellow duckling captures Agnes's attention, the father's frustration escalates, leading to a comical chase around the house. Determined to eliminate his rival, Daffy initially plots against the duckling but later opts for a different approach, intending to accelerate its growth with vitamins. Unexpectedly, the duckling transforms into a grown, white female duck, leaving Daffy bewildered. In a surprising twist, the joyous father’s celebration is short lived when he discovers Daffy cohabiting peacefully with the new duck and their offspring, ending the tale with Daffy's characteristic storytelling.

Reception

This was the final Daffy Duck cartoon, and the second to last overall, directed by Tashlin. The director is not credited as he had already left the studio. The voices of the male characters are performed by Mel Blanc. The film also introduced a love interest for Daffy.

Animation historian Greg Ford writes, "A comparison might be made to the plot of the hit play The Man Who Came to Dinner, in which an insufferable dinner guest becomes incapacitated and overstays his welcome for endless, grueling months. Daffy, as Warner Bros.' blue-collar answer to George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's patrician wordsmith Sheridan Whiteside, terrorizes the household not with acerbic putdowns but exuberant, palsy-walsy camaraderie... One of the cartoon's funniest bits finds the borderline bratty Agnes swooshing in to Daffy's defense before her father does the duck corporeal harm. While other animation directors showed an antsy reluctance to caricature females, Tashlin distinguished himself as an equal-opportunity exaggerator."[5]

Home media

Nasty Quacks is available on the two-disc DVD The Essential Daffy Duck and Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3 DVD and Blu-Ray set.

See also

• List of Daffy Duck cartoons
• Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1940–1949)

References

1. "Warner Cartoon Breakdowns #3: That Darnfool Duck!". Retrieved 19 December 2020.
2. "Animation Breakdowns #34". Retrieved 24 December 2020.
3. Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 163. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
4. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 70–72. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
5. Beck, Jerry, ed. (2020). The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons. Insight Editions. pp. 120–121. ISBN 978-1-64722-137-9.

External links

• Nasty Quacks at IMDb