Daffy's Rhapsody is a 2012 Looney Tunes short directed by Matthew O'Callaghan.
Plot[]
Elmer Fudd (with teal eyes) sees the poster of a theatrical performance, Requiem for a Hunt, and wishes to see it, as he is a hunter himself. However, a sticker on the poster peels off as he walks away to reveal the text "Starring Daffy Duck". As the show starts, Daffy (with green eyes) reveals himself to the audience, with Elmer seemingly driven mad, before being taken over by hunter instincts. As Daffy sings about how hunters are constantly after him, Fudd sneaks on the stage in pursuit. At first, Daffy does not notice Fudd, who is stopped from shooting Daffy from the prop placement. However, on the line "I'm lit up like a Christmas tree," Fudd sneaks into a present (which is one of the props) and points his gun at Daffy, who manages to cover up the present at the last second.
The two scramble to try and point the gun at the other, with Daffy still singing his piece. Daffy continues the play while using the props to attempt to evade and outwit Elmer Fudd, who is relentless in chasing him. As the verse about the several other animals people could hunt starts, the lighting gives everything saturated and bright colors to contrast with a dark background. Elmer is initially missing for most of this scene, but finally reveals himself after Daffy turns over a cardboard hunter. Daffy runs up a ladder and narrowly avoids getting shot, while having many other weapons tossed at him by an angry Elmer. He jumps on Fudd, blinding him, and causing him to shoot wildly, destroying most of the set.
As the final line of the song approaches, Daffy leaps onto the front of the stage. Fudd cocks his gun in preparation, but right before he shoots, a cabin prop from earlier crushes him, and the play ends. As the "That's All, Folks!" script is shown on the Looney Tunes bullseye, shotgun firings are heard, and holes are shot through the screen as Daffy jumps through (doing his iconic "Woo-Hoo!" laugh and bounce along the way), followed by Elmer, who says "Now I'm weawwy, weawwy mad!" He breaks the fourth wall by doing his iconic laugh at the viewers before shooting, cutting to credits.
Characters[]
Main[]
Cameos (All as props)[]
- Tasmanian Devil
- Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
- Tweety
- Bugs Bunny (as a cardboard stand-in)
Songs[]
Notes[]
- Mel Blanc posthumously stars as Daffy Duck, using archive recordings from the song "Daffy Duck's Rhapsody".
- This short features Billy West as the voice of Elmer Fudd with James Arnold Taylor, who was uncredited, providing his first line.[1]
- This short is notable for marking the return of Daffy Duck to his original screwball personality since the end of the late-1940s, which would later become more prominent in recent years beginning with New Looney Tunes.
- This was originally intended to play theatrically with Happy Feet Two, but instead got switched with "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat".
- It was later released theatrically with Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.
- This short has not yet been released on any Warner Bros. DVDs. It was released on iTunes in 2021 as part of Stars of Space Jam: Looney Tunes Collection.
- The pamphlet Elmer grabs before the show says "Pwogwam" instead of "Program", as a gag about Elmer's speech impediment.
- The Warner Bros. Animation logo from the previous short is reused, but this time, the rings are colored red and the center is colored blue.
- At the end of the short, the "That's all Folks!" script appears on the same bullseye background as the beginning.
- When Daffy appears on the stage for the first time, the posters behind him reference older Daffy Duck shorts: those being "The Scarlet Pumpernickel", "Drip-Along Daffy", "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century" and "Robin Hood Daffy".
- The version uploaded by Warner Bros. Animation to YouTube seems to have a scratch audio track as opposed to a final version, as evidenced by a camrip of an actual theatrical showing. This edition of the short has a full orchestra as opposed to synth and the sound design is tighter and more refined.
- For unknown reasons, this short is not available on Boomerang or Max.
- The short was fully completed sometime before October 2011.[2]