Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies

Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies is a 1972 animated one-hour TV-movie (with a live-action segment near the end) that was part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie.

Plot

Daffy Duck is in Hollywood producing a movie about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, starring himself; also appearing in the film are Porky Pig, Petunia Pig, Sylvester, Tweety, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé Le Pew, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and Charlie Dog.

At Horrible Hall, the Groovie Goolies are watching a television interview in which Daffy’s talking about his new movie, when their program is interrupted by a ghoulish being calling himself The Phantom of the Flickers; he announces his intention to destroy every film that Daffy Duck and company ever made, including their current King Arthur film. Being a huge fan of Daffy, Frankie goes to Hollywood to offer his help, and the other Horrible Hall residents go along with him.

Mayhem ensues when the Looneys and the Goolies first meet, but they eventually settle down and continue filming the movie. The Phantom suddenly grabs the film and, disguised as Hauntleroy, tries to escape from the Goolies by running through a magic mirror into “Mad Mirror Land” (i.e., the real world). Frankie, Drac, and Wolfie chase after him, and after a cartoonishly slapstick pursuit they bring the Phantom and the film back to their world.

The Phantom turns out to be Drac’s long-lost uncle Claude Chaney, a formerly famous silent film actor who was acting out of anger over black-and-white films being replaced by color films. Daffy gives Claude a job, the movie wins an award, and the Goolies head for home.

Voices

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Tweety, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Pepé Le Pew, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester, Charlie Dog
Larry D. Mann: Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Bone-apart, Batso
Howard Morris: Franklin “Frankie” Frankenstein, Wolfgang “Wolfie” Wolfman, Mummy, Orville, Ghoulihand[1]
Larry Storch: Count Tom Dracula, Claude Chaney/Phantom of the Flickers, Ratso
Jane Webb: Bella LaGhostly, Hagatha, Sabrina Spellman, Petunia Pig
Chuck Menville: Additional Voices
Len Janson: Additional Voices

Credits

"Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies"
Copyright © MCMLXXII Filmation Assoc.
Directed by: Hal Sutherland
Written by: Chuck Menville, Len Janson
Supervising Animator: Amby Paliwoda
Production Manager: Rock Benedetto
Storyboard: Dale Hale
Art Director: Don Christensen
Key Assistants: Mike Hazy, Bill House
Layouts: Alberto de Mello, Dick Hall, Herb Hazelton, Wes Herschensohn, Lou Kachivas, Les Kaluza, Carol Lundberg, John Perry, Virgil Raddatz, Louise Sandoval, Cliff Voorhees, Kay Wright
Director of Color: Ervin Kaplan
Backgrounds: Boris Gorelick, Maurice Harvey, Bill Loudenslager, Tom O'Loughlin, Paul Xander
Animators: Jim Brummett, Bob Carlson, Zion Davush, Otto Feuer, Ed Friedman, Lee Halpern, Laverne Harding, Lou Kachivas, Les Kaluza, Marsh Lamore, Larry Miller, Bill Nunes, Casey Onaitis, Jack Ozark, Anthony Pabian, William Pratt, Eddie Rehberg, Len Rogers, Virgil Ross, Louise Sandoval, Larry Silverman, Hank Smith, Ralph Somerville, Reuben Timmins, Russ von Neida, George Waiss, Kaem Wong
Checking Supervision: Jane Philippi, Marion Turk
Xerography and Paint Supervision: Betty Brooks, John Remmel
Camera Supervision: R.W. Pope
Camera Operators: Sergio Antonio Alcázar, Thane Berti, Frank Parrish, Joseph Ponticelle, Fred Ziegler
Editorial Supervision: Doreen Dixon, Joseph Simon
Film Coordinator: June Gilham
Voices: Mel Blanc, Len Janson, Chuck Menville, Howard Morris, Larry Storch, Jane Webb
Background Music by: Yvette Blais, Jeff Michael
Music Publisher: Shermley Music Company, ASCAP
Music and Sound Effects: Horta-Mahana Corp.
Color: Technicolor®
Produced by: Lou Scheimer · Norm Prescott
A Filmation Production · A TelePrompTer Company

Reception

While most of the Warner Bros. characters were drawn well and were voiced by Mel Blanc, the special is widely panned by many Looney Tunes fans because of its limited animation as well as a weak storyline.

Availability

This movie has never been officially released on home video (due to various rights issues), but traders on the Internet have been recording and selling DVDs of this film, most of which were originally black-and-white kinescopes of the original broadcast. Non-official copies of the original color production have also emerged. In 2013, a restored version of the special was aired in Germany on Anixe.

Notes

This movie is notable for being the one and only time that Warner Bros. "loaned out" their famous Looney Tunes characters to appear in a Filmation production (otherwise, they were a silent partner).
In this Filmation-produced movie, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and other Looney Tunes characters interact with the characters from the Filmation series Groovie Goolies.
The Phantom of the Flickers is an obvious parody of The Phantom of the Opera, a novel which has been made into movies and plays; Lon Chaney, Sr. played the title role in the 1925 film, and Claude Rains starred in the 1943 version. The name “Claude Chaney” is derived from these two actors’ names.
The live-action segment uses pixilation to enable the actors to move like cartoon characters; e.g., when the Goolies drive imaginary cars down the road.
Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian, Granny, Taz and Speedy Gonzales are the only major Looney Tunes characters not in this special. In fact, Bugs had not been seen since the closure of the Warner Bros. studio in 1964; he did not appear in any of the WB-branded shorts produced by other companies up to this point.
This special marks Petunia Pig's first "official" color appearance (since she never appeared in any color cartoons in the "classic" era), and her first appearance on screen since the 1930s.
Petunia Pig's voice in this special is an impersonation of Hollywood columnist Louella Parsons.
As with other Filmation productions and animated shows of the period, this special made extensive use of Hanna-Barbera sound effects (albeit with a noticeably lower sound quality) and used a laugh track.
Despite that Daffy Duck and Porky Pig are voiced by Mel Blanc in this special, they sound a little different from the classic shorts; Daffy's voice is pitched higher than normal (to the point that he sounded a lot like his early "screwball" incarnation by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett or Walter Lantz's Woody Woodpecker) and Porky's voice is pitched lower than normal. Tweety is also slightly sped up more than his voice usually is when Mel Blanc did his voice. This is probably due to the film editors of Filmation speeding up Mel Blanc's voice recordings incorrectly for these three characters. A fan edit of the special exists online with all three characters' voices fixed to the correct speeds.