Ducking the Devil is a 1957 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert McKimson.
Plot[]
At a zoo, a cage was reserved for Taz. He soon escapes and runs amok, resulting everyone in the zoo (including the zookeeper) to run away in fear. Meanwhile, Daffy is at home in his duck pond, and reads about Taz's escape in a newspaper. Taz soon finds him and gives chase after the black mallard. While fleeing from Taz's hungry jaws, Daffy hears a news bulletin posting a five-thousand-dollar reward for the Tasmanian Devil's return which also says Taz becomes docile when exposed to music. Using different kinds of music (some of which fail miserably) Daffy eventually resorts to using his own voice to calm the devil. Eventually, after serenading him for ten miles, Daffy leads Taz to his cage, slamming the door on the beast just as his voice was about to give out. After Taz grabs a bill which slipped on the ground, Daffy rushes inside the cage screaming "It's mine, mine all mine," and beats him up, and says that he may be a coward, "But I'm a greeeedy little coward."
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Notes[]
- 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 "Wild over You".
- Additionally, the sequence where Taz encounters Daffy combines reused animation from "Devil May Hare" and "Bedevilled Rabbit".
- "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 saying "music soothes the savage beast."
- Despite Zookeeper Burton stating that Taz becomes docile when exposed to music, Taz seems to not be affected by music that sounds unpleasant to his ears. In this case, Scottish pipe music, resulting in Taz snatching away Scottish pipes from Daffy and smashing it.
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