Moby Duck

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Moby Duck

Directed By: Robert McKimson Produced By: David H. DePatie Friz Freleng Released: March 27, 1965 Series: Looney Tunes Story: John Dunn (uncredited) Animation: Don Williams Manny Perez Warren Batchelder Bob Matz LaVerne Harding Norm McCabe Layouts: Dick Ung Backgrounds: Tom O'Loughlin Film Editor: Lee Gunther Treg Brown Voiced By: Mel Blanc Music: Bill Lava Starring: Daffy Duck Speedy Gonzales Robinson Crusoe Preceded By: The Wild Chase Succeeded By: Assault and Peppered

Moby Duck is a 1965 Looney Tunes short directed by Robert McKimson.

Title

The title is a pun on the book Moby Dick.

Plot

A huge ship crashes into an island. Daffy Duck is the only one to get off the ship, and he stumbles across a rock. Daffy sits on the rock and moans about his situation. Speedy Gonzales arrives and offers Daffy his company.

Daffy paces as he wonders how he's going to get food. He asks Speedy for his assistance. Speedy however is just as clueless as Daffy is, and instead decides to pace along with him.

While pacing Daffy stumbles across a box on the shore. It is filled with canned goods. He runs over and is happy that he is finally going to have some food. Speedy is also happy that there's food for him and Daffy, but Daffy greedily tells the mouse that he's not to going to share any of the food with him. Speedy begs him for at least a crumb, but he still refuses.

Daffy notices that the food is all in cans. He learns that Speedy has a can-opener inside his pocket. He begs Speedy to give it to him, and Speedy offers it, if the duck will give him some of the mouse. Daffy however refuses, walking away saying "I never saw such a selfish mouse." He opts to open the can the old fashioned way, with a rock. Daffy then attempts to open it with a boulder, but this backfires and it hits Daffy. Speedy continues to offer Daffy his assistance but he stupidly refuses, saying that he'll starve to death before he trades with him.

While walking Daffy sees an Axe and attempts to open the can with it, but it backfires as the ax blade falls off the handle and into the ocean. In response Daffy throws a temper tantrum, whacking the can with the handle. In a gag that is likely recycled from Rabbitson Crusoe Daffy attempts to open the can by putting it up near his but, and asking a swordfish to run near it, only for the can to fall off, and instead Daffy get's stabbed by the swordfish, which he heals with a cast.

Speedy returns and gives the can-opener to Daffy, apologizing for being selfish. Daffy however still refuses to give Speedy the food, and he fights him for the can opener, all the while the food is washed near the shores of a rock. Daffy attempts to get it, but a group of Angry sharks force him back, which upsets him.

Speedy reveals the real reason why he offered Daffy his can-opener so easily. He happens to be dinning with Robinson Crusoe at a restaurant on Friday, which is located around the deserted island.

Daffy rushes to the restaurant, but when he learns of its special (Pressed Duck) he's scared off, and swims into the ocean.

Notes

• This cartoon's plot is a semi-remake of "Canned Feud" (1951), directed by Friz Freleng fourteen years earlier.
• This is the first Daffy and Speedy cartoon directed by Robert McKimson. From this cartoon onward, McKimson would direct the rest of the cartoons which feature Daffy Duck and/or Speedy Gonzales (save for only two Road Runner cartoons, "Rushing Roulette" and "Sugar and Spies", and one Daffy/Porky cartoon, "Corn on the Cop", which is instead directed by Irv Spector) throughout the DePatie-Freleng era, while the directing duties of the Road Runner shorts (except those two) were handed over to Rudy Larriva via Format Films.
• This cartoon marked a change in Daffy's personality when he is paired alongside Speedy, where Daffy appears to be an extremely nasty and bitter character with his mean spirit taken to extremes. Though these traits were previously seen in "The Iceman Ducketh" the previous year, but by this cartoon these traits have been exaggerated and made permanent throughout the rest of his appearances until the late-1960s (except for a few exceptions like "Skyscraper Caper") before they have been dropped for good in the more recent Looney Tunes revivals since the 1970s.

Gallery

Lobby Card

Lobby Card 2