Robin Hood Daffy is a 1958 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones.
Plot[]
Daffy Duck is the legendary outlaw Robin Hood, playing a lute. As he plays and sings, he trips down a lake bank. Porky Pig as Friar Pork (a parody of Friar Tuck) is watching and laughing. Daffy tries to prove his skill with a quarterstaff, "Ho! Ha ha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!" but strikes himself in the bill. He revisits the routine in his head and when he reaches "Thrust" again, his bill snaps upwards again. He tries his staff routine again, but while he is spinning, Porky stops it with a small stick, spinning Daffy back into the lake.
A humiliated Daffy leaves, but Porky follows him and asks if he knows the whereabouts of Robin Hood's hideout as he wants to join his band of outlaws. Daffy proudly announces that he is Robin Hood, but Porky refuses to believe him. To prove himself, Daffy will rob a rich traveler and give his money "to some poor unworthy slob."
Daffy fails in each attempt to stop the traveler, usually injuring himself in the process, be it accidentally firing himself from his own bow, or slamming into a succession of trees while trying to swing on a rope, or even trying to make a wrecking ball fall on him.
Eventually the rich traveler, oblivious to Daffy's failed attempts to rob him, reaches his castle unharmed. The frustrated Daffy gives up and, with a shaven head and wearing a habit, joins Porky, calling himself Friar Duck. Daffy's bill snaps back up yet again.
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Daffy's Song[]
Daffy's song is set to the traditional tune of a 17th-century broadside ballad, "Come, Lasses and Lads".
Oh, join up with me, so joyous and free
And away to old Sherwood hie,
For I'm Robin Hood, and I'm very good
At avoiding the Sheriff's eye.
So we'll trip along merrily,
O'er the greensward so gracefully,
To trip it, trip it, trip it, trip it,
Trip it up and down, (he literally trips)
To trip it, trip it, trip it, trip it,
So trip it up and down.
Goofs[]
- The song which Porky Pig (in the character of Friar Tuck) sings when walking in the forest "The Ballad of Barbara Allen" appears to be historically inaccurate to the short's 12th century setting (as in the original Robin Hood legends) as this song originally came out in 1666.
- In addition, when Porky sings this song, he erroneously sings normally without his characteristic stutter; in contrast to previous appearances where he sings with his characteristic stutter.
- When the the traveler crosses the drawbridge, edges of his production cell are visible.
Notes[]
- A part of this short was reanimated and redubbed in 1966's "Mucho Locos".
- This short was shortened in The Bugs Bunny Road-Runner Movie. When introduced by Bugs, he claims that Daffy is the "Errol Flynn of duckdom" and that this short was an attempt by Daffy to sell himself as the logical successor to Errol.
- Small clips of this short were used in the following specials:
- Daffy's failed antics to rob the rich traveler in various comical methods throughout this short are very reminiscent of Wile E. Coyote's numerous failed attempts to catch and eat Road Runner in Chuck Jones' own Road Runner shorts; even the Toonheads episode "The Many Faces of Robin Hood" explores this. [1]
- This was the final Porky Pig short to be directed by Chuck Jones, as well as the last of Jones' Daffy and Porky parody shorts that began with the western-themed "Drip-Along Daffy" (1951).
- When this short was shown on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, it was shown in PAL audio. In recent years, the remastered version would be shown.