The Night of the Living Duck

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The Night of the Living Duck

Directed By: Greg Ford Terry Lennon Produced By: Steven S. Greene Kathleen Helppie-Shipley Released: September 23, 1988 Series: Merrie Melodies Story: Greg Ford Terry Lennon Animation: Francesca Freeman Brenda Banks Edy Benjamin Lou Dellarosa Edward Faigin Norman McCabe Alissa Myerson Sonja Ruta Frans Vischer Dick Williams Layouts: Robert Givens Backgrounds: Alan M. Bodner Film Editor: Frank Raciti Voiced By: Mel Blanc Mel Tormé Music: Hal Willner, Carl Stalling (archives), Milt Franklyn (archives) Starring: Daffy Duck Smogzilla Preceded By: The Duxorcist Succeeded By: Box Office Bunny Daffy Duck - The Night Of The Living Duck

The Night of the Living Duck is a 1988 Merrie Melodies short directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon.

Plot

Daffy Duck is reading a scary comic book called "Hideous Tales" (issue #176). The story ends in a cliffhanger, and Daffy rifles his bookcase looking for the next issue ("It's a veritable collector's item!"). A Smogzilla clock falls, and beans Daffy, making him think he's the featured act in a nightclub. All the customers at the nightclub are classic movie monsters. Fortunately, there was a bottle of "Eau de Tormé" in Daffy's dressing room, which makes him sing like Mel Tormé. He sings "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives" to the room, and they love it. Then he goes around the room, greeting the patrons, but his good-natured ribbing of "Smogzilla" doesn't go over well with the giant lizard, who eats Daffy. Daffy wakes up, to find himself stuck in a wastebasket, along with the comic he was looking for (Hideous Tales issue #177), with "Smogzilla" on the cover. Daffy scoffs, and the Smogzilla on the cover comes to life, saying, "You were expecting maybe Calvin Coolidge?"

Availability

• DVD - The Essential Daffy Duck, Disc 2
• LaserDisc - Looney Tunes After Dark

Notes

• It was released to theaters as a part of Daffy Duck's Quackbusters on September 24, 1988, and later appeared in the 1992 TV special Bugs Bunny's Creature Features.
• This is the last Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoon where Mel Blanc voices one of his characters.

• Because Mel Blanc was too sick to record voices and couldn't scream, Daffy's screams when eaten by Smogzilla were recycled audio from "Boobs in the Woods"

• This cartoon was the opening sequence for 1988's Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, which was released a day after this short was released.
  • The instrumental of "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives" plays during the credits.
• Alfred E. Neuman (of MAD magazine fame) appeared briefly in this short holding some drinks (when the Creature from the Black Lagoon is shown).
• Some of the monsters featured include Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, Bride of Frankenstein, Invisible Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Blob, Medusa, The Fly, The Wolfman, and Godzilla (called Smogzilla in the cartoon to avoid legal issues with Toho).