Daffy Duck is one of the most famous and recognizable cartoon characters on television along with, Bugs Bunny and Mickey mouse. Daffy made his first television appearance on April 17, 1937 in a cartoon entitled Porky's Duck Hunt, directed by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. The cartoon was a hunter/prey pairing, with Porky pig as the hunter and Daffy Duck as the prey, the hunter/prey pairing was very popular at the time. Many people fell in love with the Daffy Duck character because he was assertive and unrestrained. The high-pitched voice of the Daffy Duck character, was an impersonation of producer Leon Schlesinger, who found the voice to be funny but never understood it was actually an impersonation of his own voice. Daffy Duck became enormously popular in the 1940s, starring in over 40 films, all with completely different settings ranging from the frozen north to an unhappy household. He also starred in these films with many different Warner Bros. characters such as, Yosemite Sam, Porky pig and Elmer Fudd, these characters usually played the hunter while Daffy Duck played the prey.
During the early 1940s Daffy Duck's personality changed slightly, from an uncontrollable maniac duck into a maniac duck with brains who was still insane but was always in control of the situations he was in. In 1948 Daffy duck changed drastically and the change came from Chuck Jones. Daffy remained his usual self during the 1940s but during the 1950s the Daffy Duck cartoons ventured into completely new ideas. Chuck Jones began to experiment with Daffy's lust for money in his 1950 cartoons Daffy Dilly and You Were Never Duckier, also thanks to Jones, Daffy changed from a care free duck into a power hungry and greedy duck. Chuck Jones also began to redesign the physical appearance of Daffy Duck by making him taller, skinner and making his beak larger.
Daffy duck's exclusive motivation in life became money, Jones made this apparent in a 1954 cartoon entitled Ali Baba Bunny, in which Daffy notices a large treasure and pushes Bugs Bunny and the genie aside to get to the treasure. The period 1954 -1957 became known as Daffy Duck's "greedy" years, most of the Daffy Duck cartoons during this period became masterpieces. Daffy cartoons became a regular fixture on the Looney tunes show in the 1960s when the show first aired. Daffy Duck has starred in two of his own theatrical releases, the first one in 1983 and the second in 1988.
Daffy Duck has appeared in countless cartoons, he has starred in his own theatrical films and even co-starred in Space Jam in 1996 along with Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny. Today Daffy Duck is one of the most popular cartoon characters in the world, the version of Daffy Duck that we see on television today is the Chuck Jones one. Cartoons starring Daffy Duck are still in syndication, many being shown on the Cartoon Network. Although Daffy is greedy and has a deep lust for money he is still loved by most people who watch him.
Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Arts
