Duck Dodgers

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Duck Dodgers
First appearanceDuck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953)
First gameDaffy Duck: The Marvin Missions (1993)
Last appearance"Bonafide Heroes" (2005)
Created byChuck Jones
Michael Maltese
Based onLooney Tunes
Portrayed byDaffy Duck
Voiced byMel Blanc (1953, 1980)
Joe Alaskey (1990–1991, 1996, 2003–2005, 2014)
Jeff Bergman (1991–1992, 2018)
Greg Burson (1993)
Frank Gorshin (1996)
Jeff Bennett (2004)
Eric Bauza (2018–present)
In-universe information
Full nameDuck Edgar Dumas Aloysius Eoghain Dodgers

Duck Dodgers is the star of a series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros., featuring Daffy Duck in the role of a science fiction hero.

He first appeared in the

Planet X". Just after Dodgers has claimed Planet X in the name of the Earth, Marvin the Martian lands on the same planet and claims it in the name of Mars
. The stage is set for a battle of wits, not to mention various forms of weaponry, most of which tend to backfire comically on Dodgers.

Considering the period in which the cartoon was produced (the

Red Scare was in full swing during the 1950s era), some scholars have used the cartoon to parallel the supposed futility of the Cold War and the arms race
.

Duck Dodgers sequels

The first sequel, also produced by Chuck Jones and with Mel Blanc reprising his roles, was titled Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century and was released in 1980.[2] The plot of this sequel cartoon was nearly a carbon copy of the original though this time, Marvin says he is trying to solve the Earth's energy crisis (by blowing up the Earth); Marvin succeeds in launching his missile and at the end of the cartoon reminds everyone that it's only a cartoon.

The third short, titled Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension, was a 3D cartoon released in 1996 to select venues, and had impressionist Joe Alaskey providing Duck Dodgers' voice. These included the flagship Warner Bros. Studio Store in Manhattan, and Warner Bros. Movie World theme parks on the Gold Coast, Australia and in Bottrop-Kirchhellen, Germany. It included a range of interactive effects including a splash with water. Unlike the other Dodgers cartoons, Porky Pig did not appear.

A fourth short, titled Superior Duck was released in 1996, with Frank Gorshin as Duck Dodgers. In this short, the character instead went by the name Superior Duck.

A fifth short, titled Attack of the Drones, was made in 2003 and featured Jeff Bennett as the voice of Duck Dodgers. This short was part of a series of new shorts, but because of the failure of Looney Tunes: Back in Action, it was not released theatrically. However, the short was included as a special feature on disc two of The Essential Daffy Duck DVD set.

Further appearances

Duck Dodgers as seen in the 2003 Duck Dodgers episode "Wrath of Canasta".
Duck Dodgers as a Green Lantern.
  • From 2003 to 2005, Cartoon Network aired a Duck Dodgers TV series.[5] In this show, which had Joe Alaskey returning as the titular character's voice, Duck Edgar Dumas Aloysius Eoghain Dodgers started out as a hapless soul that was accidentally frozen for over three hundred years for reasons not known. He was later revived by Dr. I.Q. Hi in the 24½th century. Through scheming and lies he managed to trick everyone into believing he was a 21st-century hero. In reality, he was only a water boy for the Midstate University football team, and "Quarterback Quack" shows that he only carried out this façade at the insistence of a time-traveling Martian Commander X-2, who unwittingly made Dodgers into the hero he was known as. Dodgers is arrogant, selfish, greedy, lazy, cowardly, gullible, and not particularly intelligent. However, he occasionally displays surprisingly high levels of heroism and competence, suggesting that he is not quite as daft as he appears to be, although he mostly succeeds through sheer dumb luck and the work of the Eager Young Space Cadet. Martian Commander X-2 actually caused Dodgers to become a minor football star in the final game of the season, which is what he used to parlay himself into captaincy in the Protectorate, meaning that he is, technically, not lying when he claims he won a championship football game in his own time. It is implied that he can't read, though this is contradicted several times. He also has shown to have quite the ego, when he caused the energy core of his ship to explode while using the lasers to carve his name on a nearby planetoid for example, and burning out the auxiliary core to make toast. In "The Green Loontern", Duck Dodgers accidentally got his costume mixed up with Hal Jordan's Green Lantern costume at the dry cleaners where the rest of the Green Lantern Corps mistook him for Hal Jordan. He ended up fighting Sinestro until Hal Jordan arrived and regained his costume to help defeat Sinestro. Though he doesn't show it often, Dodgers cares deeply for his Cadet, even though he often demeans and puts him through humiliating situations. In "Of Course You Know, This Means War and Peace" Pt. 1, he is described by Psy Q. Hi as an ego-maniacal, bipolar, narcissist, and pathological liar with sociopathic tendencies.
  • Duck Dodgers' Green Loontern appearance appears as a playable character in the 2014 video game Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. This was also Alaskey's final performance as the character before his death in 2016.

Use by the US Air Force and NASA

In 2003, both Duck Dodgers and Marvin the Martian were featured on separate 1st Space Launch Squadron mission patches for that year's Mars Exploration Rover missions.[6]

Dragon Con

The original Duck Dodgers cartoon is played during the Masquerade contest while the judges make their decisions annually.

Atlanta, Georgia
. The tradition was taken on by Dragon Con when Atlanta Fantasy Fair, a preceding Atlanta convention, became defunct.

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dragon Con shifted to its first ever virtual convention, Dragon Con Goes Virtual.[7] In keeping with tradition, the Masquerade was held, though in virtual form. A 'sweded' version was produced by DragonConTV for Dragon Con Goes Virtual and included Kirk R. Thatcher, Neil Grayston, Chris Gauthier, Eddie McClintock, Victor Yerrid, Mark Meer, Raymond Carr, Garrett Wang, K`Tetch, and Bob Bergen.

References

  1. ^ Korkis, Jim (2019-10-18). "The Many Lives of Duck Dodgers". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
  2. ^ Champlin Jr, Chuck (1979-09-03). "'Duck Dodgers' Flies Again". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-11-01.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ Curtiss, Aaron (2000-10-26). "'Girl' Dangerously Cool, but Dodge the 'Duck'". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
  4. ^ "Infogrames Zaps Looney Tunes: Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck for Nintendo 64 Into Stores This Week". Business Wire. Berkshire Hathaway. August 15, 2000. Archived from the original on August 22, 2000. Retrieved June 17, 2019 – via Yahoo.com.
  5. ^ "FOR YOUNG VIEWERS; The First Duck in Space? That Is So Daffy". The New York Times. 2003-09-21. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
  6. ^ Marvin the Martian and Daffy Duck as Duck Dodgers Prepare for Upcoming NASA Missions to Mars[permanent dead link], press release from Warner Bros., Monday, June 2, 2003
  7. ^ "Virtual | DragonCon.TV". dragoncon.tv. Archived from the original on 2020-09-02. Retrieved 2020-09-11.

External links