Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century
Duck Dodgers in the 24+1/2th Century | |
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The Vitaphone Corporation | |
Release date |
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Running time | 7:03 |
Language | English |
Duck Dodgers in the 24+1/2th Century (spoken as "twenty-fourth-and-a-half") is a 1953 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones.[1] The cartoon was released on July 25, 1953, and stars Daffy Duck as space hero Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig as his assistant, and Marvin the Martian as his opponent.[2] This cartoon marked the first of many appearances of the Duck Dodgers character.
Marvin the Martian had been introduced as an unnamed villain in Warner's cartoon
In 1994, Duck Dodgers was voted #4 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.[4] Because he was such a fan of the short in particular, Star Wars creator George Lucas requested that the short be shown before the original Star Wars film during its initial run in theaters.[5] In 2004 at the 62nd World Science Fiction Convention, it was retrospectively nominated for a Retro Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation—Short Form.
Plot
In the latter half of 24th century, Duck Dodgers (Daffy Duck) is tasked with locating the uncharted "
Dodgers immediately claims the planet in the name of the Earth, but is quickly greeted by Marvin the Martian, as he claims it in the name of Mars. In the ensuing battle, Dodgers is shot multiple times in the face and disintegrated and reintegrated once. The battle continues through most of the film, until Dodgers finally declares enough is enough, and deploys his "secret weapon" that surrounds Marvin's ship with explosives. Marvin deploys the same type of weapon against Dodgers' ship. When the two simultaneously detonate their weapons, the entire planet is destroyed, save for a small chunk. Dodgers pushes Marvin off this chunk, and once again claims it in his own name, as the Cadet and Marvin are seen hanging from a root underneath the chunk. The Cadet sarcastically dismisses Dodgers' claim as a "Big deal."
Cast
- Mel Blanc as Duck Dodgers, The Eager Young Space Cadet, Marvin the Martian and Dr. I.Q. Hi
Credits
The cartoon was directed by
Uncredited are Stalling's quotations of "
Production
Jones saw Porky Pig's sidekick role as set apart from Daffy as the hero: "I always felt that Porky Pig was the subtlest of all the characters because he was consciously playing a part. He's obviously putting Daffy on, but it's a very subtle thing. In Duck Dodgers in the 24+1/2th Century, he was playing the space cadet, but he was aware that he was playing it. He was like I would be in a class play — in which the hero really thought he was the character."[7]
Reception
Comic book writer Mark Evanier writes, "Director Chuck Jones and writer Mike Maltese inverted the usual cartoon convention of having the hero conquer the villain. Here, Daffy pretty much conquers himself with faulty disintegration rays and faultier personal swagger. As with the other times Jones handled the duck, the Oliver Hardy principle prevails: The joke is never the destruction that befalls the luckless character but their loss of dignity afterward."[8]
- Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century (1980)
- Tiny Toon Adventures: "Duck Dodgers Jr.", segment in the episode "The Return of the Acme Acres Zone" (1990)
- 3-D cartoon
- Superior Duck(1996)
- Attack of the Drones(2003)
- Duck Dodgers (2003–2005), television series on Cartoon Network
Home media
This cartoon is available on Disc 2 of Volume 1 of the
In popular culture
The cartoon can be seen in the background of one scene in Steven Spielberg's film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).[10]
In the Season One episode of the 1990s hit science fiction TV series Babylon 5 entitled Midnight on the Firing Line, the head of security Michael Garibaldi invites the Minbari ambassador Delenn to his quarters with him, where they share popcorn and a night of watching Duck Dodgers, although the comedy is lost on her. Daffy Duck is Michael Garibaldi's favorite cartoon character.
See also
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
- List of cartoons featuring Daffy Duck
- List of Marvin the Martian cartoons
- List of cartoons featuring Porky Pig
References
- ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
- ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
- ^ Korkis, Jim (October 18, 2019). "The Many Lives of Duck Dodgers". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
- ISBN 978-1878685490.
- ^ Blum, Jeremy (April 7, 2021). "George Lucas Originally Wanted A 'Looney Tunes' Short To Run Before 'Star Wars'". Huff Post. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- ^ bcdb.com May 9, 2011
- ISBN 1-57806-728-6.
- ISBN 978-1-64722-137-9.
- ^ "Duck Dodgers: The Complete Series Blu-ray".
- ^ Gallagher, Brenden (July 28, 2015). "The Most Notable Marvin the Martian Appearances in Pop Culture History". Complex. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
External links
- Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century at IMDb
- Duck Dodgers in the 24+1⁄2th Century at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on May 5, 2016.