Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939)

Director:

Chuck Jones

Writer:

Dave Monahan (story)

Release Date:

22 April 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Animation | Short | Comedy

Plot:

"Millions and billions and trillions of years ago," Caspar Caveman (a caricature of Jack Benny) and...

Plot Keywords:

Dinosaur | Caveman | Angel | Ends With Death | Modern Stone Age Humor

Cast

Mel Blanc	...	Daffy Duck (voice) (uncredited)
Jack Lescoulie	...	Casper Caveman (voice) (uncredited)

Runtime:

8 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:U (original rating) | UK:U (video rating) (1992)

Company:

Leon Schlesinger Studios

Trivia:

Many of the signs leading the caveman to the duck are parodies of 1930s-era ad slogans: "Cavemen Choose Duckies 2 to 1" is a parody of a Lucky Strike cigarette slogan, "People Choose Luckies 2 to 1." The Caveman is a parody of comedian Jack Benny.

Quotes:

Daffy Duck: [after painting a self-portrait on a rock] Not bad for someone who never had a lesson in his life.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Star Trek: Voyager: Memorial (#6.14)" (2000)

Soundtrack:

The William Tell Overture

Forget Daffy--THIS FILM's the strangest bird of them all!

I'd suppose all those Jones idolators out there consider this as simply another important building block toward the genius that would eventually develop....still, it's a long, painful road from something like this to the greater Bugs, Daffy & Road Runner films a decade later. Frankly, I don't get the gist of the whole notion of making Jack Benny a patsy for the duck: the two just don't work off of each other. Perhaps Jones is telling us we're supposed to have more sympathy for the Benny character (AND the dinosaur, who seems to get an inordinate amount of attention here himself....that insipid, puppydog face!). And the Benny caveman character really doesn't have those familiar traits associated with Jack Benny's whole schtick (his baldness, his screechy violin playing, his stinginess, etc.). Heck, he doesn't even LOOK like Benny! Perhaps the film's meant to show us Jones's contempt for the early, WACKY Daffy--namely, the Daffy perfected by Bob Clampett, who had a kind of feud going with Jones at the Warner cartoon studio. Anyway, whatever one's to make of the film: I always have to put on something else afterward to remind myself of what it's like to LAUGH.