''Scrap Happy Daffy'' is a 1943

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. ...

'' short directed by

Frank Tashlin Frank Tashlin (born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, February 19, 1913 – May 5, 1972), also known as Tish Tash and Frank Tash, was an American animator, cartoonist, children's writer, illustrator, screenwriter, and film director. He was best k ...

. The cartoon was released on August 21, 1943, and stars

Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created for Leon Schlesinger Productions by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melo ...

. In the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

-themed story, Daffy is the guard of a scrap yard, doing his part to help the United States win the war against the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

, but the Nazis decide to destroy his scrap pile by sending a billy goat out to eat everything in sight. The short was the final appearance of Daffy Duck in

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

theatrical cartoons. ''Scrap Happy Daffy'' lapsed into the

public domain in the United States Works are in the public domain if they are not covered by intellectual property rights (such as copyright) at all, or if the intellectual property rights to the works have expired. All works first published or released in the United States b ...

in 1971.

Plot

Daffy is a guard at a scrap pile, encouraging Americans to "Get the tin out", "Get the brass out", "Get the iron out" and especially " Get the lead out". Singing ''We're in to Win'', Daffy goes over the various things Americans can send to help with the war effort. He calls Hitler "Schikelgruber", which is the birth name of his father. However, Fuehrer

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

who reads about Daffy's scrap pile helping to beat

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...

, isn't very happy about this and responds to this by giving his men the following order: "Destroy that scrap pile!" With the word out, a

Nazi German Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

submarine fires a torpedo to the scrap pile — which has a billy goat inside, and the goat immediately starts eating everything in sight. Daffy, hearing the noise, tries to find out what's making the noise. After temporarily pointing a rifle at a reflection of himself (thinking that he cornered someone else), Daffy finds the goat hiccuping with the garbage inside him and amiably offers him a glass of

Alka-Seltzer Alka-Seltzer is an effervescent antacid and pain reliever first marketed by the Dr. Miles Medicine Company of Elkhart, Indiana, United States. Alka-Seltzer contains three active ingredients: aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) (ASA), sodium bicarbon ...

. However, when Daffy sees the

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. I ...

that the goat (whom he derides as a "tin termite") is wearing on his collar, he starts messing with the goat. Temporarily getting the better of the goat, Daffy is almost undone when he tries to whack the goat with a mallet - but the mallet gets stuck in the goat's horns and the goat knocks Daffy around. Daffy is ready to call it quits (saying "What I'd give for a can of

spinach Spinach (''Spinacia oleracea'') is a leafy green flowering plant native to central and western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common edible vegetable consumed eith ...

now", a direct reference to

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Plymouth Rock Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of disembarkation of William Bradford and the ''Mayflower'' Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in December 1620. The Pilgrims did not refer to Plymouth Rock in any of their writings; the first known writt ...

, who encamped at

Valley Forge Valley Forge functioned as the third of eight winter encampments for the Continental Army's main body, commanded by General officer, General George Washington, during the American Revolutionary War. In September 1777, Congress fled Philadelphi ...

with George Washington, who explored with

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the w ...

, who sailed with

John Paul Jones John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-American naval captain who was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites ( ...

, and who stood in for

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

. Daffy's spirits back up when he realizes, "Americans don't give up, and I'm an American... duck!", and then he turns into "Super American" in a reference to Superman (whose owner,

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with their f ...

, is now a WB subsidiary itself). Daffy flies after the goat, knocking him around. The goat makes a run for the submarine, but Daffy repels all bullets shot at him and starts yanking on the periscope. Just then, the scene changes to Daffy yanking on a fire hose and getting hosed down. Daffy wakes up, thinking it was all just a dream — until he looks up at the Nazi submarine sitting on top of the scrap pile, where the Nazis tell Daffy, "Next time you dream, include us out!"

Reception

Animator Eric Goldberg writes, "Despite the film's jingoistic nature, it still boasts all the hallmarks of a great Tashlin cartoon: Dynamic, stylized poses in the animation. Graphically styled layouts and backgrounds. And outrageous humor — we dissolve from the back end of a horse with a black tail to the forelock on Adolf's face; the goat is capable of doing a four-footed military goosestep. ''Scrap Happy Daffy'' is one of the classic World War II propaganda cartoons."

Home media

This cartoon was colorized in 1995, with a computer adding color to a new print of the original black and white cartoon. This preserved the quality of the original animation. However, this new colorized version was never broadcast on American television, presumably due to its outdated subject matter. A clip of this cartoon (which, oddly, was featured colorized and restored) was shown on a documentary about World War II-era cartoons ("'' ToonHeads'': The Wartime Cartoons") and on a documentary on Frank Tashlin on the third volume of the ''Looney Tunes Golden Collection'', and is featured independently on the '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5'' and the '' Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3''. (shown in its original black and white format). The original black and white cartoon is also available as a special feature for the DVD release of the Warner Bros. 1943 movie ''

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ar ...

''. This cartoon has now fallen into the public domain because the copyright was not renewed after 1971, as such, it can be found on low budget public domain vhses and DVDs.

Voice cast

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy ra ...

, Nazi Soldiers, Submarine Captain, Billy

Goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of ...

, Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Uncle Dillingham

Duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a fo ...

Minuteman Minutemen were members of the organized New England colonial militia companies trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies during the American Revolutionary War. They were known for being ready at a minute's notice, hence the name. Mi ...

Duck, Pioneer Duck, Admiral Duck, Lincoln Duck & Daffy's

Ancestors An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from w ...

* Dorothy Lloyd - Whistle

References

External links

* *{{BCDB title, 233 1943 films 1943 animated films American World War II propaganda shorts American black-and-white films Looney Tunes shorts Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films Short films directed by Frank Tashlin Cultural depictions of Adolf Hitler Cultural depictions of Benito Mussolini Cultural depictions of Hideki Tojo Cultural depictions of Abraham Lincoln 1940s American animated films Animation based on real people World War II films made in wartime Daffy Duck films Films produced by Leon Schlesinger Films scored by Carl Stalling