Duck Dodgers of the 24 1/2 Century

Cafe Society
1

MilliCal, our 6-year-old, insisted on watching this series. I agreed, figuring it was harmless.
I have to admit, up front, that I’m a Warner Brothers cartoon lover, and that, in my opinion, the greatest cartoons are the ones made by Chuck Jones in the early 1950s. Rannit Fire; Rabbit Seasoning; Duck, Rabbit, Duck; One Froggy Evening; Duck Amuck No one has matched these for comic presentation or timing. Ultra-sophisticated (“Shoot me again, I enjoy it! I love the smell of burnt feathers and gunpowder and cordite!”).

Nevertheless, although lots of people enjoy them, I have to admit that I’ve never liked the “Duck Dodgers” cartoons, even when Jones was doing them. I suppose the fact that they were poking fun at a genre that was even then decades old – sort of shooting at a (forgive me) sitting duck – contributed to that. They seemed pretty irrelevant. So I didn’t expect much from a Duck Dodgers series done by someone else.
Face it, the “new” Warners cartoons don’t stand up to the old ones. I eagerly went to see “Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters” when it first came out. Dull, uninspired writing and direction. No real parody of “Ghostbusters”, as the title implies. The damned thing just wasn’t funny. And the ones that followed were worse.

It didn’t have to be that way. Cartoons aren’t really supposed to be inoffensive pablum meant to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Animation critic Richard Thompson, writing in 1980, suggested an up-to-date Daffy cartoon:

This is the kinda thing we werem’t getting, and I didn’t expect better of the current incarnation of DD. So I watched a bit of it, and wasn’t impressed. They’re still using Chuck Jones’ characters. They’ve added some androids and a Martian Queen. Ho Hum.

And then, Dodgers quiets cadet Porky Pig’s stuttering conniption fit with a cool:

“Find your thenter, Honey-Baked.”
And I lost it. For the first time in years – decades, maybe, I laughed at a new Daffy Duck cartoon.

Most of the cartoon continued to be the same derivative stuff, but every now and again they’d toss out some treat, some witty bit of writing to us hard-core fans and SF buffs to keep us happy.

Porky: Fire! Trust your feelings!
Duck Dodgers: Thanth, but I think I’ll use this expensing Tagrgeting Computer we’ve got.

Or… Duck Dodgers going on at length about the toupee that he’s got, "…actually, it’s a hair weave,’’ a la Shatner.

I think I’ll watch a few more of these.

2

Yeah, I liked that “targeting computer line” … I’d have tossed it into this thread if you hadn’t beaten me to it.

Let’s also not forget:

Evil robot henchman: “We must strike now!”
Marvin: “Agreed! Obliterate the Earth!”
Evil robot henchman: “No! I mean, us henchman must strike! I haven’t had a vacation day in six years!”

The cartoon is excruciatingly simplistic in how it looks and feels, but it comes out with some gems when you least expect them.

3

What I like about is that the timeline meshes perfectly with Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The thought of Duck Dodgers running into Wesley Crusher sends me into hysterical giggles.
Uh oh…
hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehheheehehehehehehhehheehehehhehhehehehhhehheehhhehehhehehehehehehehehhehehhehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehhehhehehehehehehehehehehehehheheheehehehhehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehhehehehehehehehhee…

4

I’ve enjoyed the few episodes I’ve seen. Marvin Martian always cracks me up (“I’m going to destroy the Earth. Isn’t that lovely?”)

In this new series:

How come Marvin Martian isn’t wearing his red shirt?

Will we see K-9, his martian hound?

5

The problem is that, somewhere along the line, Warner Brothers forgot that their classic cartoons were created for, and enjoyed by, adults, in the form of the short cartoon before the main feature at the movie theater.

This explains the level of sophistication that the classic cartoons enjoy, with topical references and throwaway bits that flew right over the heads of the kiddies, but which were greatly enjoyed by the audience.

Sometime (probably around the creation of the Saturday morning cartoon ghetto) Warner Brothers decided that cartoons were just for kids, and took to either running the classic cartoons through the Cuisinart before showing them to the kids, or creating predigested pablum just for the little darlings. Either way, the kids knew they were being condescended to, and resented the hell out of it.

In the '90s Warner Brothers started making new features starring the classic characters. These were markedly inferior to the old cartoons, naturally. However, one thing did intrigue me…The new cartoons were marketed primarliy to two demographic groups: children (Duck Dodgers), and African-Americans (Space Jam).

What exactly is Warner Brothers trying to say here? Am I the only one troubled by this?

6

I’ve watched a couple of episodes. For a Paul Dini cartoon, it’s kind of subpar. That said, I’m just waiting for this special guest star:

Kevin Smith as Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern

7

I’m not familiar with Dini’s other stuff. And your Spoiler’ed note confused the heck out of me until I found this:
http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0307/23/

8

Paul Dini - Batman: The Animated Series

Need I say more?

9

Anybody got images of the Martian Queen online?

10

Go to the Duck Dodgers site. I think it’s www.duckdodgers.com

She ain’t that sexy. Imagine a taller version of Marvin wearing a brass bra and with white hair (“Your raven locks!” said DD. “They’re white!” says Martian Queen, angered.)

11

I was rather disturbed to find that Porky makes a rather sexy alien when he gets all dolled up by Dodgers.:eek: :eek: :eek:

12

Somebody’s been watching “Red Hot Riding Hood”.

Did you catch those Vampire Babes in the Space Vampire episode?

13

Amost as disturbing as how much Porky seems to enjoy it.

14

Hmm, I just saw Shirley Temple Black in the credits. And unless there’s two of them that’s THE Shirley Temple. What’s was odd because there didn’t appear to be any female characters in that short. That short being the one where Dodgers gets mistaken for a prisoner. Or maybe I missed her part.

What’s her connection?