Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century 1953 ( Dir Chuck Jones)

This is the last cartoon in Porky and Daffy disc. From tomorrow i will be focussing on the third disc which is titled Looney Tunes All Stars Party, which is basically a collection of various cartoons ( although Bugs Bunny dominates)

anyway

Duck Dodgers is an absolutely FANTASTIC cartoon and is also one of those must sees. Again, like most Chuck Jones cartoons at this stage, the plot is simple but the gags and dialogue is rich and punchy. Yes it does spoof Buck Rogers but it's satire on a whole new level.

Daffy is Duck Dodgers and he is on a mission to find the rare element Illudium Phosdex. Evidently this can only be found on Planet X. Daffy accepts his mission, along with his faithful sidekick Porky. Oh yeah every time Daffy bellows DUCK DODGERS OF THE 24 1/2th CENTURY. He leaps ten feet into the air and starts glowing. Hilarious

After Daffy works out a complicated route to planet X (well before he accidentally mixes up the gears to his rocket and goes straight into the ground), Porky then discovers that the planets are in alphabetical order A, B, C, D, etc and so the duo go to their destination.

Unfortunately Marvin the Martian intends to conquer Planet X in the name of Mars, which leads to Daffy and Marvin fighting it out. Gags here include a disentegrating ray ( which disentegrates) a bullet proof vest ( which is the only thing stays intact when someone is shot) and bullets that have messages inside them)

this leads to a sort of arms race and eventually Daffy and Marvin use the exact same weapons against each other. Thus blowing up planet x to the size of a ball. Daffy triumphantly the claims Planet X to be the territory of the Earth. By now he cant even stand on it and Porky nonchalantly stutters out 'big deal' ( with Marvin Scrabbling on Porkys legs for dear life)

If you do dig deeper into the cartoon you can also see that it is parodying the arms races that were happening at that time (although i admit Dr. Seuss did a better job in the butter Battle Book) . It can also be seen as man trying to play God. Also worth noting that it was one of the cartoon that was referenced and influenced during the space craze of the seventies, with George Lucas insisting that it be shown before the Star Wars films.

A cartoon so good that in the 00's Warner Bros decided to turn it into a sequel ( which sucks) and a television serial ( which sucks as well) .

Legendary!