Duck Amuck: History and Key Facts

Duck Amuck is an American animated surreal comedy short film directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The short was released on February 28, 1953, as part of the Merrie Melodies series, and stars Daffy Duck.

In the cartoon, Daffy Duck is tormented by an unseen and mischievous animator, who constantly alters Daffy's locations, clothing, voice and physical appearance, much to Daffy's aggravation, embarrassment and finally rage. Daffy keeps trying to steer the cartoon back to some kind of normality, only for the animator to either ignore him or, more frequently, over-literally interpret his increasingly frantic demands.

In 1994, Duck Amuck was voted #2 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, only behind What's Opera, Doc?, also directed by Jones and written by Maltese. In 1999, Duck Amuck was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The short inspired the 2007 Nintendo DS video game Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck.

Source and attribution

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