Aracuan-Woody-Dodo-DAFFY

[CarmenG@aol.com]

This discussion of crazy birds gives me an opportunity to open a 
controversial can of worms. Most cartoon lovers adore the Chuck Jones shorts 
in which Daffy is a bad-tempered, jealous character--a kind of hot-headed 
loser. The most famous of these are those in which he's paired with an 
ultra-cool Bugs Bunny.
    My own take on this is that it is untrue to the original 
characters--especially of Daffy. I mean, he started out as...daffy! He was 
flat-out, fall down FUNNY. I would laugh out loud at the fast-paced looniness 
of Porky's Duck Hunt, or The Great Piggy Bank Robbery. My theory as to what 
happened is that Chuck Jones remade Daffy into--DONALD Duck. Jones, for all 
his comedic genius at Warner Brothers, always seemed to me to be a 
Disney-style storyteller. If you look at his early sentimental shorts, he 
seemed to want to be in that Disney mold. (Didn't he do Sniffles?)
    Now, one Donald Duck is enough. (Too much, in fact, which is why I love 
how Carl Barks expanded his character to include much more than these baser 
qualities.) I enoyed laughing with the truly daffy Daffy Duck and have 
trouble accepting the selfish, more villainous character he became.
    Am I being inconsistent here? I hope not. What I mean to convey is that 
Donald evolved into a richer character, while Daffy DEvolved into a baser 
character (and I'm not sure I would agree that what he became was more 
complex).
    I'm interested in what others think. The bottom line is, of course, that 
Ducks are Funny.

Carmen