Ducking the Devil
Ducking the Devil
NR | 17 August 1957 (USA)
Ducking the Devil Trailers

Daffy tries to snare the escaped Tasmanian Devil for the $5000 reward offered by the city zoo.

Reviews
SeeQuant

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

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Tayloriona

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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Aneesa Wardle

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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Ginger

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

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utgard14

The Tasmanian Devil escapes from a zoo and a reward is offered for anyone who can bring him back. Greedy Daffy seizes the opportunity to make some quick cash and attempts to capture Taz. This is the only Taz cartoon from the classic era where he was paired with someone other than Bugs. I'm not the biggest Taz fan and this short doesn't do much to change that. He's a very limited character who relies mainly upon the reactions of other characters to get any laughs. In all the Bugs shorts the plot is pretty much the same - Taz is running wild in the jungle, scaring all the animals until Bugs steps in and puts a stop to it. In this cartoon's favor, it does try to mix it up a little and take Taz out of the jungle and put him against opportunistic Daffy but it all feels similar to the Bugs shorts because, as I said before, Taz is such a limited character there's only so much you can do with him. Anyway it's worth a look if you happen to like Taz or if you're a Daffy completist, but it's really nothing memorable. There's also something 'off' about Daffy that I don't like. Not a great cartoon.

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Edgar Allan Pooh

. . . in DUCKING THE DEVIL, a Warner Bros. animated short from the 1950s. She views the black-feathered duck character with a white-ringed neck ("clerical collared," is how Mary puts it) as a clear representation of a priest, but I think that she might be making somewhat of a stretch here. I've never seen a priest play the trombone or bagpipes. (The titular DEVIL here is okay with the former, but does not recognize the latter as the sort of music capable of soothing a wild beast.) The duck-priest emphasizes several times that he's a "greedy, craven coward." This confession is hardly becoming of ANY clergyman. (The DEVIL doesn't say much here, besides guttural gibberish, not unlike your average exorcist flick demon.) When push comes to shove, and the DEVIL briefly gets his paws on one of the duck-priest's many dollar bills, this previously pacific character beats the DEVIL to a pulp to get his dollar back. The radio announcer states that the DEVIL is a "rare and valuable creature," yet Mary's yelling, "Burn, Baby, Burn" at my TV. Hasn't she ever heard of having some "Sympathy for the DEVIL?"

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TheLittleSongbird

Apart from some moments when Taz is drawn a little poorly, Ducking the Devil is a fun and entertaining cartoon from Robert McKimson and featuring Daffy and Taz. Taz does work slightly better with Bugs, who can manipulate him easier than Daffy I feel, but his and Daffy's partnership is above serviceable. Daffy of course is great, and dominates the cartoon, showing both his manic and greedy side. The animation is colourful and crisp, the music is driving, the dialogue is inspired, the sight gags are imaginative and of course Mel Blanc's vocals are superb.So overall, very entertaining that moves quickly and has a smart ending. 9/10 Bethany Cox

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Lee Eisenberg

Having escaped from a zoo, the Tasmanian Devil gets paired with Daffy Duck, as the latter learns that there's a $5,000 reward for Taz's capture, and that Taz becomes docile at the sound of music. "Ducking the Devil" is sort of a one-joke premise, but it keeps coming up with new ways to make the premise work. Like many of the Looney Tunes cartoons, this shows Daffy's greedy side (which always prevails over his cowardice). And if absolutely nothing else, it's always great to see Taz spin around like a tornado, sawing his way through any impediment. Thank God that Robert McKimson created him! Maybe greed ain't totally bad after all.

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