Robert McKimson | Daffy Duck Hunt / 1949

in and out of a frozen existence

by Douglas Messerli

 

Warren Foster (story), Phil DeLara, John Carey, Manny Gold, and Charles McKimson (animators), Robert McKimson (director) Daffy Duck Hunt / 1949

 

This time it is Daffy Duck—for which Porky Pig and his Barnyard Dawg are in chase, Porky playing the role of a duck hunter—when in one of his many quick changes briefly changes gender, becoming a can-can dancer, which actually doesn’t help him since when he bends over in his can-can routine, Porky quickly shoots him in the behind.     

     But, of course, Daffy survives again and again. But when Porky sends his dog to reclaim the body and he sees that Daffy is still quite well, he plays his own game as the fearful dawg, afraid of being tortured by Porky for not bringing home the duck. Daffy agrees to play a game of a dead duck on the canine’s mouth, as he brings him home to Porky, who soon after deposits him in his heavy-duty freezer. As Porky heads off to his bedroom, Barnyard Dawg has a struggle of conscience, wherein he better half encourages him to take out the duck and warm him out of a few minutes. The Dawg warms him up in the oven, and Daffy comes back to become his apparent victim, the Dawg preventing him from actually leaving the house.

     When again Porky’s ire is invoked for having let out the duck. He is punished, Daffy thrown back into the freezer, only to soon again appear to torture the now quite disturbed Dawg, who soon gets punished again with the fracas occurring downstairs.

    Time and again Daffy escapes, causing chaos in Barnyard Dawg’s pitiable life. 

     Finally, Porky himself intervenes to make sure that the duck has remained in the freezer only to be confronted with Santa Claus singing a comic version “Jingle Bells.” They merrily sing along until they discover that, in fact, it is only April.

      When Porky is about to take the axe to the troublesome duck’s carcass, we sees a sign pasted across the body: “Don’t open until Christmas.” Daffy suggests that long before then we will find someway out of the situation, of which we have no doubt.

 

Los Angeles, September 6, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2026).