Stupor Duck

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Stupor Duck
series = Merrie Melodies


caption =
director = Robert McKimson
story_artist =
animator = Ted Bonnicksen
Keith Darling
Russ Dyson
George Grandpré

voice_actor = Mel Blanc
Daws Butler (uncredited)
musician = Carl Stalling
producer = Edward Selzer
distributor = Warner Bros.
The Vitaphone Corporation
release_date = July 7, 1956 (USA)
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 min (one reel)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0049807

"Stupor Duck" is a Looney Tunes animated short starring Daffy Duck. A Superman parody directed by Robert McKimson, the cartoon was released July 7, 1956. The voices were performed by Mel Blanc and Daws Butler; Butler — who voiced the narrator and the newspaper editor — was uncredited.

ynopsis

Daffy Duck is cast as Stupor Duck and his alter ego, Cluck Trent. After the introduction—which shows Daffy being faster than a speeding (pop gun) bullet, more powerful than (an 1800s-style train) locomotive and (almost) able to leap tall buildings (the depicted tall building being "McKimson Associates," a reference to director Robert McKimson) in a single bound — the film proceeds to the story proper.

Cluck, hoping for a promotion, eavesdrops on his editor, who is watching a television crime drama in his office. The unnamed show's villian is "Aardvark Ratnik," a Russian-accented terrorist hell-bent on world domination. Cluck concludes that Aardvark actually exists, is present in the editor's office and making his demands known lest the consequences. Cluck declares there's just one superhero that can stop "Aardvark": Stupor Duck.

After an errant change into a witch's costume, Cluck dons his Stupor Duck outfit and begins his search for the non-existent antagonist. One by one, he spots "examples" of "Aardvark's" supposed work. Among them:

* A skyscraper being razed to make way for a new city hall (a member of the crew beats Stupor up).
* A sinking ship that turns out to be a submarine (the ship fires a torpedo at Stupor, blowing him away).
* A train wreck that's actually a stunt for a new Warner's movie (the crewman detonates the dynamite, unaware that Stupor is high in the sky).
* Finally, a nuclear missile that's actually a rocket headed for the moon (with Stupor, who has lost his costume, holding on for dear life). During the final gag, observers repeat the "Look, up in the sky ..." tagline as they watch the rocket and its feathered passenger head into outer space.

Censorship

*When this cartoon aired on ABC, the part after Daffy/Stupor Duck saves the skyscraper from being felled where the construction worker punches Daffy/Stupor Duck in the face was cut.
*When this cartoon aired on the syndicated "Merrie Melodies" show, the part where a submarine cannon shoots Daffy/Stupor Duck in the face was cut, but not the part where Daffy/Stupor Duck gets chased and blown up by a missile.

uccession

References

* Friedwald, Will and Jerry Beck. "The Warner Brothers Cartoons." Scarecrow Press Inc., Metuchen, N.J., 1981. ISBN 0-8108-1396-3.