Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies

Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies is a 1972 animated one-hour TV-movie (with a live-action segment near the end) that was aired on December 16 as an episode of the anthology series The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie.[1] In this Filmation-produced movie, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and other Looney Tunes characters interact with the characters from the Filmation series Groovie Goolies.[2]

Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies
Written byChuck Menville
Len Janson
Directed byHal Sutherland
StarringMel Blanc
Jay Scheimer
Howard Morris
Larry Storch
Erika Scheimer
Dallas McKennon
Lou Scheimer
Country of originUnited States
Production
Producer(s)Norm Prescott
Lou Scheimer
Running time1 hour
Production company(s)Filmation
Release
Original networkABC
Original releaseDecember 16, 1972
Chronology
Preceded byThe Red Baron
Followed byLuvcast U.S.A.

This movie is notable for being the one and only time that Warner Bros. "loaned out" their famous Looney Tunes characters to appear in a Filmation production (otherwise they were a silent partner). Warner Bros. had shut down their animation studio in 1969. While Warner Bros. had outsourced production to other companies since the 1960s, it was usually to studios run by former Warner Bros. alumni (such as Friz Freleng and later Chuck Jones), something that was not the case with Filmation.

Synopsis

Daffy Duck is in Hollywood producing a movie about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, starring himself; also appearing in the film are Porky Pig, Petunia Pig, Sylvester, Tweety, Wile E. Coyote, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé Le Pew, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and Charlie Dog.

At Horrible Hall, the Groovie Goolies are watching a television interview in which Daffy is talking about his new movie, when their program is interrupted by a ghoulish being calling himself The Phantom of the Flickers; he announces his intention to destroy every film that Daffy Duck and the company ever made, including their current King Arthur film. Being a huge fan of Daffy, Frankie goes to Hollywood to offer his help, and the other Horrible Hall residents go along with him.

Mayhem ensues when the Looney Tunes and the Goolies first meet, but they eventually settle down and continue filming the movie. But when the Phantom disguises himself as each of the Goolies, Daffy and the others then think that they are in league with the Phantom and run off. The Phantom suddenly grabs the film and, disguised as Hauntleroy, tries to escape from the Goolies by running through a magic mirror into "Mad Mirror Land" (i.e., the real world). Frankie, Drac, and Wolfie chase after him, and after a cartoonishly slapstick pursuit they bring (or more rather sneeze) the Phantom and the film back to their world.

The Phantom turns out to be Drac’s long-lost uncle Claude Chaney, a formerly famous silent film actor. Chaney's pale complexion left him out of work when color films became popular. Daffy, impressed with Chaney's disguise skills, gives Claude a job. King Arthur wins an Ozzie Award, and the Goolies head for home.

Notes
  • The Phantom of the Flickers is an obvious parody of The Phantom of the Opera, a novel which has been made into movies and plays; Lon Chaney, Sr. played the title role in the 1925 film, and Claude Rains starred in the 1943 version. The name "Claude Chaney" is derived from these two actors’ names.
  • The live-action segment uses stop motion, pixilation and undercranking to enable the actors to move like cartoon characters; e.g., when the Goolies drive imaginary cars down the road and Drac appears to fly. Chuck Menville and Len Janson, writers on the special, had previously used the technique for three short films of their own: Stop Look and Listen; Blaze Glory; and Sergeant Swell of the Mounties.
  • Bugs Bunny was not present in the special, a notable absence considering he is one of the biggest stars of the Looney Tunes cast and the usual foil of both Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam (as well as, secondarily, Wile E. Coyote). Bugs had not been seen since the closure of the Warner Bros. studio in 1964; he did not appear in any of the WB-branded shorts produced by other companies up to this point.
  • Wile E. Coyote appears without his usual foil the Road Runner. He is mostly silent (expressing dialogue through holding signs as he did in the Road Runner shorts) but occasionally laughs with his refined English voice from the Bugs shorts.
  • This special marks Petunia Pig's first "official" color appearance (since she never appeared in any color cartoons in the "classic" era), and her first appearance on-screen since the 1930s. Petunia's voice in the special is an impersonation of Hedda Hopper, Louella Parsons or Rona Barrett.
  • Despite that Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Tweety, Sylvester, Foghorn Leghorn, Wile E. Coyote and Pepé Le Pew are voiced by Mel Blanc in the special, they sound a little different from the classic shorts; Daffy's voice is pitched higher and sped up faster than normal (to the point that he sounded a lot like his early "screwball" incarnation by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett or Woody Woodpecker), Porky's voice isn't sped up, Elmer, Sylvester, Foghorn, Wile E. and Pepé's voices sound deeper than normal, and Tweety's voice is sped up faster than normal. This is due to Filmation incorrectly editing Blanc's voice recordings for Daffy and Tweety and forgetting to speed up Blanc's voice recordings for Porky, and Blanc not being thrilled about working on the special and not doing Elmer's voice to his satisfaction (Elmer's normal voice actor, Arthur Q. Bryan, died many years before; Elmer has one line of dialogue in the whole special). Yosemite Sam is the only character who doesn't sound different from the classic shorts.

Cast

Voice actors
  • Mel Blanc . . . Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer J. Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester J. Pussycat, Tweety Pie, Wile E. Coyote, Pepé Le Pew, Foghorn Leghorn
  • Jay Scheimer (credited as "Joanne Louise") . . . Petunia Pig[3], Nurse
  • Howard Morris . . . Franklin "Frankie" Frankenstein, Wolfgang "Wolfie" Wolfman, Mummy, "Hauntleroy"
  • Larry Storch . . . Count Tom Dracula, Hagatha, Claude Chaney/Phantom of the Flickers
  • Erika Scheimer (uncredited) . . . Sylvester J. Pussycat (panting sound)
  • Dallas McKennon (uncredited) . . . Sylvester J. Pussycat (meowing sounds), Charlie Dog, Marshall Actor, Messenger, Singing Telegram Horse, Announcer, Horses
  • Lou Scheimer (uncredited) . . . Director, Lance, Dog, Herald

Live actors

The following (uncredited) actors appeared in the live-action segment:

  • Ed Fournier . . . Franklin "Frankie" Frankenstein
  • Emory Gordy Jr. . . . "Hauntleroy"
  • Dick Monda . . . Count Tom Dracula
  • Jeffrey Thomas . . . Wolfgang "Wolfie" Wolfman

Availability

This movie has never been officially released on home video in the United States (due to various rights issues), but traders on the Internet have been recording and selling DVDs of this film, most of which were originally black-and-white kinescopes of the original broadcast.

Distributor Select Video released the film in a number of European countries. The German version of the movie was released in 1983 as Groovie Goolies: Muntere Monster in Hollywood ("Groovie Goolies: Groovie Goolies in Hollywood"), and re-released in 1986 as Duffy Duck und Co. ("Daffy Duck and Co."), and again in 1990 as Die Lustige Monster Show: Duffy Duck und Co. in Hollywood ("Groovie Goolies: Daffy Duck and Co. in Hollywood"). The original laugh track from the movie was removed for these releases. In January 1985, the movie was released by Select Video in the UK as Groovie Ghouls, and was on sale at Woolworth's. In those instances, the live-action sequence was not present, and it was replaced by an out-of-shot collision before rejoining the original animated sequence. The sequence in these releases was cut for time, as the German versions contained trailers for other Select Video titles.

Another notable feature of the German and UK releases was that the Select Video ident was shorter, and had no jingle. In addition, the end credits were different, as they had to edit out the names of the actors in the live-action sequence which was not included, and also had other credits, presumably for Europe-based post-production at Select Video.

Despite the aforementioned rights issues, the film remains part of the Groovie Goolies syndication package (split into two half-hours), as of the mid 2000s[4], and has been rebroadcast several times on television. Sky One broadcast the movie on July 4, 1992.[5] USA Network broadcast the movie as a Halloween special in the mid to late 90s shortly before it stopped broadcasting cartoons altogether.[6] In 1997, Cartoon Network broadcast the movie on Mr. Spim's Cartoon Theatre.[7] A two-part version of the movie was broadcast on German television as Monsterparty auf Schloß Blutenburg: Daffy Duck und das Phantom Der Seifenoper ("Groovie Goolies: Daffy Duck and the Phantom of the Flickers") in 2002, 2007 and 2013.[8]

References
  1. Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. p. 55. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  2. Lehman, Christopher P. (2014). American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era: A Study of Social Commentary in Films and Television Programs, 1961-1973. McFarland & Co. p. 172. ISBN 9780786451425.
  3. "Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies / Trivia". TV Tropes. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
  4. "Groovie Goolies". 2006-09-15. Archived from the original on 2006-09-15. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
  5. Russ - #Retro, Russty (2017-07-04). "TV25: Here's what was on TV on this day 25 years ago (Saturday) 04 July 1992. Any favourites here? @transdiffusionpic.twitter.com/RQ9Lt3bwPj". @russty_russ. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
  6. "Archie (Filmation) questions". Home Theater Forum. Retrieved May 6, 2019.
  7. "Notable Hanna-Barbera voice-over artists, who've also done work at rival Filmation". Anime Superhero News. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
  8. KG, imfernsehen GmbH & Co, Monsterparty auf Schloß Blutenburg Folge 1: Daffy Duck und das Phantom der Seifenoper – Teil 1 (in German), retrieved 2020-05-20


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