Cosmic side of the fowl ! - Best of Duck Dodgers

Ladies and gentlemen , it is time to pay tribute to the most underrated cartoon of the past decade !

This is the kind of series I ended up loving more as an adult rather than as a kid. The more recent shows don't even come close to the level of this wonderful series. It manages not only to pay tribute to the classics but also does something completely different ! Like what Tiny Toons did with Acme Acres (which is sort of what Duckburg, Mousetown and St-Canard are to the Disney characters ), This show sets a whole semi-coherent universe and ACTUALLY exploits the fuck out of it.
As you all know ,the animated Duck Dodgers TV series was inspired by the 1953 Merrie Melodies cartoon "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century" (by Chuck Jones and Mike Maltese). Not only does it derive from that master-piece (which we will talk about once I make the Top 20 Chuck Jones cartoons !), but it also manages to do what any GOOD LT spin-off does : Take the characters out of their element, but DO NOT take the elements out of the characters.

What is it about ? Well in a nutshell ; Daffy got frozen for three centuries, thawed in the 24 1/2th century, and then assigned by Dr. "I.Q." Hi to defend Earth from the Martians with his sidekick , the eager young space Cadet... And hijinks ensue !

You know what let us go point by point and you guys will tell me if I lie about the quality of this show !

VISUALS :

First of all the scenery is gorgeous. They did spend time designing it and make it like an actual sci-fi atmosphere :
- The Dodgers ship looks great , pretty much like a true spaceship .
- The design of the protectorate HQ looks like something out of a more serious Sci-fi, that is until you meet Dodgers
- The Martian world was also broadened in order to have its own mythology .
And all of those have a ludicrous and exagerated dimension to look like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. So even the setting was well thought-out .


MUSIC :

Any great LT spin-off must have a memorable soundtrack. While this does not have the orchestra soundtrack the Classics , Tiny Toons or Animaniacs possess, it still manages to find the right sci-fiesque tunes to go with the action. And the theme song ? It describes everything you need to know about the show.

HUMOR :

The humor of this series derives a lot from the classics. True there are few jokes that are meh , but those are the exception not the rule ! This show has a lot of slapstick , verbal humor and a lot of sadistic jokes (verbal or physical ) in it . In fact it was never afraid to kill off some of its protagonists or letting them end up battered or torn to shreds. And it did not shy away from using lethal weapons on the characters (because they remembered it is a goddamn WB cartoon !)
Finally most of the jokes were more for adults or teenagers, especially with subtle innuendos. Kids can watch it and when they grow up , upon rewatching , can get the jokes or references that flew over their heads.

CHARACTERS

Yes,if there is one thing I absolutely love here , it is the characterizations : Every main player was multi-layered and complex, playing in a load of different comedic situations. And did I mention that it adapts them to this new setting without betraying their essence ? It took advantage of their classic aspects for the scripts , imagine that ...

- Duck Edgar Dumas Aloysius Eoghain Dodgers (played by Daffy Duck ... no kidding !)

As all of you know , I practically preach at the altar of Daffy, so I had to take a gander at what the show does with him . And I just love him here ! I could not disagree more with those who just slam him as braindead and say that he is a loathesome person who commits bad actions and... Okay guys, DAFFY IS THE ANTI-HERO PER EXCELLENCE ! Of course he is not supposed to be a role model ! Idiots.
As for the obliviousness , it is mostly reminiscent of Jones's " A pest in the house" or Davis's "Stupor Salesman", where he barely acknowledges the situation around him . But even then , he has shown to be far more clever and vicious than what he's given credit for. To me , the Dodgers personna did to Daffy what Paperinik (the PKNA Powerduck version ) did to Donald. It took the same classic character and added a certain stable dimension to him throughout the course of the entire series : Dodgers here is a captain for Earth Protectorate while Powerduck works for Everett Ducklair's Uno as earth's super guardian.
Therefore to me , this is both Daffy (when he breaks the fourth wall. And a running joke is that other people , spectators or Tom Jones , refer to him as such but it is never directly uttered in his presence.) and Dodgers (the role of the incompetent space captain ... with many hidden depths ).
Finally , just like for Paperinik , I am well aware that there are 2 separate takes on the Dodgers personna : This new one and the classic one (from the classic short, The 90's comics and the Tiny Toons episode Dodgers Jr.) which is mostly Daffy at his most irrational, hammiest and OVER-passionate.

- Eager Young Space Cadet (Played by Porky Pig ... How surprising ! )

As I said before , the duo of Daffy and Porky is just legendary . One character is an id-driven, chaotic nut while the other is the normal guy , serving both as a straight-man and as observer to the manic antics of his leader .
He is utterly loyal to Dodgers despite doubting him a lot a (would you blame him ? ). Despite being much smarter than his so-called hero, he lets him give all the orders. While Dodgers does (variably) care for his Cadet, he unashamedly exploits him alot. The Cadet is also fairly successful as a ladies man, especially the ones the duck does not get (so is life I guess !).

- Dr. Ignatius Q "I.Q." Hi

The overweight scientist that revived Dodgers after being frozen for three centuries. Seriously, I don't know who is crazier ? The Duck or the Doc ? You decide ! The only thing I am sure of is that he is also an oblivious riot .

- Martian Commander X-2 ( Played by... Actually he is not played ! He IS Marvin the Martian !)

And as such, the martian's personality has been expanded. He is still the soft-spoken and extremely dangerous Marvin we know from the classics , but his more coherent homeworld and relationships make him more complex. The confident commander of the Martian military who is Dodgers' arch enemy. He is infatuated with the Martian Queen that he serves (can you blame him ?), and considers Dodgers either as a nuisance OR as a true enemy.

- Queen Tyr'ahnee

The beautiful ruler of Mars ! And thank God , the proof that you can make new female characters that are perfectly viable and complex . She is, more often than not, in love with Dodgers and believes him to be a true hero. She is a very skilled warrior and has a no-nonsense personna , ending up at times as being far more dangerous than commander X-2 .

- Martian Centurion Robots

Yes... even the fucking robots have a great personality and are memorable ! How is this a bad show again ?


Of course all the other Looney Tunes characters that have been injected in this universe fit PERFECTLY. Their roles are completely in tune with their personalities. As I said before , THIS is how you use classic characters in new settings ! You actually exploit their comedic sensibilities in a way that has not been done before .
And I have to praise the voice acting. No one will replace Mel Blanc , no one will ever top him . But with that said, Joe Alaskey, Tia Carrere, Bob Bergen, Tara Strong and Grey DeLisle all do great jobs with their characters and deserve praise .



NOW for the moment you've been waiting for : The top 20 greatest episodes picked by yours truly ! Bring it on Tom ! [link]


20) CASTLE HIGH

I.Q. leaves Dodgers alone with his ancestor's castle, (which takes him about less 5 minutes to utterly destroy!) . As such Dodgers tells I.Q. what happened ; A Frankenstein-type parody ! I won't reveal the pay-off , but it is priceless !

19) THE FOWL FRIEND

A robot named Agent Roboto joins Dodgers' crew, but after a while, it turns out Roboto has become too helpful and too popular for the tastes of a certain jealous duck. Excellent dark parody of the Iron Giant.

18) PIG OF ACTION

The meek Cadet discovers a bizarre rock that turns him into the BADASS Pork Piggler who attempts to defeat the Klunkin army of Yose,,, err.. K'Chutha Sa'am .(and to any schmuck who asks , YES THIS IS HOW SAM IS TO BE WRITTEN ! So evil and violent that he would eat kittens and kick puppies, MWAHAHAHAHAHA !)

17) A MASTER AND DISASTER

Dodgers and Cadet train under Kung Fu Master Moloch (actually Quentin Tarantino ... that does explain the violence !) so they'll be able to take down a speedy thief called The Whoosh.

16) TILL DOOM DO US APART

Roboto returns with a thirst for revenge as he assembles all of Dodgers' previous villains together to form the Legion of Duck Doom.Meanwhile , the commander wants to marry the queen and AT THE SAME TIME Dodgers WANTS A WAR !


15) THE SIX WAZILLION DOLLARS DUCK

After Dodgers ends up in a critical accident (by slapping the door on himself...), I.Q. Hi equips Dodgers with cybornetic parts, making him a super powerful cyborg. Meanwhile, the Martian Queen and X-2 kidnap other cyborg people ( a cyborg's cybernetic wife and a yeti ...) from Earth to steal their technology, using the help of Dr. Maniac (who want to take over all the waffle houses in the universe among other things !).

14) THE NEW CADET

Dodgers VS a rabid fangirl ! (This episode is creepier if you are a rabbit ...)

13) DEATHMATCH DUCK

Dodgers finds himself on a living planet, Masativo (Well, Brain may not have taken over the earth but he became a planet ! Who would have guessed ?), when he has the exhausting task of trying to defeat a terrifying foe ... Tazmanian warrior ! WHO had a stick aaand a rock ! (BTW this has a nod to Clampett's "The Wise Quacking Duck . Can you guess where ? )

12) CORPORATE PIGFALL

When the Cadet quits the Protectorate to become a big corporate CEO (due to Dodgers treating him horribly ...), Dodgers decides to get him back by sabotaging his company with the help of his new Cadet, Egghead Jr (And you have no idea How happy I am to see him ! Always loved that little guy !)


11) INVICTUS INTERRUPTUS

Dodgers and Cadet must slow down the Invictus, an awesome new Martian space destroyer. Ends with a message that will be useful in real life !

10) SAMURAI QUACK / DETAINED DUCK

- After eating a poisonous puffer fish (and waord of advice since you, my dear public , know that I love you : NEVER even think of tasting that fish ! The risks are way too huge that it ain't worth it !) Dodgers hallucinates in a "Samurai Jack" episode!


- A criminal named Drake Darkstar (basically what would happen if Daffy played Jack Nicholson parts .) switches identities with Dodgers. What happens through the episode is both funny and creepy but the ending is just priceless ! (" You sold his sister to the sausage factory ? ")


9) PIG PLANET

Dodgers and Cadet visit Cadet's home planet to quell the cruel reign of his evil cousin Zag and recreate Aladin's story but without a genie .


8) A LAME DUCK MIND

A psychic supervillain named Manobrain, steals top secret codes and hides them in Dodgers' brain. I.Q. , Cadet, Manobrain, and embodiments of Dodgers' personality explore his mind in their quest to find them. The problem ? The darn place is so cuckoo that it is nightmarish !

7) THE GREEN LOONTERN

Dodgers gets the wrong clothes from the dry-cleaning and is mistaken as a Green Lantern. He finds out that an entire league of Green Lanterns have been kidnapped by the evil Sinestro and his robot army... basically an improved version of Sinestro Corps War. XD


6) IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU ROCK !

... This explains it all [link] .


5) HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD PLANET / THE WRATH OF CANASTA

- Dodgers is thrilled that he's gonna star in his own movie ! Unfortunately, it's all just a setup by the Martian Commander who hired a killer director to get rid of him.

- Excellent reference to "Drip-Along Daffy" with a great western song in it .


4) OF COURSE YOU KNOW THIS MEANS WAR AND PEACE !

During a peace signing between Earth and Mars, Dodgers sabotages the event when his trick pen squirts the leaders with ink! One thinks it's the other's fault and so they declare war (when they say humanity or martianity is petty !). Dodgers let his faithful Cadet offers to take the blames ending him to the worst space prison! Meanwhile, things take a turn for the worse when the Martian Commander discovers that one of the Commanders is planning treason against the Queen...
I will say that this is not only the longest episode, but also one of the greatest Looney Tunes related features I've seen . The plot is serious but also has a truckload of jokes that build up to an epic finale . This is also where we see the depth of Daffy's character in general : When things actually get serious, he can be genuinely selfless when it counts (that is something that truly skilled writers can do with him ! It must not be sappy but it has to be in-context with the story.)

3) SHOW TALENT A-GO-GO

This episode is an absolute must-see and a reminder of why I absolutely love Daffy's schemes in general ! They are off-the-wall and when they work out , it is always great to see how he ends up punished for it .To win an intergalactic talent contest, Dodgers borrows the greatest singing voice of all time: the velvet pipes of Mr. Tom Jones... and it goes a bit TOO WELL !

2) THE MARK OF XERO

This is Dodgers not only at his most cunning but also at his most illogically heroic (This episode depicts him as very close to the 50's Dodgers or Jones's "Scarlet Pumpernickel"). Dodgers and Cadet try to help a poor village from a scheming General in a Zorro pastiche.


HONORABLE MENTIONS : TOO CLOSE FOR COMBAT (Hubie and Bertie as assassins is a great idea !), M.M.O.R.D ( Always good to see Witch Hazel.. in a MMORPG , EEEhihihihihihiii !), K-9 QUARRY (You know ? The predator's identity was pitch perfect !) , I'M GONNA GET YOU FAT SUCKA , ENEMY YOURS (Dodgers as Dr Doom and the scientist from Water water Every-hare !" ), TO LOVE A DUCK , ALL IN THE CRIME FAMILY , JUST THE TWO OF US , THEY STOLE DODGERS BRAIN (Spaaaace Aaaaannngel !) , THE LOVE OF A FATHER (What Ralph Philips will end up as !) , OLD McCODGERS (Boy did Mac and Tosh end up being destructive !) ....


1) THE FUDD

Yep . This is it . The absolute best ! Why ? Because it has a great threat AND one of the best characters re-imagining I've ever seen in this show : Elmer Fudd is SCARY AS FUCK here (Even more than Jones's "What's Opera Doc ?" or Tashlin's "The Stupid Cupid"! ) Seriously , imagine a plague like this ! And it will be up to Dodgers, Cadet and Commander X-2 to stop the plague and the mother Fudd from invading.... THE SUN ! (Also , nice nod to the original Dodgers short... if you can spot it !)


Sooooooo... Not bad for a "sell-out " ? Unlike a certain bland rubbish I won't name here ... XD NMWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAAA ! XD