Divine Ducks Duel !

This next essay is actually my favorite since  I am going to play teacher of give you a clearer vision about a subject I master ... and partially because I love flipping off Toonzone , NeoGaf , TV Tropes, ScansDaily, Youtube , etc... Why ? Because they've been spouting Bullshit. And I, Kais, as someone who only opens it when I am SURE or knowledgeable about what I am going to say, cannot stand said bullshit (that they properly need to ram back up their colons...). Also, it's a nice way to calm my nerves...


See, this kind of debate has often been answered to by utter fools, nincompoops and nimrods who have no insight or understanding of the characters or how they work (or at best, they know ONE but not the other),so I guess I'll have to step up . Also because the real answer to that question is much easier than what you'd think.
It doesn't help that the reputation of the 2 greatest characters of all time have been marred by the short-sightedness and the very lamentable comments of people who clearly know jack shit about Donald and/or Daffy. Even worse are the insults this moronic bunch throw at them, displaying their bottomless cretinism and ignorance. I keep hearing shit like :
- Donald is a one joke character whose defining features was his explosive temper.(Suuuure, I could post his fucking filmography and end the debate right here but we'll see about that ...)
- Daffy is only cool when he's whacky, now he's like Donald ( insulting both. Wow. You clearly want me to kick your teeth in. Also, Greedy Loser Daffy >>...>> You, therefore, up yours ! )
- Clampett's Daffy is the only 3-dimensional one ( Much as I love Clampett's output and his take on Daffy, Go fuck yourself...seriously.)
- Barks's Donald is the only true Donald (...No, he is just a part of Donald as a whole. And this is exactly a showcase of ignorance/short-sightedness..)
- I can't understand a word Donald says (Well I can. I can also read him with that voice. You ain't trying hard enough...)
- Only the Barks/Rosa universe counts (Actually, this whole Barks/Rosa canon is bullshit. Carl Barks always considered the characters as fairy tales type characters and therein lies part of their magic. He never intended for Duckburg to be a hermetically fixed world with a strict continuity... But I'll leave this one for another day when we'll discuss Don Rosa's output !)
- Romano Scarpa is a bad duck writer (... Okay, whoever said that can shove it up hard.)
- Duck Tales is a bastardization ! ( No. It is overpraised, yes, but it has several qualities on its own...)


First and foremost, I have been hearing that the early Daffy was a force of nature or that he was playing his tricks out of insanity and not guile.
Want a little hint ? It's wrong. In fact, the younger Daffy got K.Oed by a candy bar (yup... a CANDY BAR) at some point. And you're telling me that brushing off shotguns to the face as if they were an annoyance ain't impressive ? Also, not only was Daffy always a huge sadistic bastard from Day 1 (a screwball is fundamentally selfish. Exceptions only appeared way after the Golden Age of comics ...) but HE KNEW AND REVELLED IN IT ! Yes the wooohoohoo are cute and all, but he had no shame at trying to saw Porky in half, axe a duckling or even gut a mad scientist with a blade. And he was always easy to get annoyed or over-excited, whether he were the trouble maker or the butt of a joke.
See what I mean ? The truth is that the 40's purists (also known as a nauseating , odious bigotted bunch) just get too butt hurt to see things done even slightly differently from what they are used  to (like all the BS about Rabbit Rampage being OOC for Bugs Bunny...) and as such consider that seeing Daffy lose is apparantly blasphemous or some shit like that. They stupidly give the 40's Daffy all the qualities (even some that are not there. I mean really , Duck Twacy was heroic ? You mean saving his OWN piggy bank is the summum of virtues ? Also, he was never afraid and was always in-control ? Tell me, when was the first cartoon where Daffy was shown as a henpecked duck ? mmmhhh ?) and the 50's one all the flaws (Suggesting that he doesn't have a sense of fun...Well Of course he doesn't 37.media.tumblr.com/fd05136a33… www.sheepsheadbites.com/wp-con…  www.youtube.com/watch?v=3caoy4…   1.bp.blogspot.com/-HxSFq9yubFU… ), while the duck is far more complex than that (partly because Daffy started to develop a true personality when his ego and lust for fame started kicking off...)
Ironically, these kind of people are actually far worse than him (I will not even point at their deplorable ortograph... and I am not talking about the rushed/small spelling mistakes either ....as the old saying goes "some people just should not write or blog...).
Honestly whenever I hear that the 50's Daffy is dumbed-down or not as likable, I tend to roll my eyes and think www.recoverygraphics.com/album… ... Why would the Jones Daffy have to answer to Clampett's anyway ? He is in no way inferior.I am actually glad that every director tried out something different with him. And why do people insist on comparing only 2 directorial visions ? Daffy has at the very least 8 variations in total !



As for Donald, ANY review or commentary that says that " Donald Duck's personality is that of a one-note rage-a-holic in the Classic Disney Shorts " 24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m63… or that "he is a mere punching ball for Chip & Dale" or "Barks s Donald is such a completely different character" is flat out wrong.
In fact you can pretty much stop listening/reading because said person has neither understanding nor insight on how animation or comics work and can't make the distinction between the notions of characterization and "story-telling medium". The only argument they use for that distinction is his voice ... that 's pretty much telling me that they never actually  watched his classic shorts and that they only have a shallow, limited idea of the Duck's possibilities in animation.
The truth is: if you see Donald's voice as a liability , then you are simply not the right person to animate or direct him in a movie. And, as a lot of people (even comics writers ) were demonstrating in the Inducks forums or various blogs, you can be a "Barks-loving fan" but also lack any substantial vision or proper insight and can only have some superficial complaints or ideas like "stick to the comics AS IT IS" or insist in changing the voice. It's because I "get" who Donald is that I can more or less understand what works on paper and has to be tweaked on screen or vice-versa.
For instance, a lot of panels in Barks's work or any Ducks comics for that matter have a lot of expository/descriptive dialogue that should, in fact, be omitted/portrayed in a specific way.What's ironic is that Donald is not the only character who talks more OR obeys to different criterias in the comics,far from that !
Finally , the common misrepresentation Donald suffers from is that , not unlike Daffy, they attribute all the positive aspects to the comics depiction and dismiss the cartoon one... which is extremely dumb because the Comics Donald owes ALL of his personality traits to his cartoons (you read right...ALL of his personality traits!)



I've claimed times and times how great they are , and this time I'll give you the TRUE, PROPER COMPARISON.  When I say The real deal, it means that shit like this 3.bp.blogspot.com/-RqPsV4LsIjE…  img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20… won't be discussed and even less glanced at ( Because I can tell the difference quality and utter garbage. I mean seriously ...)


IN ANIMATION

Warner Brothers’ and Disney’s short animated films both created major characters that were ducks. The characters of Donald and Daffy ,other than being ducks, are different in general personality and in cartoon genre. Donald looks like a pekin duck while Daffy resembles a mixture of an American Black duck and a Swedish Black duck.

Walt Disney mentioned Donald Duck in 1931 first in print form (well, he was just a line in a list of Mickey's friends), then the Duck actually got a shape and a voice  in 1934 in the "Wise Little Hen". Tex Avery created Daffy Duck in 1937 for the Warner Brothers animation company for the short "Porky's Duck Hunt").
Donald can be summed up as an average joe with an inferiority complex; Daffy is a semi Joe's id with a huge egomania ! If you want a suitable analogy and comparable characters , Donald is sort of like this  stb.imhonet.ru/element/large/b…   while Daffy definitely resembles this static.comicvine.com/uploads/o…

As far as individual evolutions go , they went mostly that way:

For Donald, his personality evolved along with situations most directors put him into as well as his popularity :
In the 30's and up until "Modern Inventions", it's mostly the long-beaked Donald era. Interesting note is that Donald's well-known temper did not start with him, in fact he started out as a fun-loving slacker. Later, in the Trio shorts along with Mickey and Goofy, Donald was the firebrand member of the band even though it was not always the case. The general personality of Donald at this stage is mostly that of a mischievous kid and a prankster. The short "The Band Concert" where he joins the fun by playing "Turkey in the straw" to disrupt the band's performance sums up his general character perfectly at this point. As for his temper tantrums, they barely are a default emotion at this point...
Once the late 30's-40's kicked in, Donald obtained the design he'll be mostly remembered for  (shorter square-beak and a pear shaped body). While Don Donald (1937) was the first short of his own series as well as the introduction of a Daisy prototype , Modern inventions (the one that Carl Barks refers to the most) is the short where a change really occured : Donald becomes more wide-eyed and curious in attitude and demeanor. And through the WWII and 40's shorts (hands down his golden era), Donald has become more adult , more sympathetic and just more well-rounded.
Part of this is that he had a great team of writers for his toons (among them Barks and Hannah... ) and the right directors, the best being hands down Jack King. That's mostly because in Jack King shorts, Donald is a pretty nice guy who gets heaped upon a lot and only cracks when enough IS enough !
The King-Kinney Donald is not just, as popular belief sums him up, someone who just gets mad. He's someone with all the ungovernable passions of a human being, of which anger is just one: hunger, envy, spite, sadness,self-doubt, lust and love are some of the others. Being a Disney character, Donald does not/MUST NOT break the laws of physics as often or as outrageously as the Looney Tunes do, he obeys different laws :  when he DOES do the impossible, it is due to the sheer force of an emotion pushing him to do so (look at the whole build-up to his anger in the short "Cured Duck", it starts by a little task and ends up in complete chaos ).
At this stage, there are many ways to describe him and no way to put ONE etiquette to his characterization : he is, depending on his situation, an optimist, an adventurer, a romantic, a party-man , a hypocrite , a braggart, a slacker, an apologetic guy, a hero... basically  the Everyman in feathers and a sailor suit. This is also due to his cast of regulars such as Daisy (who is handled perfectly by King ) or his nephews (who from the start put Donald parental abilities to the test!) and because a lot of his best shorts tend to play with his mind especially when it comes to paranoia or guilt.
However, when Jack Hannah became sole director of Donald shorts, I'd say that his potential was wasted. Now, Hannah's Duck when he's the focus of a short is generally like the 40's Barks comics Donald (not as mature as King's take but very funny nonetheless !). However, the whole Donald VS critters formulas got old very fast for a very simple reason : Donald was not even the focus of his own shorts ! The vermins actually got his screen time and the focus of his shorts . Of course people use this part of the Duck's filmography to diss his cartoons, forgetting the excellence beforehand ...
POST-Golden Age Cartoons , Ducktales hit the screens and... Donald is notable by his near-absence. That pissed the fuck out of me as he simply could not be replaced by anyone and deserved a bigger role in the show. His dynamics with Scrooge were nowhere to be found, but for what it's worth, the episodes featuring him focus on his relationship with his nephews and how much they miss him.
Thankfully, Quack Pack, even with all its 90's-ness which never bothered me, brought Donald's nuanced personality back to the screen and focused on him as a frantic yet concerned parent with more accentuated slapstick and penchant towards paranoia.
Aaaand... That 's about it unfortunately . The Fantasia 2000 segment was easily the best looking Donald ever put on cinema and it pains me that they did not save this kind of design and animation for a big Duck movie he deserves !


Now, Daffy is a different case of development. His affinities and motivations depended on his directors, who definitely had more free reign at WB than the ones at Disney. He was in many ways their rorshach test but was consistently a highly energetic and attention-craving character, somewhat sadistic , somewhat flamboyant... rarely bothered with morals (if not at all when they are in the way of his desires).
When Avery created him, he was the first of the screwballs ; wacky, unhinged and enjoyed sabotaging and trolling either for the lulz or to further his own agenda (like becoming a hotshot director !). Avery,however, gave him up (mostly because Tex's directorial style is mostly focused on situations and stories rather than characters).
Bob Clampett then would take the little duck and make him more elastic , bouncier and more expressive.For the most part of Clampett's filmography , Daffy is described as Bugs Bunny turned up a notch, as both were the same crazy trickster character that nearly every Clampett hero, Porky excepted, was.It does change with Clampett's later shorts actually since Daffy is not only on his own in those, but his personality got more defined .
Friz Freleng would further the Duck's psyche and give him a competitive and jealous streak, making him a showman running after respect and fame (notably with "You Oughta be in Pictures), the other directors will eventually expand on those traits, like Norm McCabe in "Daffy's Southern Exposure" and "the Daffy Duckaroo" where the duck becomes more focused on his motivations.
Tashlin's Daffy is , despite being in only 4 shorts, leaner, meaner, slicker and more boisterous. He's also much more deliberately lustful.
Robert McKimson 's Daffy is pretty much a mixture of a "Hell's Angel" delinquent and Molière's Tartuffe, mostly taking on characters he can easily push around and manipulate (and often underestimate) and loves the hell out of conning ! Art Davis's Duck comes off as a "nicer" version of McKimson's version.
Chuck Jones's Duck started as a self-aware take on Avery's Daffy , then became a more cunning/arrogant trickster and to finally become a more materialistic Don-Quichottesque anti-hero : moderation is just a word and patience is nothing more than a technical detail.
All in all , he's got enough acting range as a character that he can fit in just about any story , modify and cartoonify the fuck out of it, and STILL be hilarious.In terms of characterization , Avery gave birth to him , Freleng and Clampett improved him, Tashlin, Jones and McKimson PERFECTED and completed him.
POST classic era and despite the weakness of the Daffy VS Speedy series (because there was never an over-the-top motivation for him to actually antagonise Speedy... and because Daffy's sadism has to be a delightful kind of cruelty. Very important nuance there !), the character would come back for the QuackBusters compilation (that should have been reworked as a movie instead of just a compilation.).
Then the more notable and best uses are Back In Action ( The BIA Daffy is simply PERFECTION. No more, no less...) and the Duck Dodgers TV series where he has elements from each version of the Daffy in the classics combined with the stable dimension of nevercompetent protectorate captain.


VOICES :


Being cartoon ducks, both have to force themselves when trying to speak regularly and smoothly.

Pretty much everyone how Donald sounds in english ; pretty much a saner/cleaner Gollum voice with a tendency to eat some syllables, not really a speech impediment since he can pronounce each letter fine. But even that voice changed with the character. As of now, Don has 2 voice actors:
Clarence Nash's voice for Donald started as what could be described as a duck uttering human words through his quacking . But from the redesign and added layers, Donald's vocalisation got much more understandable; he sounds more like a man who talks like a duck (weird ain't it ?) and is understandable when he's calm.
Tony Anselmo was trained by Nash and sort-of gives it his own spin while remaining faithful to Nash's take. His Donald sounds smoother and somewhat younger.
But I actually was accustomed to the french dub of these cartoons , being tunisian and all. And in french , Donald is more articulate while having the same tone (and he is barely un-intelligible there !). The first was Michel Elias ( who also did the french voice of Pumbaa .XD) who has THE most intelligible Donald voice of all www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm5jBu… , the Second was Sylvain Caruso who is also the french voice of Smeagol www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1dFFM… .
When it comes to illustrate Donald's sarcasm or thoughts, the cartoons rely on internal monologues (voiced by Leslie Denison) or absurd situations that the Duck imagines for himself or a few facial expressions.


Daffy was the first major character to be voiced by Mel Blanc (Porky had another voice actor until Blanc replaced him). Unlike Donald, Daffy has an actual speech impediment and is unable to pronounce the letter S properly. Daffy's voice is sped up, and has less spray than Sylvester.
While there were many replacements, only one  really impressed me : Joe Alaskey. Granted , he was also the voice of Plucky (who,surprisingly, does not have a lisp but tends to pronounce the S rather awkwardly.)
But as for the voices I grew up with, the honor goes to Pierre Trabaud www.dailymotion.com/video/x1d2… whose Daffy does not have a lisp but a quaking, manic voice and  Patrick Guillemin www.wat.tv/video/duck-dodgers-… whose lisp is more pronounced and nasal.


All in all, nothing but the finest I tell you !


IN THE COMICS :

You mostly know the  drill for Donald ! This is the medium that saw the birth of DuckBurg thanks to the great Carl Barks .
But I am focusing on his characterization and the way it evolved.
We have the Al Taliaffero comic strip Donald who started as this www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictur… and much later ended up more in the Barks/King mold everyman. Comic-strip Donald is pretty much the mischievous prankster from his early days, but he'll have glimpses of maturity once his nephews make their appearance. This is also the version Floyd Gottfredson used in his Mickey strips.

As of 1937, Donald would get his first long adventure in an italian strip BEFORE Hannah and Barks would make the first official Donald comic book story.
Now, as for Barks's Donald, who is the most well-known and reverred take (to the point some ignominous purists use it to diss anything else as "Disney's Donald"...which is total BS. But hey, it is edgy to diss Disney apparantly these days ...), the comics characterization went through some processes.
Although everyone credits Barks for making Donald into an everyman, it was really a team effort (though Barks was indeed part of it as he was one of Donald's early developpers) under King's direction that really created that aspect of the duck at least 6 years before Carl emphasised that dimension in the comics.In fact ANY adjective you can use to describe what Barks did to Donald's character has its roots in a cartoon, plain and simple.
Hell, in the 40's the cartoon Donald was more mature and subtle than he was in the first comics where he was a MUCH more aggressive scoundrel (though Barks himself noted that he would never make Donald a thief or an outright murderer as it just would not fit.) ! By 1948 and with Duckburg's creation and establishment, Donald would get all the dimensions and traits he had in King's cartoons transposed in the comics. And while comics are a silent medium, Donald's voice can actually be the focus of a gag (the best example coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=W+… )
By the 60's , Barks would focus more on Scrooge as a main character while Donald is either used in the 10-pagers or as a supporting character. How's the 60's Barks Donald ? Basically the same you saw in DuckTales... I attribute that to editors asking for the characters to be toned down or the fact that Barks later stories focus more on  the eccentric side of characters rather than their meaner streaks.
The last addition to Donald's use in comics comes from Guido Martina. The first reason is that he's used in various litterary parodies and the second is that he created Paperinik. Martina's Donald is more akin to a more aggressive take on the Barks-King Donald ; not only is he more hot-tempered, but damn if slacking off isn't his favorite hobby!


Daffy in printed form is much less discussed ... hell, the comics themselves are hard to find.
The Dell and Gold Key comics, were often written by cartoon writer Michael Maltese and drawn by Warner Bros. animator Phil DeLara at their best. Daffy is mostly stuck in prankster mode there, which is all nice and dandy but I always felt that these comics were playing it way too safe. Dell comics Daffy, while entertaining, is what the Animated Mask is to the comics Mask (how's that for a paradox), too watered down and less driven and varied than in the cartoons. looneycomics.blogspot.com/2012…
Thankfully, the DC Looney Tunes  comics incorporated the wilder and more surreal aspects of the cartoons into the printed page and FINALLY completed the comic book Daffy Duck by adding his egotistical greedy coward, fast-talking con-artist and parodist traits of the 50's shorts. Nothing to add but that this is the only comic that DC is still publishing and that I still care for... That says a lot , doesn't it ? And as for my favorite artists on that title , I'd go for Neal Sternecky , David Alvarez, Stephen DeStefano and Walter Carzon. Their art is simply that great !


RELATIONSHIPS

Now the great thing about of them is that they rarely need a static foil; they can both fit in an infinite number of stories and scripts. Their actual limits are mainly linked to their genres.

Donald can be both the oppressor and the victim when it comes to his nephews, so it is really a battle of maturity VS immaturity. When it comes to Uncle Scrooge, both can be right depending on the script since it is an interaction between the laid-back indebted guy and the rich workaholic. Daisy can be caring ( like in King cartoons/Quack Pack), overbearing (Barks comics) or have a friendly rivalry with him (he's mostly teamed with Fethry in those stories and all 3 are journalists). Gladstone is pretty much an antagonist 90% of the time. Jose, Panchito & Fethry are pretty much always on Donald's side though (which leads to catstrophes when it comes to the latter...).
As for Mickey... Donald actually gets along with him . Even though he tends to be rather warry of where Mickey's actions can lead them (especially since the rodent is a huge adrenaline junkie...).
Finally, I don't blame Donald a bit for trying to kill Chip and Dale. They were annoying as fuck !

Daffy, while interacting with various characters, is mostly known for his team ups with Porky or Bugs. In both cases, Daffy wanted to take the stardom from each of them. Simply put, Daffy  does not give who you are, if you have something he craves, he's not gonna be bothered with what you think !
When it comes to Porky, it goes mostly in 3 ways:
- TYPE 1 The team-up ! In these both are friends, facing the common threats (like hotel managers or employers).
- TYPE 2 The prissy pig against the nutty duck ! Daffy taunts, manipulates and basically tortures Porky Whether directly or indirectly.
- TYPE 3 The wise adult porcine and the maniacal childlike mallard ! Daffy plays the "hero" while Porky is the deputy "Comedy relief".

As for Bugs, he and Daffy have appeared together in some features, and , here is the big surprise, Chuck Jones's Daffy was never jealous of Bugs. Yes he was laughing at the thought of having Elmer shoot the lagomorph so that he wouldn't get shot but then again , Daffy was a sadist from day 1. In fact, even his jealousy is odd : he does not really give that much thought about the rabbit himself, it's the fame and attention that he knows he deserves because... well... he wants it and that's a good enough reason for him.


SUPERHEROES ?

Donald has Paperinik as a personna while Daffy's most well-known guise is that of Duck Dodgers .

Paperinik is mostly known for 2 iterations :
- Phantom Duck (Fantomiald ) Donald learns his methods of maintaining a secret identity by acting as a harmless and rather incompetent gentleman during the day and during the night as a vindicator, taking revenge for his grievances against society. Intrigued, Donald decides to keep his discoveries to himself as they might prove useful, especially to get back at his cousin and uncle ! And by God he will !
- PK (Powerduck) Basically Donald at his most serious and heroic ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkSkI5… ... It's basically what Kingdom Hearts would have been had they used the original plan of making him the protagonist ).

Dodgers ... has actually the exact same situation :
- The original short Dodgers...
- The TV series Dodgers  devilkais.deviantart.com/art/C…


WHAT ABOUT THE FIGHT ?

Here's a simpler question : how would YOU exactly react to someone who can remove his jaw or rip his own face off and then put it back ? Granted, Donald's been in a lot of absurd situations but he'd still be asking (Roger Rabbit nonwithstanding) what the hell is up with Daffy. And Daffy ? It depends if he wants to pester Donald for the hell of it or if Don has something he wants at all cost ... or if he has to sell him something. Because as I said , they are not from the same genre at all. Daffy is basically a slapstick/absurd character and a comedic clown while Donald is more of a semi-fairy tale semi-grounded type and a sad clown.  


.... Well, so there's that ! Here's the true comparison and , well, quite a nice way to celebrate Donald's 80th birthday, don't you think ?



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