The Night of the Living Duck

Night of the Living Duck
Merrie Melodies series
Directed by	Greg Ford Terry Lennon
Produced by	Steven S. Greene
Story by	Greg Ford Terry Lennon
Voices by	Mel Blanc Mel Tormé (singing voice)
Music by	Music is from Previous cartoons which was conducted by Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn
Animation by	Brenda Banks Norm McCabe Frans Vischer Rebecca Rees Mark Kausler
Layouts by	Robert Givens Lin Larsen
Backgrounds by	Richard H. Thomas Alan Bodner
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	September 23, 1988 (released at New York Festival) September 24, 1988 (released with Daffy Duck's Quackbusters)
Running time	6 min.
Language	English

Night of the Living Duck is a six-minute 1987-animated, 1988-released Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Daffy Duck, directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon. It was released to theatres as a part of Daffy Duck's Quackbusters on September 24, 1988.

Plot

Daffy Duck, here a horror fanatic, is reading a scary comic book called "Hideous Tales" (issue #176). The comic's "Noseman" story ends in a cliffhanger, and Daffy rifles his bookcase looking for the next issue ("It's a veritable collector's item!"). While doing so however, a monster clock falls and beans Daffy, knocking him out.

This causes him to have a dream where he's the featured act in a nightclub where the customers are classic movie monsters. Daffy appears unable to sing, but fortunately there was a bottle of "Eau de Tormé" in Daffy's dressing room, which makes him sing like Mel Tormé. After drinking the spray's entire contents for maximum effect, he sings "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives" to the room with a ghost named "Ghouley" playing the piano. The monsters love the song.

Then he goes around the room, greeting the patrons. But his good-natured ribbing of "Smogzilla" doesn't go over well with the giant lizard ("Say, Smog baby, leveled any major cities lately?", "You know, Smogzilla's just like any unemployed actor, except when he pounds the pavement, it registers a ten on the Richter scale!", "Oh, what's the matter? The public not buying those cheap special effects anymore?") who then eats Daffy.

Daffy wakes up to find himself stuck in a wastebasket, along with the comic he was looking for (Hideous Tales issue #177) with "Smogzilla" on the cover. Daffy scoffs and the Smogzilla on the cover comes to life saying "You was expecting maybe Calvin Coolidge?"

Trivia

• This is the last Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoon where Mel Blanc voices one of his characters.
• Alfred E. Neuman (of MAD magazine fame) appeared briefly in this short holding some drinks (when the Creature from the Black Lagoon and his girl are shown). A MAD magazine can also be seen at the start of the short amongst the horror magazines.
• Mel Blanc was very sick for recording voices and could not scream so the screams Daffy made when he was eaten by Smogzilla were recycled from Boobs in the Woods to relieve him.

External links

• The Night of the Living Duck at Internet Movie Database