Robin Hood Daffy

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Robin Hood Daffy
Merrie Melodies series

Porky & Daffy in “Robin Hood Daffy”:
“How jolly can you get?”
Directed by Charles M. Jones
Story by Michael Maltese
Animation by Abe Levitow
Richard Thompson
Ken Harris
Voices by Mel Blanc
Music by Milt Franklyn
Produced by John W. Burton
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date March 8, 1958 (USA premiere)
Format Technicolor, 8 min (one reel)
Language English
IMDb page

Robin Hood Daffy is a 1958 Warner Brothers theatrical cartoon short, part of the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese.

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film features Daffy Duck in the role of legendary outlaw Robin Hood, and opens to the strains of his playing an instrument similar to an archlute or bouzouki. As he prances along singing, he trips and tumbles down a bank into a lake. Watching is Porky Pig, here a friar, who laughs uproariously at Daffy's inglorious plunge. The annoyed Daffy tries to prove his skill with a "quarterstaff" (Daffy: "Actually, it's a buck-and-a-quarter quarterstaff, but I'm not telling him [Porky] that."), but manages to hit himself in the face with it (twice), bending his beak in what becomes a recurring visual gag throughout the film.

Having given up trying to impress the friar, Daffy attempts to leave, but Porky follows and asks him if he knows the whereabouts of Robin Hood's hideout as he wants to join his band of outlaws. Daffy proudly announces that he is Robin Hood, but Porky disbelieves him. To prove himself, Daffy attempts to rob a rich traveller on a bouncing mule (and give his money to some poor unworthy slob). Daffy fails in each and every attempt he makes to stop the traveller, usually injuring himself in the process, be it accidentally firing himself from his own bow, or slamming into a succession of trees while trying to swing on a rope. Eventually the rich traveller, oblivious to Daffy's attempts to rob him, reaches his castle unharmed. The frustrated Daffy gives up, and in the final scene walks on with a shaven head and wearing a habit, having decided to become a friar himself: "Never mind joining me, I'll join you. Shake hands with Friar Duck."

Other notable lines:

  • "With my trusty quarterstaff! (In an aside to the audience) Actually, it's a buck-and-a-quarter quarterstaff, but I'm not telling him that."
  • Daffy, fighting with his $1.25 quarter staff :"Ho! HaHa! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!" (quarter staff bounces off log, bending his beak).
  • Daffy (to himself): Something's amiss here... hmm, let me run through it. Ho, haha, guard, turn, parry, dodge, spin, ha, thrust. (beak bends) Got it."
  • "Yoicks . . . and away!" (Daffy swings from a treetop and hits another tree)
  • "Yoicks . . . . and away!" (Daffy swings . . . and hits another tree, slurring his speech a little more each time)
  • "Yoicks . . . . . and, away. . ." (Daffy swings over all the trees he's chopped down and hits a rock)
  • "Ho ho, very funny; Ha ha, it is to laugh."
  • "Oh, knock it off. How jolly can you get?"
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