Draftee Daffy (1945)
Article 5802 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-3-2020
Directed by Robert Clampett
Featuring the voice of Mel Blanc
Country: USA
What it is: Looney Tunes

Enthusiastic war supporter Daffy Duck sings a different song when he discovers that he’s about to be drafted. Can he avoid the little guy from the draft board?

I wasn’t initially going to review this one since for most of its length, the only fantastic content is an anthropomorphic animal (Daffy), but the final scene of the cartoon takes place in a location that belongs in the realm of fantastic cinema, so here it is. It starts out as a satire on hypocritical patriots who give the war effort plenty of lip service until they themselves have to contend with making a sacrifice. Then it turns to wild and manic slapstick comedy (Robert Clampett’s specialty) as Daffy takes ever-more-extreme efforts to escape/destroy the little man from the draft board, one of those characters who appear to be omnipresent and indestructible. This is a solid and hilarious Daffy Duck cartoon, with the character taking at least a half-step in the direction that Chuck Jones would later take him. Apparently, the little guy from the draft board is modeled off of a character that appeared in the radio series, ‘The Great Gildersleeve’.