Down and Dirty Duck (1974)

recommended

Disturbing yet enthralling

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

I first saw this movie in high school when one of my friends rented it from an independent video store (VHS) in the late 80's. We all loved it, and I have always tried to spread the gospel of Dirty Duck since. It is the only movie that I ever owned both on VHS and now on DVD. The director of this movie, Charles Swenson, also made a little-seen kids movie called Twice Upon a Time, which is also recommended viewing for fans of subversive animated movies. That film has no gratuitous nudity or profanity, but has a very similar animation style (hand-drawn/cut animated scenes over collages). I watch it a few times a year now and always recommend it to friends. The songs are fantastic, I would love to see a soundtrack at some point. Unique animation style, wildly offensive dialog, and a rambling story make for a very entertaining 75 minutes!! It also pays to pay very close attention to the screen, because there are several throw-away gags that appear for only a few seconds scattered throughout.

Dirty Duck, is an adult animated film about Willard, who is a shy and nervous insurance worker who is in love with one of the receptionists at work but he can't seem to talk to women too well and one day he is asked to go investigate a claim made by a woman who owns a tattoo parlour. She claims that a Ouija board told her she was going to die today and just as Willard gets there she does die. In the will the woman left Willard, her full grown sun who happens to be a duck. Willard, and the duck wonder around and meet very unusual people and get in numerous unusual situations and the duck tries to give Willard, more confidence in himself and tries to teach him how to get a woman. Lots of psychedelic and unique images follow. Dirty Duck, has a good soundtrack which is composed by Flo and Eddie, who were members of the band The Mothers Of Invention, and also did voices and wrote some of the film. The film itself isn't great. It took a long time for me to get into it and a lot of the visual and sex gags I just didn't find funny and they got tiring after awhile. There wasn't much story to the film either. I did like some of the visual gags and some of the film was very unique and had some clever ideas but it doesn't quite work as a whole. It's not a terrible movie but not a great one either because a lot of it just does not work. The film seems to be made after the success of 1972's X rated adult animated film Fritz The Cat, and in some ways is similar although Fritz was a groundbreaking film and this is not. Still there were parts I liked and maybe with repeat viewings I may like it more.

I wish I could find a copy! This is an outstanding piece of sexual satire and general weirdness by Flo & Eddie, with a surreal sex scene that's an obvious and direct precursor to the one in The Wall. I managed to save an audio tape of only part of the song with our favorite lines: "Dogs, horses, or a guy, Give someone DEAD a try!" and Willard's creation of his artificial girl.

i rented this movie at a small independent movie rental joint. we came across it as we were browsing the wall of flicks; not in an adult section, but down quite low where a child might have grabbed it. the summary on the box was short and vague, but sounded decent so we took it home. a few minutes into the movie we began to realize it was a subversive and obnoxious movie, the kind of which i wish there were more of, especially with talking animals for the cute yet rude factor. this movie took me by surprise and i immediately fell in love with it; it's trippy, the characters are great and the music is groovin. i have been searching for a good quality copy to own for years, so that i may spread the joy of watching this great flick to many others. if you like animation that gets raw, this is a must see. i give this movie the highest rating. in my opinion, this movie beats fritz the cat. check it out if yo