Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953)

Disappointment for a huge fan!

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

One of the all-time greats. Chuck Jones' brilliant parody of Buck Rogers with Daffy Duck as the title character who, along with his sidekick "Eager Young Space Cadet" Porky, tries to stake a claim on Planet X in the name of Earth and finds Marvin the Martian attempting to do the same for Mars. Being a fan of Daffy, a fan of Chuck Jones, and a fan of old school sci-fi, this one is a real treat for me. It's been one of my favorite Looney Tunes cartoons since childhood. Even now, after I've seen literally hundreds of Looney Tunes shorts since I first saw this one, it still ranks in my top ten. The animation is excellent with creative little bits of business all around. Pay attention to the details in this one. Beautiful colors and backgrounds. Exciting music from Carl Stalling. Flawless voice work from the legendary Mel Blanc. It's one of the best shorts Chuck Jones ever made and probably his second best Daffy short behind Duck Amuck. The writing is fresh and clever, the gags are funny, and the animation is top notch. I don't have a single bad thing to say about this classic.

. . . two or three times EACH (such as Ethel Rosenberg's three Savage Jolts; you can read about her shocking demise in Wikipedia), DUCK DODGERS IN THE 24 1/2TH CENTURY marks Warner Bros.' effort to stop this nonsense. Many movie goers would later realize that the release of John Wayne's JET PILOT was tantamount to a confession that the self-styled "Il Duce" had given the Russians the A-Bomb blueprints himself in order to expand his Crusade against ALL Hollywood Reds (Dalton Trumbo), Democrats (Paul Revere's Oscar-winning several times great-granddaughter Anne), and Jews (John Garfield) to the East Coast, so his Congressional henchmen inquisitors could grill half of all New Yorkers, asking in their best Gestapo accents, "Are you now, or have you ever been of the Jewish persuasion?" Marvin Matian lands on Planet X two seconds after Daffy Duck's "Duck Rodgers" has "claimed" this outpost (not unlike someone--possibly Wayne--giving the Russians The Bomb a few instants, geologically speaking, after America found it). The Principle of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) comes into play as Daffy and Marvin take mere moments to engage their version of A-Bombs, completely destroying Planet X. After Acme Corp. runs their "All for Nukes, and Nukes for All" sale, Space Cadet Porky Pig responds to Daffy's claim of Nuclear Victory with a cynical sigh of, "Big deal." Warner Bros. seems to be saying here, "Please, Uncle Sam, don't fry any more Moms!"

A lot of comments are saying this is one of the best cartoons ever. I'm not going to go that far but I give credit again to Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese for making some of the most creative cartoons in the history of animation. Loved the back and forth between Daffy and Marvin in trying to one-up each other whether it's claiming Planet X for Earth or Mars, pulling disintegrating guns on each other (with Daffy's actually literally disintegrating!), or passing bullets from their guns with threatening messages with Daffy's last one saying "Ouch!" And space cadet Porky once again proves how smarter than Daffy he really is. So while I don't think Duck Dodgers in the 24 and a Half Century is a great cartoon, it's certainly a very good one.

In the distant future, The Secretary of the Stratosphere must assign intergalactic hero Duck Dodgers to find Planet X, the only remaining source of illudium phozdex, the shaving cream atom. Thus are sci-fi and animation fans treated to another of Chuck Jones' all-time classics, featuring the supremely confident Daffy Duck and his eager young space cadet sidekick, Porky Pig.Among the funniest scenes personifies Jones' expertise at drawing laughs from facial expressions. Duck Dodgers plots out an impossibly convoluted course, and Space Cadet Porky understands how to reach Planet X - the laughs come when Duck Dodgers does a hilarious take at the idea that anyone could possibly understand his impossibly convoluted space course. Of course the solution is simple - follow the solar system's Planets A, B, C, etc.But upon reaching Planet X - so identified because literally everything, from its primary landmass through its cloud formations, mountains, and trees is X-shaped - Duck Dodgers crosses paths with Marvin The Martian, who claims the planet in the name of Mars (Isn't that lovely? Hmm?). But their just isn't enough room on Planet X for the two of them.It is here that the cartoon not only becomes funnier, but more subversive than even its creators probably intended, for what transpires is a hilarious satire of the Cold War arms race, culminating in Marvin The Martian delivering the last straw, and setting up the use of Duck Dodgers' secret weapon, and Marvin's use of the Martian Matomic Masher. When the triggers are pulled - BOOM!Duck Dodgers has his triumph, but Space Cadet Porky summarizes the whole experience - "B-b-b-b-big deal."