1. Maurice Noble's incredible design work

 

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For more than 60 years, Maurice Noble contributed production design, layouts, and background art to some of the most legendary and recognizable cartoons of all time. The first feature film he worked on was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He worked on Fantasia, What's Opera Doc? and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Here, in Duck Dodgers, Noble sets the stage for the sci-fi quest, designing distinctive sets like the City of the Future and Planet X.

2. Original musical score by Carl Stalling

 

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During Stalling's tenure at Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, the composer typically averaged one complete score per week. Oh, by the way, that tenure lasted 22 years. Even within the massive portfolio of his Looney oeuvre, Stalling's Duck Dodgers score stands out. The galactic tone rockets us into space as Stalling quotes Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" and "Egyptian Barn Dance," recontextualizing the melodies as sci-fi soundtrack greatness.

3. Melodies Cinematic Universe?

 

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The chemical compound that Duck Dodgers is sent to procure, and the reason for the whole story, is called Illudium Phosdex. Now, viewers with a sharp memory will recall that Marvin the Martian uses the similarly-named Illudium Q-36 in Hare-Way to the Stars. While the naming convention may be a coincidence, we instead choose to believe it as proof that the two cartoons share a universe. Typically, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies give us a hard reset after each cartoon, and characters are re-introduced with no knowledge of their previous encounters. However, Illudium could prove that Duck Dodgers and Lighter Than Hare share a timeline!

4. Pigs in Space

 

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First and foremost, look at Porky's outfit. It's adorable, and he doesn't usually dress like that. If that doesn't hook you, here's this: Porky knows he's in a cartoon. In Chuck Jones' own words, "I always felt that Porky Pig was the subtlest of all the characters because he was consciously playing a part. He's obviously putting Daffy on, but it's a very subtle thing. In Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century, he was playing the space cadet, but he was aware that he was playing it. He was like I would be in a class play — in which the hero really thought he was the character."

5. Sci-Fi Lineage

 

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In addition to being a memorable, entertaining cartoon, Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century is an important piece of science fiction history. According to George Lucas himself, when the Star Wars filmmaker was 8, seeing this short in theaters inspired him to make his own movies. Steven Spielberg, too, must have been impressed, as he included Duck Dodgers in a scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

6. Cold War Interpretation

 

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While Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century can be viewed as straightforward entertainment, taking a look back at it through the lens of history leads to some interesting interpretations. For instance, the toon can be "read" as a stand-in for the then-escalating arms race with the Soviet Union. A faceless foe from a "red" planet tries to out-gun our American hero, only to have the battle climax in mutually-assured destruction. But again, maybe it's just a silly duck in a rocket.

7. Passionate Parody

 

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Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century follows the rules of all great parodies. It starts from a place of love, paying clear homage to Buck Rogers before upending not just that franchise, but space heroes in general. There's clearly no malice or disrespect toward sci-fi. This is a short made by creatives who were fans of the genre, and it shows. 

8. Rarely Hare-less

 

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Is Duck Dodgers the best Warner Bros. short that doesn't feature Bugs Bunny? While that is completely open to taste (let us know what you think in the comments below), it is a fact that this is the first cartoon to feature Marvin the Martian without his (least) favorite foil. Duck Dodgers is the only Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies short produced during the Golden Age that features Marvin but not Bugs Bunny!

Eight behind-the-scenes fun facts about ''Bully for Bugs''

 

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