I must go on record as saying that I think this title is just outstanding. So that’s the first thing.
A song called “You Can Call Me Daffy” provides a good verbal/spatial intro to the film, and to the a/Absurd register in which it will operate. Look at Daffy paint a tunnel through that tree and then walk through it. Porky’s painting is a little more modest, more well behaved. And yet, see how his blends right into the exactly placed landscape behind it. This is reflexivity, but it’s also plain pretty. I love how these filmmakers take wholesome pleasure in all sorts of the things that they do.
The bell on the fishing line gag is great, and concludes with their best flip book they’ve done yet. (Not that I’m viewing these cartoons in chronological order!) I obviously have this thing on my mind. Here Daffy visits the same mischief upon his antagonist as Bugs did in the objectionable Wabbit Trouble. But somehow he does it more pleasingly. Maybe it’s because Porky gets him back in the end (cf. The Ducksters). Those licenses are really funny, and the motor gag provides a great compound joke conclusion. Great, but also kind of terrifying—even annoying ducks don’t deserve this kind of Dante-esque, purgatorial punishment.