Duck Dodgers is the recurring
alter-ego of Daffy
Duck (Mel Blanc). First
appearing in 1953’s Duck Dodgers in the 24 ½th Century directed by Chuck Jones, the character was a spoof of
the popular Buck Rogers in the 25th
Century and Flash
Gordon serials of the 1930s. The
short had Dodgers battling with Marvin the
Martian (also Blanc) over ownership of a planet that contained a rare
element; eventually resulting in the planet’s destruction.
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| Duck Dodgers confronting Marvin the Martian. |
A sequel, Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24 ½th Century, also directed by Jones, was released
in 1980 with almost exactly the same plot as the original; except this time,
Marvin was trying to solve Earth’s energy crisis
(by destroying it). Three more shorts were made around the character: 1996’s Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension starring Joe Alaskey, which
played in select venues; Superior Duck, which
also came out in 1996, starring Frank
Gorshin; and Attack of the Drones in 2003, starring Jeff Bennett. Within that
timeframe, the character had also made appearances in video games; the animated
series Tiny Toon Adventures; the live-action hybrid film Looney Tunes: Back in Action; featured as patches for the 1st
Space Launch Squadron’s Mars
Exploration Rover missions; and the short itself had been seen in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Babylon 5, as well as been re-released to theaters ahead of the reissue of Star Wars: Episode IV at
the request of director George
Lucas.
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| The cast of Duck Dodgers: Star Johnson, I.Q. Hi, Dodgers, Cadet, X-2 and Queen Tyr'ahnee. |
2003 certainly seemed to be the year
for Duck Dodgers as the character was given his first television series by Cartoon Network. For the show, Captain
Duck Edgar Dumas Aloysius Eoghain Dodgers (Alaskey) was a 21st
century duck who was accidentally frozen and revived by Dr. Ignatius Q “I.Q.”
Hi (Richard McGonagle) in the year 2350 AD. Using various schemes and lies, he
managed to trick everyone into believing he was a hero back in his own time,
when in reality he was a water boy for a football team. As such, he was made a
member of the Galactic Protectorate and given his own sidekick, The Eager Young
Space Cadet (aka Porky Pig, voiced by Bob Bergen). Dodgers traveled the
universe, carrying out the Protectorate’s mission to defend it from the forces
of evil. Of course, the only way he succeeded in those endeavors was through
sheer dumb luck and the work of the Cadet, who was much smarter than Dodgers
but loyal to his partner. Dodgers’ chief rival in the Protectorate was Captain
Star Johnson (John O’Hurley), who was his better and tried to sue Dodgers over
his incompetence.
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| Dodgers with Z-9 and Dish. |
The primary foes of the Protectorate were the Martians, whose army was
comprised of Martian Centurion Robots (all Michael Dorn) and instant Martians
grown from seeds with water. They were led by Martian Commander X-2 (aka
Marvin, voiced by Alaskey). X-2 was Dodgers’ arch-nemesis (even though X-2
regarded Dodgers as more of a nuisance), and he was aided by his loyal dog,
Commander K-9 (Frank Welker). Newly created for the show was the Martian Queen,
Tyr’ahnee (Tia Carrere); a competent ruler whose ability far outshone her
rival, the incompetent and cowardly President of Space (Tom Kane), who always hid in his fortress. She
had developed feelings for Dodgers and had a civil friendship with I.Q.,
despite their being on opposing sides. Tyr’ahnee was briefly overthrown by
Martian General Z-9
(Corey Burton) and his cyborg second-in-command, Dish (Tara Strong), in an attempt to conquer
both Mars and Earth.
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| Cadet with Rona Vipra. |
Other new characters included Black Eel (Jim Cummings), a
parody of DC Comics’ Black Manta; Victor
Von Boogieman (Bennett), a thief from the disco planet Groovica; the
Magnificent Rogue (Tim Curry),
a handsome and suave celebrity villain; Camoman (Jeff Garlin), who could blend
into any surrounding (except plaid); Rona Vipra (Paget Brewster), a bounty
hunter that eventually flipped allegiances and aided Dodgers; Hungortus, an
alien entity with limitless cosmic powers (a parody of Marvel Comics’ Galactus); Flame Valet (Tom Kenny), a lawyer with fire
powers that served as the herald of Hungortus (a parody of Galactus’
herald, Firelord,
from Marvel Comics); Counselor
Combustion (Jennifer Hale), fellow
lawyer and sister of Flame Valet (also a parody of another herald, Frankie Raye);
Master Moloch (Quentin Tarantino),
a gibbon-like alien who trained Protectorate Agents; and Steve Boston (Chris Edgerly), a cyborg known as “The Six
Wazillion Dollar Man” (a parody of The Six Million Dollar Man); and Maninsuit (Welker), a giant
docile monster controlled by the Martians (and a parody of Godizlla, which is where the name came from);
amongst others.
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| Marvin knows he's the real reason the show exists. |
Duck Dodgers premiered on
August 23, 2003 on Cartoon Network. It was developed by Spike Brandt, Tony Cervone, Paul Dini and Tom Minton. The series was
pitched three times. The first two times were directed towards Kids’ WB and
featured a third female member of the crew; initially a humanoid woman
named Sparky and then Lola
Bunny, who had made her debut in 1997’s Space Jam (Lola instead
appeared as a NPC in the 2000 video game, Duck Dodgers
Starring Daffy Duck). Ultimately, it ended up at Cartoon Network when
they were looking for a show that featured Marvin.
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| Tom Jones gets Tuned. |
Dodgers went beyond its initial
science-fiction source material to lampoon various elements of pop culture. The
series ran for three seasons with episodes comprised primarily of two segments
each. Brandt, Cervone, Dini and Minton served as the primary writers, with
additional work from Tom Ruegger,
Mark Banker, Kevin Seccia, Ken Daly, John Matta, Michael Grodner, Jeff Goode, Bradford Schultze, and Tim McKeon. The series’ theme
was composed by Wayne Coyne
and Steven Drozd, arranged
by The Flaming
Lips and performed by Tom Jones
similarly to his rendition of the theme from the film Thunderball. Jones
would also make an appearance as himself in an episode performing his hit, “It’s Not Unusual”. Robert Kral and Douglas Romayne handled the
rest of the series’ music. It used a combination of cel shading for its
characters with CGI animation for the space backgrounds and ships. The
animation was provided by Yearim
Productions.
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| K'Chutha Sam. |
A number of other Looney Tunes
characters made appearances on the show in various roles; typically,
antagonistic. Amongst them was Yosemite Sam as
K’Chutha Sa’am (Maurice LaMarche),
leader of the Klunkins (a parody of Star Trek’s Klingons); Elmer Fudd as the
parasitic mind-altering Mother Fudd (Billy
West), who gave anyone infected Fudd’s personality (based on Star Trek’s The Borg); Count Blood Count
as the fat-sucking vampire, Count Muerte (Jeff Bennett, whom the studio wanted
as Dodgers to tie into his casting in Back in Action and even recorded
an episode, but circumstances
with the film allowed the production to go with their first choice); Wile E. Coyote as
the Predator-like Alien Hunter (Dee
Bradley Baker), who was actually the preserved Wile E.; The Goofy
Gophers as Martian Gophers (Rob Paulsen
& Jess Harnell) who
caused trouble for X2 and Dodgers; Witch Hazel as Leezah the Wicked
(June Foray), a character in
a virtual MMORPG who needed Dodgers to rescue her; the scientist from Water, Water Every Hare as
mad scientist Dr. Woe (LaMarche), who was X2’s archenemy; Taz as the
Tasmanian Warrior (Cummings), a savage creature from the sentient planet Masatevo;
Petunia Pig as Princess Incense
(Jodi Benson); Rocky and Mugsy
(Alaskey & Kevin Michael
Richardson) as gangsters hired by Dodgers and Cadet to form their own crime
family to take down another one; Crusher (John DiMaggio) as the best
surfer in the universe; Ralph Phillips as
Baby-Faced Moonbeam (Dick Beals,
his original voice actor), an evil little boy with electromagnetic powers; the Shropshire
Slasher (Alaskey) as the Andromeda Annihilator, a convict seen in a space
prison; and Nasty
Canasta (Richardson) as an intergalactic bounty hunter. Michigan J. Frog
(Jeff McCarthy) also
appeared as the host of a talent show, and the Animaniacs were reimagined as the Cadet’s niece and nephews Porko (Paulsen),
Puerco (Harnell) and Sow (Tress
MacNeille). Although he was mentioned several times, Bugs Bunny is intentionally
never seen (except for an appearance in issue #159 of DC’s Looney Tunes anthology
comic, which featured Duck Dodgers stories based on the show starting from #118 before reverting
back to the classic iteration in #237).
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| Enter: the Green Loontern! |
Along with the aforementioned Jones, there were several crossover
appearances made by real people and characters from other franchises. Dave Mustaine of the band Megadeth was featured in an episode with
the band preforming “Back
in the Day”. The DC Comics characters of the Green Lantern
Corps were also featured after Dodgers had mistakenly picked up Hal Jordan’s (Kevin Smith) uniform from the cleaners, turning
him into the Green Loontern. He aided the Corps against the latest plot by
their greatest foe, Sinestro
(John de Lancie).
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| The complete series. |
Duck Dodgers was nominated for
an Annie Award and four
Emmy Awards in 2004, and two more Emmys in
2005. Alaskey won the 2004 Emmy for “Outstanding Performer in an Animated
Program”. Warner
Home Video released the complete first
and second
seasons to DVD in 2013 a few months apart. The third
was finally released in 2020, with the entire
series released onto Blu-ray in 2023 featuring the original short as a
bonus feature. It was made available to stream on the Boomerang app and to digitally
purchase on Amazon,
Apple
TV, Vudu
and Google
Play. The episode “The Green Loontern” was included as a bonus feature for
the direct-to-video movie, Green Lantern: First Flight. The Green Loontern would also make a
return appearance as an unlockable character in the video game LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.
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