Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas is a 2006 direct to DVD film based loosely on a very familiar Christmas story.
Daffy Duck (in an Ebenezer Scrooge-like role) is the selfish and greedy owner of the supremely successful Lucky Duck Superstore, treating his employees, particularly his long-suffering Assistant Manager Porky Pig (playing the role of Bob Cratchit) like garbage. Bugs Bunny warns Daffy that bad things happen to people who mess with Christmas, and especially bad ones get visited by the Ghosts of Christmas. Daffy scoffs at this notion, but little does he know that he's in for quite a festive and frightening night.
This is actually the second Looney Tunes adaptation of A Christmas Carol, following 1979's short cartoon Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol from the Christmas Special Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (which Daffy was strangely absent from). That adaptation is more faithful in setting to the original Dickens work, but is ultra condensed to fit an 8 minute long runtime. Porky Pig played the Bob Cratchit role in this one too.
This film contains examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: Yosemite Sam is usually a greedy and violent jerk who is far worse than Daffy. Here he plays the Ghost of Christmas Present, where he is concerned for the welfare of Daffy's employees and is trying to get Daffy to turn himself around. He does beat the crap out of Daffy whenever he gets the chance, but this is easy to forgive given how Daffy has acted for the movie.
- Bait-and-Switch: At the end, when Daffy is giving gifts to his employees, his gift to Wile E. Coyote, who is established to be constantly hungry on the job, is to hire him a personal chef who's cooked him up a nice juicy bird. The tray opens up... and it's a regular turkey, not the Road Runner (who's apparently the store's mailroom worker).
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Daffy adopts Bugs's sarcastic utterance of "Bah Humduck" as his own.
- Priscilla finishes off her father's signature line "T-T-T-That's all folks!" at the end of the movie.
- Broken Tears: Daffy is reduced to this in third act after Priscilla says that she never hated him.
- Cats Have Nine Lives: Sylvester the investor was crushed nine times.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Sylvester the Investor died when a disgruntled employee squashed him with a forklift. Nine times.
- Decomposite Character:
- The role of Jacob Marley is kind of split between two characters: Bugs Bunny, who is the first one to call out Daffy's selfish behavior and warn him that the Ghosts of Christmas come to haunt people like him, and Sylvester, who gets the actual, traditional Jacob Marley scene to officially start the haunting.
- The Ghost of Christmas Past is represented by both Granny and Tweety together.
- While Porky Pig stands in for most of Bob Cratchit's role in the story, Daffy has many more employers than Scrooge did, and the Ghost of Christmas Present also highlights how Daffy is affecting their Christmases, specifically Elmer Fudd being exhausted from overwork and and Marvin the Martian being homesick and wanting to spend time with his family back on Mars.
- Due to the Dead: In the Bad Future, Porky and Priscilla visit Daffy's grave. Porky's not sugarcoating things, but he at least places some flowers as a show of respect. Priscilla also promises to visit every year so that he won't be alone.
- Everyone Has Standards: Yosemite Sam (the Ghost of Christmas Present) is so disgusted by Daffy that he womps him upon meeting him.
- Facepalm: Daffy upon learning why his store closed down in the Bad Future.
- Freudian Excuse: The reason why Daffy despises the holidays so much is because he grew up in an orphanage (which is also where he got the name for his store) and was consistently ignored by potential parents and spent every Christmas alone.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: While Granny and Tweety cry upon seeing the poor childhood Daffy had, they still angrily call him out on his actions and claim that it doesn't justify his behavior.
- Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: After Daffy ignores Speedy Gonzales' Christmas greeting, Speedy mutters a disgusted "tonto." note Daffy hears it and asks "What did you call me?" And Speedy responds, "Tonto. It means 'genius' in Spanish."
- Ignored Epiphany:
- After watching Priscilla wishing on the Christmas star, Daffy says to Bugs he "almost felt something". Bugs asks him if that means he's willing to mend his greedy ways, to which Daffy responds with "I said I felt something. Not insanity!"
- Subverted later on. When Daffy realizes how much money he is spending to give all his employees raises and paid vacations, he almost reverts back to his greedy ways. Fortunately, some kindly words for Priscilla makes Daffy realize it is all worth it and his redemption sticks.
- Lampshade Hanging: When Bugs first appears at the beginning of the special, he acknowledges that it's probably kind of strange to see a rabbit in a Christmas Special since rabbits are traditionally associated with Easter, which is technically a spring holidaynote . But Bugs justifies his presence in this special by explaining that he's "all about the winter holidays."note
- Mean Boss: Daffy overworks, abuses, and belittles his employees at every turn, barely paying them enough to get by. He refuses to give them any vacation time, even around Christmas. He gets much better at the end.
- Meaningful Name: Daffy named his store after the orphanage he grew up in.
- Missing Mom: Porky mentions to Daffy that Priscilla's mother is gone, meaning he's the only family she has left.
- My God, What Have I Done?: As expected from a Scrooge equivalent, Daffy eventually goes through this. He is particularly stubborn about reforming compared to other Scrooges, but in the end he fully realizes how much his greed has harmed others.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Daffy is moved by Priscilla talking about how she never hated him because she knows how angry and sad being alone on Christmas can make someone.
- Oh, Crap!:
- This is Daffy's reaction upon discovering that he's trapped inside his own store, he can't get out until five o'clock in the morning, he's being terrorized by ghostly visitations, and his only companion for the night is Bugs Bunny!
- Daffy has another moment of this where, after dealing with the Ghost of Christmas Present, learns there's one more ghost to deal with who Bugs claims is "a real doozy"
Daffy: Wait, there's another one!? - Shadow Archetype: The orphanage and graveyard scenes illustrate that Daffy is actually one to Priscilla. He used to be an optimistic and loving child like her, but being left without family (especially on Christmas) turned him into a bitter miser.
- Sleep Deprivation: Elmer Fudd is so overworked that he suffers from this. He eventually falls asleep in the snow.
- So Proud of You: After Daffy changes, the Ghosts watch him from above and all are clearly overjoyed at his redemption.Yosemite Sam: The varmint did it! He plumbed turned himself around!
- Spared by the Adaptation: Priscilla is a stand in for Tiny Tim, but she doesn't pass away in the alternate timeline.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In the Bad Future, Daffy tried to make himself the heir to his store and leave his fortune to himself in his will, which of course, is illegal (and wouldn't work anyway since he is, you know, dead). As a result, Lucky Duck closed down and everyone became unemployed.
- That's All, Folks!: Porky attempts to do his most famous line, but when he gets caught up by his stutter, Priscilla chimes in.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Sam says Daffy will be intangible so long as he touches the robe. Immediately afterwards, though, the part of the robe that Daffy was holding gets ripped off.Daffy: This is gonna hurt.
- Toilet Teleportation: The Ghost of Christmas Present (Yosemite Sam) drags Daffy into Porky's house through the toilet. Daffy is not amused by this.Daffy: Dragged through the toilet. The final indignity.Ghost of Christmas Present: I begs to differ, critter. This is the final indignity. (flushes the toilet, sending Daffy spiraling down)
- The Unintelligible: Taz is the Ghost of Christmas Future. At one point, Daffy chastises his speech patterns and tells him to enunciate.
- Wingding Eyes: Daffy gets dollar signs in his eyes when Bugs unfurls his ridiculously long Christmas shopping list.
- Yet Another Christmas Carol: Looney Tunes edition!
