YMMV / Duck Amuck

• Award Snub: Was submitted for the Academy Awards in 1952, but, despite being considered one of Daffy Duck's best cartoons, failed to receive a nomination.
• Faux Symbolism: Daffy is effectively having a Book of Job moment with "God."
• Fountain of Memes: Nearly all of Daffy's lines in this short have become some sort of minor meme.
• Genius Bonus: Daffy's lines while punch-drunk and hammering the anvil make up the first stanza of Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith".
  Daffy: Under the spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands.
  (the anvil is replaced with a large artillery shell)
  Daffy: The smith, a mighty man is he with large and sinewy—
  (Daffy hammers the fuze and the shell blows up)
  Daffy: —haaaands...
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Daffy actually did get to play Robin Hood a few years later, in Robin Hood Daffy.
• It Was His Sled:
  • The very premise of the short is perhaps one of the biggest things one can spoil about it; its initial setup is meant to deceive the viewer into thinking that it's a typical "Daffy Duck in medieval times" short, with the reveal of the unfinished background art throwing off one's expectations and setting the stage for the unfolding chaos. However, the short's true premise is very well known even among those who haven't seen the short, likely because it would be difficult to discuss anything about it without giving away the surprise.
  • Most people who watched this know the short's other big spoiler, that the animator turns out to be Bugs Bunny. However, audiences in 1953 probably knew this right from the start, as the lobby card (cartoon shorts' equivalent to movie posters) flat out gives away the ending.
• Jerkass Woobie: Daffy is just as abrasive and demanding as he always is, but he just wants to put on a good show and ends up going through hell for it, making it hard not to sympathize with him every now and again.
• Nightmare Fuel: A very minor one, but the extreme close-up on Daffy's face can be quite startling and jarring to viewers, and the dramatic music does not remedy this.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: The DS game based on the short is a fun minigame collection that lets the players take Bugs' role in the cartoon. While some mini games are adapted from the short (the scene where black portions try to drop on Daffy, here named "The Bleeding Black"), some are exclusive to the game (a Tennis Boss minigame where the player must bounce dynamite at Daffy while he tries to do the same titled "My Own Stylus".)
• Older Than They Think: Disney previously did the "character interacting with artist's pencil" idea in both Saludos Amigos and the "All the Cats Join In" segment of Make Mine Music. Of course, they didn't exploit the potential gags quite to the same extent as this short did.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Technically he's in the whole cartoon, but Bugs Bunny is only seen in the last five seconds of Duck Amuck.
  • That bizarre flower head thing Daffy turns into midway through the short proved memorable and popular enough to return 13 years later in A-Haunting We Will Go.

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