Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939) User Reviews

Prehistoric Hijinks

[travisimo · 8/10 · 19 January 2004]

Daffy Duck & the Dinosaur employs some good, solid gags, but I'm not a huge fan of the early, manic-like Daffy. I thought the real star of the show was Casper Caveman, who is supposedly a caricature of Jack Benny (I'll take Paul Penna's word for it, because I really don't know!) Nevertheless, Casper had some great mannerisms and was just a funny, unsuspecting victim of Daffy's crazy plans. Speaking of crazy plans, the ending was also quite funny and refreshing when Daffy gets a little too caught up in his scheme. Overall, this is a good, solid Daffy Duck cartoon. It's not the funniest out there, but it definitely has its moments.

My IMDb Rating: 8/10

the setting may be prehistoric, but the cartoon isn't primitive

[lee_eisenberg · 6/10 · 18 June 2005]

Caspar Caveman and his pet dinosaur go hunting for breakfast, and guess whom they come across! Of course, Daffy isn't going to get caught so easily, especially since he conveniently has a number of tricks up his sleeve.

I guess that Daffy Duck was a relatively new character when this cartoon came out, but they sure did some funny stuff with him. I think that my favorite scene was when Caspar Caveman slingshots a rock at Daffy, and Daffy escapes it, and it ends up conking the dinosaur on the head and the dinosaur does a dazed dance. "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur" is what people mean when they talk about classic cartoons!

A pleasant early episode of the little black duck.

[Mightyzebra · 8/10 · 15 April 2008]

I find this quite a good Daffy Duck episode. Daffy is absolutely brilliant, but this is not really his episode. He is more of a side character. The people who are supposed to be the side characters and yet feel like the main characters, are Casper the Caveman and Fido the apatosaurus. You guessed it - this is set in the dino age. It is very incorrect to history, for example, humans have never been with dinosaurs. Luckily this does not spoil the episode. Anyway, unlike a few people on this site, I do not think Casper Caveman is the highlight of the episode. In fact, I think he is too harsh at points and it is only in the middle of the episode when he becomes slightly likable. Fido the dinosaur is likable throughout, very silly, cute and dog-like. Daffy is still in his early stage, with his constant "woo-hoo" and craziness, this is why he is so good. The animation is also pleasant as well. At this time the animators were still good, in later cartoons they just came up with any background that first came into their heads.

Casper the Caveman is very hungry and is ready for breakfast. Taking Fido the dino with him on his search, Casper soon finds Daffy. He tries to hunt him - but this little black duck is not going to make things easy for him!

Recommended to people who like the early Daffy Duck and dinosaurs, enjoy "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur", a pleasant Looney Tunes classic to watch! :-)

The Stone Age - probably before any of us were born

[slymusic · 21 August 2009]

"Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur" is a fine Daffy cartoon featuring a caveman named Casper and his "dog" Fido. The plot couldn't be simpler - they both wanna eat Daffy!

My favorite scenes: Daffy dodges a slingshot to the accompaniment of a very silly tune that his "colleague" Bugs Bunny actually sang in one of his earliest cartoons ("I'm so goony looney tooney, tetched in the head! / Please pass the ketchup, I think I'll go to bed!"). A dazed Fido dances to Mendelssohn's famous Spring Song. The camera pans across numerous signs pointing toward a nice juicy duck (to the ubiquitous accompaniment of "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby"). I also love the long shot of Daffy nodding his head as the caveman prepares to knife the gigantic "duck".

Directed by Chuck Jones, featuring an excellent music score by Carl W. Stalling, "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur" is simply great Stone Age fun! Find it on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3.

Some good gags and funny character animation.

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 7/10 · 18 February 2007]

I'm not remotely a fan of Chuck Jones, but this is one of his better efforts. The premise is intriguing: Daffy Duck (or one of his ancient ancestors) was alive 'trillions' of years ago, and crossed paths with a hungry caveman.

Casper Caveman has a pet apatosaurus named Fido, who is drawn and animated as one of Chuck Jones's usual insufferably twee critters. However, I laughed out loud when the dinosaur tags along behind his prehistoric master. Two-legged Casper and four-legged Fido each have a distinctive gait, and when they walk in unison the visual counterpoint of their movements is very funny.

For some reason, many Warners toons of this period begin with a multi-plane shot, apparently hoping to convince audiences that they can be just as 'arty' as Disney's cartoons. However, the very crude multi-plane pan near the beginning of this toon (more of a 'bi-plane'; only two planes!) is not remotely as impressive as Disney's multi-planes in 'The Old Mill' and elsewhere.

This cartoon violates the laws of physics even more than usual for Termite Terrace standards, with objects and characters able to pause in midair and change direction ditto.

Various sources have stated that the character Casper Caveman in this cartoon is a caricature of Jack Benny. Well, yes and no. The vocal performance (by Jack Lescoulie) expertly copies Benny's distinctive delivery and some of his catchphrases ('Good night, folks.'), and Jones's animation even duplicates a few of Benny's gestures. However, the character as drawn simply doesn't look like Benny, neither facially nor physically. I wonder if this was an attempt to avoid a lawsuit. Or perhaps it was down to the fact that Jack Benny (who had already made some film appearances dating back to the late 1920s) was at this point best known as a radio star, so movie audiences might not be sure of what he looked like.

An advertisement for 'Duckies' in this toon is a parody of a contemporary real-world ad for 'Luckies', i.e., Lucky Strike Cigarettes, which were the long-term sponsor of Jack Benny's radio show. (He had better luck with his next sponsor, Jell-O.)

A nice try at a slight variation of the usual Warners formula, and I'll rate this one 7 out of 10.

Pleasant enough early Daffy Duck cartoon

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 25 February 2010]

The animation may be rather dated, the story a little sparse and the pace rushed in places, but Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur is a pleasant enough cartoon. Daffy is funny and manic here, as are a vast majority of the gags and the ending is an unexpected surprise. The music is lovely, and the dialogue good. Casper the Caveman comes very close to stealing the show with his mannerisms and all that and is very reminiscent of Jack Benny, not only with the voice but the dialogue as well. I have to say though Fido is adorable, for a dinosaur he really is a cutie. I loved it when he got hit by the thing that was meant for Daffy and he starts dancing.

Overall, pleasant enough but a somewhat rudimentary entry in the Looney Tunes canon. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Other than being Hanna and Barbera's source material . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 6 June 2016]

. . . for their FLINTSTONES cartoons, as well as pioneering the use of self-guided Scrotal Rocks in American Art, DAFFY DUCK AND THE DINOSAUR may not seem to offer much. However, it does broach the novel theory that animals that have become human prey may be responsible for the earliest instances of Representational Art--NOT Man, to whom Homocentric "experts" have attributed all the glory for this achievement. These animals' motives, as shown here by Daffy's Duck Decoys, is Self-Preservation. This notion is not as Looney as it sounds, and it could explain a lot. By now, everyone has heard of various Modern Day painting apes, elephants, and pandas--all held in Captivity. One thing that these Prisoners share in common is an appendage with which they can wield the Artist's Brush, such as an elephant trunk. Now try to picture a clumsy stegosaurus or a T-Rex with its teeny-tiny Trump-like hands doodling off the Mona Lisa. Pretty hard to imagine, isn't it? What IF humans were responsible for killing off all of our magnificent dinosaur friends, and this Fairy Tale about an Extinction Event Meteor is more of a hoax than Global Warming? DINOSAUR starts us down this train of thought, but of course it's OUR job not to get derailed by those espousing "Logic" and "Rationality," as what's sauce for the goose can baste ducks as well.

Billions and Trillions of Years Ago.. Daffy was there!

[mirosuionitsaki2 · 8/10 · 26 July 2007]

Billions and trillions of years ago, Probably before you were born was Daffy Duck in the prehistoric time! A caveman wants his duck for breakfast. But he can't get him! Will Daffy Duck die? Will the caveman and his pet dinosaur die? Or both? It's both.

Well, the caveman awakes from his cave and wants duck for breakfast. He falls into a trap involving a giant balloon that looks like a Duck. He attempts to stab it with a knife, thinking it is real and he is up for the challenge with a real giant duck for breakfast to full his tummy. Well, yes. He did stab the balloon. No, he didn't get to eat duck. Daffy, The Caveman, and the Caveman's pet dinosaur dies and are seen in heaven in the last scene, angry.

I recommend this funny cartoon.

Offers Little But A Nice Restoration Job

[ccthemovieman-1 · 5/10 · 5 May 2007]

This begins with "Casper Caveman" waking up and walking out his front door (which has a "welcome" mat beneath it! The guy looks like Elmer Fudd but talks like Jack Benny, so it must be parody of him. Anway, Casper is starved and crank so he and his pet dinosaur, "Fido," go looking for food. He spots Daffy swimming peacefully nearby, fires a rock from a slingshot at him.....and the mania is on.

Daffy outsmarts the rock (don't ask), Fido goes goofy after being struck by that rock and assorted other things happened and few of them were funny. I love Daffy Duck cartoons, but these early ones. They are just plain stupid and his little "oh, ooh" laugh is annoying. It sounds like Tigger in Winnie The Pooh. Just because it's Daffy or Looney Tunes, doesn't guarantee it's good to be good. It almost does...but certainly not in this lame effort.

About the only thing impressive about this cartoon is the color and the fine restoration job of it for the LT Golden Collection Vol. Three set.

Jones first Daffy

[cartoonnewsCP · 10/10 · 22 June 2016]

Before he became greedy, we see one of jones earliest shorts.

The short opens with Casper waking up and he wants to eat food. He and his dinosaur find Daffy and want to eat him.

Casper slingshots a rock at Daffy, but Daffy manages to avoid it by disguising himself as a traffic cop. When the rock realizes that it has been tricked, it backtracks towards Daffy but ends up hitting the dinosaur which proceeds to perform a dazed dance.

Daffy snatches Casper's slingshot and tricks Casper into thinking that swimming is not allowed to prevent him from pursuing him. Subsequently, Casper and the dinosaur leave, but Daffy, knowing that Casper won't give up, paints himself on a nearby stone. Casper, holding a stone club, sees the painting and bashes it, but the force backfires and makes Casper dizzy. Daffy gives Casper a glass of water, which cures the dizziness and earns him Casper's trust. Daffy, however, gives Casper a card advertising a rare, gigantic duck living nearby, which Casper begin to hunt, following billboards (parodying advertising techniques of the era) planted by Daffy. They eventually reach the duck inflatable balloon pumped up by Daffy, terrifying Casper until Daffy gives Casper a knife with which to stab the duck. Casper does so, and the ensuing explosion kills them all.

The short ends showing the three in Heaven, sitting on clouds. The dinosaur plays a harp while Daffy and Casper lament their mistakes (Daffy: "You know, maybe that wasn't such a hot idea after all!" Casper: "Good night, folks").

10/10 classic Last with VITAPHONE Presents and last of 1939 in public domain.

LTGC Disc 4 Vol 3 restored.

Uneventful and not very funny. Chuck Jones's early take on Daffy was too placid

[phantom_tollbooth · 3/10 · 4 November 2008]

Chuck Jones's 'Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur' was the sixth Daffy Duck cartoon and the first time Jones worked with the character. While he would eventually put his own stamp on the duck and direct many of the quintessential Daffy cartoons (including the incomparable 'Duck Amuck'), 'Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur' is something of a false start. At this early stage, Daffy was a purely wacky character whose manic energy had captivated audiences in frenzied cartoons directed by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. In these early short, Daffy tears up the screen with his manic antics. 'Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur' is the first time a director significantly slowed the duck down. Personality-wise, the very early Daffy relied almost entirely on his frenetic insanity and by stripping him of this, Jones makes him a rather dull character. It is also noticeable that, despite his star billing, Daffy is relegated to a supporting player. The dinosaur that shares top billing is also given very little to do. For the most part, the spotlight is thrown upon a Jack Benny caricature caveman whose lax vocal rhythms set the tone of the cartoon. Back when Benny was a huge star, this character would no doubt have brought the house down but he barely raises a smile today, especially for a British viewer like myself. 'Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur' closes with an amusing punch line but the build-up is excruciatingly slow and uneventful. Reviewing the plot once the short is over reveals that practically nothing happens in 'Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur' and the weak, unenergetic gags do nothing to make up for this fact.

Basic but crazy Daffy is always fun!

[bob the moo · 28 December 2003]

Millions of years ago, in stone age times, a cave man wakes up hurt and heads out to hunt for food with his trusty dinosaur for help. They come across some open water and spy Daffy Duck swimming and decide that he'd make a good meal - that was their first mistake.

This cartoon opens with a disclaimer that informs us that, for no great reason, this cartoon is set millions of years ago - just in case the audience can't guess that from the presence of cavemen and a dinosaur. This short features Daffy in `crazy' mood, which I always enjoy more than his bitter and cynical mood. The action is quite funny even if it isn't that imaginative at times.

The cave man sounds a little like Elmer Fudd and even vaguely resembles him to the point that I wondered why they didn't just get him in instead. Daffy is hilarious and is what makes the cartoon such fun, the dinosaur of the title doesn't have that much to do but has a few laughs - although he is a bit of a dumb animal.

Overall this is a good cartoon because I believe that any chance to see Daffy in crazy mood is worth a look even if the material is not as imaginative as it could have been.

Dated but delightful!

[JohnHowardReid · 10/10 · 5 November 2006]

The caveman is voiced like and given some of the familiar catch-phrases of Jack Benny, a household identity as the nation's most popular radio comedian when this cartoon was originally released. Although this material will mean little to a modern audience, there are still some splendid visual gags (Daffy dressing up like a traffic policeman to halt the pursuing rock), topped by an ingeniously extended spoof of advertising slogans, most of which fortunately are still fairly current ("There is no substitute for Duck"; "The pause that refreshes... Duck"; "Cavemen choose Duckies 2 to 1").

The pace is commendably fast, the characters admirably bizarre, the color (particularly in the opening Multiplane sequence) vividly atmospheric yet attractive.

Forget Daffy--THIS FILM's the strangest bird of them all!

[nnwahler · 3/10 · 16 April 2009]

I'd suppose all those Jones idolators out there consider this as simply another important building block toward the genius that would eventually develop....still, it's a long, painful road from something like this to the greater Bugs, Daffy & Road Runner films a decade later. Frankly, I don't get the gist of the whole notion of making Jack Benny a patsy for the duck: the two just don't work off of each other. Perhaps Jones is telling us we're supposed to have more sympathy for the Benny character (AND the dinosaur, who seems to get an inordinate amount of attention here himself....that insipid, puppydog face!). And the Benny caveman character really doesn't have those familiar traits associated with Jack Benny's whole schtick (his baldness, his screechy violin playing, his stinginess, etc.). Heck, he doesn't even LOOK like Benny! Perhaps the film's meant to show us Jones's contempt for the early, WACKY Daffy--namely, the Daffy perfected by Bob Clampett, who had a kind of feud going with Jones at the Warner cartoon studio. Anyway, whatever one's to make of the film: I always have to put on something else afterward to remind myself of what it's like to LAUGH.

Better than Chuck Jones's other cartoons of the era

[KalloFox34 · 8/10 · 7 September 2021]

Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur is Jones's first use of Daffy, using the older, screwball version rather than the greedy grouch he developed in the 50s.

Chuck Jones's early cartoons usually suffered from poor timing and a more Disney-like approach, but this one is different. It revolves around a caveman that takes his brontosaurus hunting for Daffy. The comedic timing is a lot better than usual for his 1938-1942 work, probably the best out of that era.

The gags are actually quite funny, and the brontosaurus especially lent itself well to slapstick. The ending gag was also pretty creative, with the inflatable duck... But then Daffy gets so carried away with this that when the duck pops, he went down along with Casper and the brontosaurus.

Caveman vs Duck

[Michael_Elliott · 28 March 2016]

Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939)

*** (out of 4)

A caveman wakes up hungry so he grabs his dinosaur and the two go out looking for food. They stumble across Daffy Duck but he's not going to be so easy to catch.

This is another very funny short that manages to have two great characters and one less than stellar one. I will say that I think the caveman isn't all that interesting and even the vocal work for him is rather forgettable. With that said, the rest of the short is full of fun action and plenty of nice laughs including one sequence where Daffy paints a duck with bad results for the caveman. As you'd expect the animation is excellent and with the laughs this is certainly worth watching.

Sort of like an Elmer Fudd hunting cartoon...but without Elmer and set during caveman days.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 2 January 2022]

The animation quality of "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur" is pretty amazing for Looney Tunes back in 1939. The color is absolutely lovely and the pastel backgrounds are also very nice on the eyes.

The story is somewhat reminiscent of later Looney Tunes cartoons with Daffy or Bugs fighting the stupid hunter, though in this case it's a VERY grouchy caveman with his adorable dinosaur pet, Fido. And, like the later films, again and again, Daffy outsmarts this hunter.

Overall, this was a very good cartoon for its time. Daffy is quite funny and the ending made me smile. This, combined with the lovely animation, make this one a treat.

I found it to be a funny,entertaining,imaginative and amusing short,

[lesleyharris30 · 8/10 · 5 July 2010]

For no particular reason our story is laid in the stone age"-millions and billions and trillions of years ago-probably before any of you people were even born.

A caveman called Casper Caveman is hungry and wants some breakfast,he gets a craving for duck so he gets his pet dinosaur Fido to help him find one,they eventually find a duck and it turns out to be Daffy Duck.

****/*****

4/5 STARS

A Truly UNDERRATED AND MISUNDERSTOOD CLASSIC

-DILLON HARRIS

Chuck Jones's early work.

[ultramatt2000-1 · 9/10 · 8 June 2018]

Just one year before ONE MILLION B.C., Chuck Jones made this cartoon that was the primitive ancestor of Wille E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons. Casper Caveman (Wille E. Coyote's ancestor) wants to catch Daffy Duck (Road Runner's ancestor). Daffy comes up with many ways to stop him in order to survive. Fido, the dinosaur, a brontosaurus to be specific, is the goofy old stooge that gets clobbered around. Daffy in this cartoon is the source of all jokes. He was influenced under Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Later, Jones would make him the butt of all jokes. A punching bag who gets walked on, stepped on and a total underdog looser. This public domain cartoon is a caveman compared to the later works Chuck Jones did in the 1940's and 1950's that happen to be timeless. Chuck Jones would go back to having another funny prehistoric adventure eleven years later in CAVEMAN INKI.

Don't Think Too Much

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 25 March 2019]

Set aside the time thing and just enjoy the characters. Daffy is at his manic worst, dealing out pain for no other reason than he can. We have a cave man, a dinosaur, and a duck. So, as Daffy is set to become dinner for the guy, lots of effort is made to corral him. All that said, it is non-stop, frenetic action with an interesting twist at the end.