Muscle Tussle (1953) User Reviews

One Of Daffy's Final Protagonist Roles

[MartyD82-1 · 7/10 · 17 December 2005]

Daffy and his girlfriend are having a fun day at the beach when a giant muscle-bound duck (we'll use IMDb's name "Hunky Duck" from here on out) comes along and impresses his girlfriend. Not wanting his relationship to end like that, Daffy is conned by a salesman into taking "Atom-Col" (a bogus muscle-building formula). Thus begins a series of contests between him and Hunky to see who's the strongest.

At the time of this cartoon's release, Daffy was right in the midst of his transformation from crazy/loony Daffy to greedy/self-centered Daffy. Here, he's neither of the two. So as with other cartoons from this time period (Cracked Quack for example), he's given a somewhat dry role here. What this means is that the cartoon basically has to rely on its jokes to supply its humor (as opposed to its characters). Fortunately, most of them are reasonably funny. His constant defeat during Hunky's contests is funny, as is his interaction with his girlfriend. There are a couple jokes that don't really work (particularly the ending - which really doesn't make a whole lot of sense), but the ones that do work are solid.

This is by no means Daffy's best performance, but a good cartoon nonetheless and worth seeing for fans of the little black duck.

Above-average effort for the McKimson unit

[nnwahler · 7/10 · 24 June 2023]

Director McKimson, with writer Tedd Pierce, had a helluva time trying to match Freleng's and Jones's quality streaks; let's face it, he just didn't possess their timing. McKimson couldn't wait for a long enough time to pass by before the visual (or verbal) punch line. When Daffy proves to the big bully duck he can tie a fishing pole into a knot, we have the camera panning just once with Daffy before he backfires. Jones or Freleng would have Daffy go back (with camera panning) at least two or three times more, for maximum impact.

Even so, "Muscle Tussle" is great entertainment. The one aspect which particularly tickles me is Bea Benaderet's vocal performance, as Daffy's girlfriend. It's almost like a "female's falsetto". The bully and the salesman are both great characters, too. This all-duck cast reminds me of a Carl Barks Donald Duck comic book (or maybe Harvey Comics' "Baby Huey" comics).

This cartoon has the added nostalgic value of those old-fashioned home cameras where you had to look down at the instrument to get a shot.

The short also has one of McKimson's best uses of his "ah-ha-ha" routine.

"Give him a cluck in the head."

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 2 January 2016]

Looney Tunes take on the old Charles Atlas comic book ads. In those ads, there was always a weakling who gets picked on by a musclebound bully at the beach, only to return after working out and even the score. Usually there was a girl involved, too. Enter our story here, where Daffy is at the beach with his girlfriend when a big hunky duck shows up and steals his woman. The rest of the short is Daffy trying to figure out a way to win her back and put the muscle duck in his place. It's amusing stuff but never terribly funny. Mel Blanc's great, as always. Gladys Holland does the voice of the female duck and appears to be channeling Judy Holliday. The music is lively and fun. The animation is nice and colorful. Not one of my favorite Daffy cartoons but I've seen worse.

Pretty funny

[wadebran · 7/10 · 17 July 2012]

Robert McKimson's Daffy never completely conformed to the 1950s, Chuck Jones-led transformation into a greedy, cowardly, egomaniac. McKimson continued to feature him as both a tormentor/prankster for Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd and as a protagonist in his solo cartoons.

Here Daffy is still full of spark and, while he is the victim for most of the cartoon, he triumphs in the end. There are plenty of good sight gags and the end gag, contrary to other opinions, is funny and does make sense (in a cartoon universe way). The muscle-bound duck is so powerful that when he exerts all his strength against the fake barbells he is shot high into the air and when the balloons disguised as weights pop, the force of the impact compacts him (a la Wile E. Coyote).

This cartoon is fairly unique in that all of the characters are ducks, with no appearances by humans or any other talking animals.

The voice of his girlfriend is also hilarious. Sort of an even higher-pitched version of Judy Holliday's voice in 'Born Yesterday'.

Warner Bros. warns America of her Southern Threat . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 14 February 2016]

. . . with its animated short from the early 1950s, MUSCLE TUSSLE. Daffy Duck is assaulted multiple times by a hulking rival on steroids named something other than "Barry Bonds." This muscle-bound fowl speaks with Southern intonations as grating on the ears as tacks on the teacher's chair. (Who knew that Miss Sharpe could screech THAT loudly?) After Daffy loses his teeth and collapses in a heap, his beach date slips into the victor's vice-grips like a flea finding a sheepdog. But just as things are looking hopeless, Daffy tricks the lumbering Southern duck into handling a dangerous device which launches the voluminous bully into space, explodes, and diminishes the out-sized threat by half. In response to Warner's MUSCLE TUSSLE warning, America's Blue States have repositioned nearly all their share of the U.S. nuclear arsenal into Red States. Like the silly Big Duck in MUSCLE TUSSLE, the South has been gathering in these Doomsday Devices with open arms. Maybe some day soon we will all be able to join MUSCLE TUSSLE's female in turning away from the South, saying, "I only like them if they're tall, dark, and gruesome," like Daffy Duck or Barack Obama.

I warned you to beware of con artists

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 1 February 2020]

I originally saw a clip of Robert McKimson's "Muscle Tussle" in the TV special "Bugs Bunny's Wild World of Sports" (showcasing Looney Tunes cartoons focusing on athletics). The clip was the snake oil salesman giving Daffy a supposed elixir to give the inimitable mallard super strength.

I've finally gotten to see the cartoon in its entirety. It's enjoyable if silly stuff. Daffy's love interest is Melissa Duck, who was the fair maiden in Chuck Jones's swashbuckler parody "The Scarlet Pumpernickel". While the Looney Tunes were a mostly male crowd, some of the female characters were some real babes (understanding of course that they were fictional).

OK one.

Comical riff on 'beach politics'...

[ronnybee2112 · 9/10 · 19 February 2021]

This is a simple and funny short cartoon. There are a lot of small touches and nuance that may not get your attention with only one viewing. Today we have the ability to rewind and watch things over and over,and it amazes me how much more I notice upon subsequent viewings that I never notice on the first viewing. This holds equally true for these delightful, short+silly cartoons,as well as for epic movies. This is a sweetly benign and humorous little gem I say!

"And just who do you think you are, trying to muscle in on my chick?"

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 1 July 2010]

Muscle Tussle is an amusing if somewhat unexceptional Looney Tunes cartoon. The ending gag doesn't quite work I agree, and the story is pretty routine, but I still liked it even with these faults. The animation is quite colourful and vibrant, the music is energetic, the dialogue is witty and amusing and the sight gags are clever. I also liked it that Daffy's protagonist role was dryer here, I do prefer him when he is manic and greedy but he is quite funny still when he is dry and subdued. Hunky Duck is a great supporting character, and Daffy's girl is cute. As usual, Mel Blanc is excellent. Overall, amusing if unexceptional cartoon. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Web Footed Kick Of Sand In One's Face

[redryan64 · 8/10 · 10 May 2016]

ONCE AGAIN WE find the "star" of a series being cast as a rival for another more "He-Man" of a guy at the beach in the "Good Old Summertime." As if it were not "ripped right out of the headlines"; but rather from an Ad for CHARLES ATLAS & his "DYNAMIC TENSION" system of physical training, which appeared in virtually all magazines and comic books.

SIMPLICITY APPEARS TO be the operative word here, as we have only three characters in any functional role here. The setting is "the Beach", any beach. with everyone stripped down to the bare necessities and one's physical attributes (or lack there of) are openly put on display. And the summertime beach does not discriminate by virtue of one's sex. Male and Female are both subject to extreme scrutiny.

SO WHAT WE have is a sort of eternal triangle, but staged at the local swimming spot. Daffy is there with girlfriend, Gladys Duck (voiced by Gladys Holland-uncredited). Enter "Hunky" Duck; whose physical development, prodigious strength and outstanding athleticism all combine to really get the attentions of this most desirable female duck in sight.

ONE BY ONE Daffy and "Hunky" compete in various tests of gymnastic ability, raw strength & power and in muscle control (that's posing, Schultz). All come out with the desired and predictable results.

AS FAR AS our ranking this DAFFY DUCK Short, it is neither nor there. It isn't among the best of the series output, but it still is worth for taking a little "LOOK-SEE!"

If you're looking for trouble, brother, just start somethin'!

[wilhelmurg · 9/10 · 1 February 2015]

This was the 64th cartoon Robert McKimson directed, and it's one of the essentials. The cartoon features a rare appearance by the fair Melissa, Daffy's girlfriend, who BARELY seems to be be into Daffy. Melissa Duck (played by Bea Benaderet in THE SCARLETT PUMPERNICKEL, and B.J. Ward in THE DUXORCIST) is played here by Gladys Holland, a little known actress who spoke perfect French, due to her parents being Belgium immigrants. and played small French roles in a number of American movies, including THE CARPETBAGGERS, STARGATE and KILLING ZOE. Hunky Duck never made another appearance, but he's one of those characters who made such an impact in his one cartoon (like Pete Puma) which ran in such heavy rotation on television in the 1960s and 1970s, that he seems like a full fledged Looney tune regular. "You all can call me Shorty."