Daffy Duck (1964-1968; 1980)

Daffy Duck is a fictional character from the popular Warner Brothers Cartoon Looney Tunes and is one of the series' major characters. He is voiced by Mel Blanc and was created by Tex Avery.

Before and after the 1964-1969 Looney Tunes shorts (Depatie-Freleng, Format Films, Seven-Arts), he was a mischievous screwball prankster. But sadly during these eras, he's been flanderized into a grouchy sadist.

Why He Sucked
Note: This only applies to his character in the DePatie-Freleng (1965-1967), Format Films (1967) and Seven-Arts (1967-1969) eras, as well as 'The Chocolate Chase' and 'The Iceman Ducketh', as he was flanderized.
 * 1) He has been flanderized badly in this era, and as a result, he got a drastic change in personality as well. He went from a hilarious, screwball mischievous prankster to someone who shares an ego (especially when Bugs Bunny was involved) to a grouchy, humorless sadist who tries to kill Speedy Gonzales for his own sake.
 * 2) In this era, he was partnered with Speedy Gonzales. While this is not a bad thing, it is still an awkwardly mismatched character pairing due to very poor chemistry between the duo.
 * 3) * In addition, in the cartoon "Tease For Two", Daffy is also horribly mismatched as an antagonist to the Goofy Gophers, as there is very poor chemistry between the duo.
 * 4) * To be fair, this awkward mismatching between Daffy and Speedy is because of both DePatie-Freleng, Format and Seven-Arts studios only allowing a very limited number of classic Looney Tunes characters to be used (most notably Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner), but still it doesn't excuse why Daffy should be paired with Speedy during these eras.
 * 5) * If anything, Sylvester should have been matched with Speedy in the first place.
 * 6) * Despite his unlikable nature in this era, he in general is overused in these cartoons (specifically the Speedy Gonzales cartoons), regardless of how unneeded he actually is in each cartoons Speedy appears in such as "The Spy Swatter" for example, to the point where it gets old.
 * 7) Sometimes, his design would go off-model, mainly due to how low budget the cartoons became. This is especially apparent in "See Ya Later Gladiator".
 * 8) Due to his flanderization, he was also miscast as an evil villain. This characterization would go on until the final short produced in this era.
 * 9) He only cares about himself and has absolutely zero empathy for anyone else.
 * 10) He is extremely selfish and greedy, as he only wants the water for himself (and the camel) and does not want to give any water to Speedy and his friends who are dying of thirst, as shown in the short "Well Worn Daffy". He also doesn't wanna give his food to the poor mice and said that he doesn't want to see starving people as shown in "Assault and Peppered", going so far as to whip these poor Mexican mice for starving on his property.
 * 11) Many of his actions go beyond greed territory and instead veer into heinous sadism. In "Well Worn Daffy", he wastefully takes a shower with a well's water and finally tries to destroy the well whilst gloating the mice will die of thirst. In "Assault and Peppered", Daffy declares war on the poor whilst whipping Mexican beggar mice even after the aforementioned beggars had said they were sorry for asking for food and agreed to leave his presence.
 * 12) His maliciousness and jerkiness has been raised up to eleven. On top of that, all the abuse and antagonisms he inflicts on his victims are cruel and hurtful rather than lighthearted and funny.
 * 13) * Speaking of which, he is barely even (if ever) a funny cartoon character during this era, which is not only ironic, yet also absolutely ridiculous and also unacceptable since "Daffy" in his name means "crazy", and come to think about it, when he was first created in 1937 he was mainly responsible for putting the "Looney" in Looney Tunes. Which means it's a shame that the zaniest and wackiest Looney Tunes character of the 1930s-1950s is heavily reduced into the exact opposite of what he was during these eras due to taking a more villainous role.
 * 14) *A good example of how brutal, cruel and hurtful his antagonisms are in this era is in "Assault and Peppered" where he whips these poor Mexican mice for starving on his property (to the extent that it even causes one of the mice to lose his sombrero and part of his hair), especially considering the small size of the poor Mexican mice in comparison to Daffy himself, which can potentially be deadly to these mice for this reason, as it is comparable to that of a grown man beating up little infants, an act which goes into domestic abuse territory.
 * 15) His flanderization is one of the main reasons why the 1964-1969 Looney Tunes shorts (Depatie-Freleng, Format Films, Seven-Arts) and "The Iceman Ducketh are poorly received by critics and fans.
 * 16) He is also very insensitive and racist, evidenced in how he always abuses Speedy Gonzales and his fellow Mexican mice in almost every episode he appears in, once making fun of their accents and saying they should learn to speak English properly in one cartoon. In "Tease For Two" he even made fun of the Goofy Gophers' British accents by cruelly mocking their lines "So nice seeing you guys. Drop along again sometime" before violently kicking the gophers away while they're stuffed in an empty can.
 * 17) He is also a classist who hates poor people for no reason, as one of the poor mice said in "Assault and Peppered". And also in "See Ya Later Gladiator", he seems to have such a huge hatred over Mexican music that he even throws his broom outside to express his hatred.
 * 18) He has a very foul temper and is always grouchy to the point of being unlikable. Overall, his flanderization made him come off more like literally a duck version of Yosemite Sam, except with none of Yosemite Sam's humor, likability and charm. At least other major Looney Tunes villains/antagonists such as Yosemite Sam and Sylvester have charm to their actions.
 * 19) His villainous characterization got even worse during his final pairings with Speedy in the Seven-Arts era beginning with "Speedy Ghost To Town" (with the notable exceptions of "Fiesta Fiasco" and "Skyscraper Caper") as in these later cartoons Daffy is completely aware of Speedy's presence and only commits evil and selfish acts towards Speedy and his mouse friends out of pure malice.
 * 20) While Mel Blanc did a good job voicing him, his voice can get annoying and obnoxious at times due to his voice actor Mel Blanc often yelling the majority of his lines, not helping is the fact that he, being a character whom is always grouchy, often yells angrily at almost every single character he appears with, especially towards Speedy Gonzales and his mouse friends.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) He has massively redeemed himself once the Seven Arts era ended (though he got flanderized again only once in "The Chocolate Chase").
 * 2) At least he got his comeuppances for his actions at the end of almost every single episode of this era.
 * 3) There are some rare instances during this era where Daffy is likable and not mean-spirited, such as "A Taste of Catnip", "Fiesta Fiasco" and "Skyscraper Caper".
 * 4) He knew why he was chasing Speedy Gonzales, so he went into therapy as shown in "A Taste of Catnip".
 * 5) * On a belated note, that episode pokes fun at how his pairings with Speedy Gonzales are a horrible mismatch by depicting his obsessions to chase Speedy as abnormal.
 * 6) The idea of Speedy Gonzales having a more threatening and evil foe instead of always facing the incompetent and sympathetic Sylvester is an interesting idea, even if Daffy is an odd choice.
 * 7) * Although Daffy is miscast as a villain, he's actually surprisingly an effective and threatening villain.
 * 8) Mel Blanc did a good job voicing him, as always, at least whenever there is no angry yelling from him.
 * 9) His design is nice to look at when it’s not off-modeled.

Reception
While the Daffy Duck character as a whole is a huge fan favorite among critics, audiences, and Looney Tunes fans alike and is also one of the best and most iconic Looney Tunes characters just next to Bugs Bunny (the most popular and iconic Looney Tunes character) and Porky Pig, regardless whether he is the crazy, hyperactive mischievous screwball prankster of the 1930s-1940s cartoons or the greedy, self-preserving, spotlight-hungry, egoistic anti-hero of the 1950s and early-1960s cartoons, or both all at the same time (in the case of the cartoons "Daffy Dilly", "You Were Never Duckier" (both from 1948) and Don't Axe Me" (1958)), the same can't be said for his later incarnation during the Looney Tunes series' dark age from 1964-1969, which received intense negative reception from both critics, audiences, and Looney Tunes fans alike, with many criticisms being targeted at his more villainous roles he often took during these eras, his extremely grouchy and bitter nature which is almost comparable to that of Yosemite Sam's but without everything that made Yosemite Sam (or even the old "classic" Daffy himself) such a great Looney Tunes character, his notable lack of humorous and sympathetic qualities, his awkwardly mismatched pairings with other characters such as Speedy Gonzales and the Goofy Gophers, his racist and hateful nature towards both Speedy Gonzales and his mice friends which is almost comparable to that of actual racial discrimination and race hate towards Mexicans in real life, and how his overall greedy nature he had from the 1950s cartoons is way too over-exaggerated in these eras, similar in vein to how Mr. Krabs' greed being way too over-exaggerated in later seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants. Many critics and fans agreed that this more villainous incarnation of Daffy Duck is one of the many factors that is responsible for the Looney Tunes ' downfall during the 1964-1969 eras.

Warner Bros. themselves are even aware of the negative reception the Daffy Duck character had during the DePatie-Freleng, Format Films and Seven-Arts eras in the mid-to-late-1960s, and therefore following negative reception of that more villainous incarnation of Daffy Duck in that era from both fans and critics alike, Daffy is no longer cast into such extremely villainous roles since the end of the Seven-Arts era, with "The Chocolate Chase" being the only exception since then, and therefore had reverted Daffy back to his old likable self in future Looney Tunes revivals since the 1980s. Since then, Daffy rarely, if ever, paired with Speedy Gonzales, with the only times being the aforementioned cartoon "The Chocolate Chase" from the TV special Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-citement, the movie Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island (1983), the direct-to-video film ''Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas (2006) and the TV series The Looney Tunes Show (2011)'', though by then his relationship with Speedy became far less hostile compared to that of the 1964-1969 era.