Golden Yeggs (Merrie Melodies)
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| Golden Yeggs (episode 595) | ||||||||||||
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 Geez... Who knew that the Golden Age-era of "Looney Tunes" actually had a very heinous Daffy Duck torture cartoon?
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Golden Yeggs is a 1950 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng. The cartoon was released on August 5, 1950, and stars Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. A forerunner of the Rocky and Mugsy characters appear, with Rocky already in his present-day form.
Bad Qualities
- Elephant out of the room: It is a very abhorrent, miserably insufferable and sickening Daffy Duck torture short, even by the standards of the Golden Age era of Looney Tunes, as Daffy over here is kidnapped by Rocky and his despicable goons to lay golden eggs for them, which Daffy took undeserving credit for early in the short. Even some of Daffy's later torture episodes occurring throughout the 1950-early 1962 era such as "My Little Duckaroo", "His Bitter Half" and "Quackodile Tears" are nowhere near as mean-spirited as this short.
- It barely has any have funny moments, which is very bad. That's because Looney Tunes is supposed to be a slapstick comedy franchise, which is unacceptable.
- Unlike other cartoons, Rocky and his gang don't get arrested for their crimes, another reason why this short is so horrendous.
- It's also very exaggeratedly cruel, mean-spirited, and unfunny.
- There are four very bad reasons as to why this short is a Daffy Duck and Porky Pig torture cartoon:
- Rocky and his gang captured Daffy Duck, while brutally beating up Porky Pig.
- Rocky and his gang shoots at Daffy, while he's relaxing in the pool.
- Rocky orders Daffy to lay a golden egg in only five minutes, or being gun down.
- When time ran out, Rocky fires his gun at Daffy's head, causing him to lay a golden egg.
- Countless and pointless plot-holes. Among of them include:
- How does the golden/yellow chicken know about what happens to Chickens that lay Golden Eggs?
- Biggest Plot-Hole: Why doesn't Porky even attempt to contact the authorities over Rocky and his gang stealing Daffy from him, let alone attempting to look for Daffy after he gets stolen? Even in "An Egg Scrambled" (another farm-themed Porky Pig cartoon by Robert McKimson produced the same year) Porky at least makes the attempt to look for Miss Prissy who has gone missing in town and ended up with brutish crooks!
- The cartoon never explains on how Daffy manages to lay a golden egg after Rocky fires his gun at Daffy's head. Granted that this may be a gag based on cartoon logic, but still, without any explanation it makes no sense, even for Looney Tunes standards.
- As mentioned above, it is also a Porky Pig torture porn short too, as before the crooks capture Daffy Duck, Rocky and his gang badly beat up Porky Pig. They also gave him money, no less...
- Worse still, Porky is never seen for the rest of the short after this, with his fate remains unknown.
- Also, the golden/yellow chicken that appeared early in the short is also SUPER unlikable, as he indirectly got Daffy Duck into the mess mentioned in the reasons above and below, and even Porky Pig beaten up. He never gets his comeuppance either. His personality is also very obnoxious that makes this scenario even more aggravating, his characterization can easily rival that of Cecil Turtle's except not nearly as likable.
- Despite his second appearance, as well as his first cartoon with his current redesign, Rocky became extremely unlikable. Same can be said for his gang.
- On that topic, Rocky's gang are rather bland and uninteresting secondary antagonists. It was very likely the reason why Rocky's gang have been quietly erased from the series after this cartoon and are later replaced by the dimwitted Mugsy who provides hilarious comic relief with his stupidity beginning with Friz Freleng's "Bugs and Thugs" four years later (though they eventually did resurface 13 years later in Rocky and Mugsy's final cartoon "The Unmentionables").
- The story is badly written as it is set to a very dark tone, which is very out-of-place in something out of Loony Tunes.
- The cartoon's gags are rather not funny, but harsh and abusive.
- Some scenes, with Daffy Duck badly being held hostage, aren't fun to watch.
- Downer Ending: As Daffy Duck heads to the exit after fulfilling Rocky and his men's wishes, Rocky quickly blocked the path, ordering him to fill up several of the empty egg cartons, causing Daffy to faint. Ouch.
Good Qualities
- The concept of this short was greatly improvised years later:
- A Dogfather short "The Goose That Laid a Golden Egg", which is from a series that was created by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, has the characters replaced with Crazylegs Crane and the Dogfather and his gang, along with other characters respectively, and is much more toned down and lighthearted in comparison to this short. The Dogfather and his gang are also likable, genuinely funny and affably evil characters in contrast to Rocky and his gang here, show much more personality and some gratitude to Crazylegs Crane for giving them what they wanted (even though the ending is the same, but without Crazylegs Crane fainting; instead, he sighs in frustration and heeds the criminal hounds' orders), and has more funnier moments as well.
- Additionally, in The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, the ending is finally fixed, so that Rocky and his gang receive their much-needed comeuppance. Even though Rocky escapes, thanks to a loophole.
- Daffy Duck and Porky Pig are likable characters in this short.
- The yellow/golden chicken is never seen or mention again.
- When Daffy gets celebrated by the chickens in the coop for laying the golden egg (because the real golden goose gave Daffy the credit in order to save his own skin based on experiences with "The Goose That Laid a Golden Egg" story), Daffy admits "Okay, so I laid an egg." There's also a scene where Rocky's butler comes in with a newspaper, which has Daffy strapped in it, who smiles sheepishly, despite the misfortune he went through in that scene. These are arguably the only genuinely funny scenes of this short.
- Speaking of the butler, he's also a likable and amusing minor character too (just like the cow from "Flying Circus"), even if he was just there for a brief scene/gag.
- Mel Blanc does a good job with the voice work, as usual.
- As with the earlier "Looney Tunes" shorts, Carl Stalling's musical score is amazing to listen to, and fits the onscreen action nicely.
- Decent animation for its time.
- Friz Freleng eventually learned from his mistakes and made sure Rocky and his minions get arrested for their cruel actions at the end of later cartoons, beginning with the Tweety and Sylvester cartoon "Catty Cornered" three years later.
Reception
Altho receiving more positive reviews, this episode has been universally panned by critics and fans alike.
Trivia
- The gangster character Rocky actually first appeared in the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Racketeer Rabbit" (1946) four years prior as a caricature of then-famous movie gangster Edward G. Robinson, in hopes that Friz Freleng could give Bugs a more intelligent and challenging adversary in contrast to then-previous Bugs adversaries like Beaky Buzzard, Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam which are deemed too dumb to give Bugs any real challenge. Since Freleng liked the mobster idea, he brought the Rocky character back in this cartoon "Golden Yeggs" four years later. While this cartoon is his second appearance, this was the first cartoon where Rocky is given a new redesign as a generic-looking gangster with a dwarf-like height and an oversized hat, similar to that of Freleng's more famous Bugs adversary Yosemite Sam.
- When this cartoon was released on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 DVD release in 2003, the audio of this cartoon appears to be in low pitch for some reason, presumably due to using the cartoon's 1998 dubbed version soundtrack. This effect also applies to the re-restoration that popped up on MeTV in 2021.
- As mentioned above (see RQ#1.1), this short was later remade into another short titled, "The Goose That Laid a Golden Egg", which was from The Dogfather series.
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