The Great Piggy Bank Robbery


The Great Piggy Bank Robbery is a 1946 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. The cartoon was released on July 20, 1946, and stars Daffy Duck.
The short is Clampett's penultimate Warner cartoon, produced shortly before he left the studio.

Plot

On a farm, Daffy waits for his new Dick Tracy comic book to the tune of Raymond Scott's song "Powerhouse". The mailman then arrives and he gets the comic book. To the tune of Franz von Suppé's Poet and Peasant overture, he sprints to a corner of the farm and reads it, noting how much he "love that man!". He reads the issue that has Dick Tracy fighting Noodlenose. Imagining what it would be like to be Dick Tracy, he knocks himself out with his own fist.
While unconscious, he dreams he is "Duck Twacy, the famous duck-tec-a-tive." He dismisses a series of calls asking about stolen piggy banks as too small for him, suggesting the callers had been too reckless until he finds that his own piggy bank has been stolen from his safe. He decides to call Duck Twacy before he realizes he is Duck Twacy. He calls a taxi to follow a car without him, just to keep the bad guys on their toes.
Daffy's search leads him to cross paths with Sherlock Holmes, then onto a tram leading to the gangsters' not-so-secret hideout. He falls through a trapdoor when he rings the doorbell and follows footprints, even climbing up a wall to a mousehole. He says that the culprit is "Mouse Man" and demands "Come out of there, you rat!" and a huge, muscular and angry mouse towers over him. Gulping in fear, Daffy timidly tells him to go back in again, and so he does. He runs away, but is surrounded by all the dangerous criminals in town consisting of...
And a host of other unnamed grotesque criminals. He then, with a certain lack of tactical sense, declares "You're all under arrest!" The villains then roar at our hero and the chase begins.
In one sequence, the bad guys are seen using well-known Dick Tracy villain Flattop's head as an airstrip with planes taking off. When Daffy is trapped against a wall, Rubberhead "rubs him out" with his head as an eraser, but Daffy appears at the door. Pumpkinhead moves in with submachine guns blazing. Daffy tosses a hand grenade directly to Pumpkinhead and he becomes a stack of pumpkin pies.
As most of the villains jump to trap him in a closet, Daffy squirms out, slams the door shut on them, and eradicates the group with sustained fire from a Tommy gun. He opens the door and the bullet-riddled bodies fall like dominoes. Neon Noodle sneaks up on Daffy and tries to strangle him. Daffy defeats him by turning him into a neon sign that reads "Eat at Joe's".
Daffy then finds the missing piggy banks, including his own. He begins to kiss his bank but, since he is dreaming, he does not realize that he is on the farm again, kissing a real female pig. The plump, yet slightly curvaceous, pig is rather smitten by Daffy since she believes he is trying to woo her with the barrage of smooches he plants all around her face. He wraps his kisses up with a peck to the cute pig's little nose. So, in an elegant female voice, she says "Shall we dance?" and lovingly kisses him right in the mouth. Now wide awake, Daffy wipes the kiss away disgustedly and runs away. The lady pig says "I love that duck!" and laughs.

Allusions and influence

Animation historian Steve Schneider said of this picture:
Animator John Kricfalusi called The Great Piggy Bank Robbery his favorite cartoon: "I saw this thing and it completely changed my life, I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen, and I still think it is."
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery was the first of several cartoons in which Daffy Duck would do a parody of a well-known character, but the only one in which he was actually competent. In other take-offs, such as The Scarlet Pumpernickel, he was somewhat buffoonish, though still able to intimidate the bad guys. But, in later stories such as Stuporduck, Boston Quackie, Robin Hood Daffy and Deduce, You Say?, Daffy was hopelessly outmatched.
In 1994 it was voted No. 16 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.