 | Plucky DuckOriginal Medium: Television animation Produced by: Amblin Entertainment. First Appeared: 1990 image: © Warner Bros. |
Plucky Duck is the Tiny Toons equivalent of Daffy Duck — Tiny Toons being a cartoon show, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, which purports to extend the merchandisability of the old Warner Bros. cartoon stars by creating a whole new generation of them.
Like the other Tiny Toons characters, Plucky is a student at
Acme Looniversity, where he's learning the skills necessary for a
career as an animated character. The instructors there include
Elmer Fudd, Pepe
LePew, The Tasmanian Devil, and others
from the old Looney Tunes — including, of course, Daffy, who
is Plucky's favorite teacher and a major role model for the younger
toon. Plucky's voice was usually provided by Joe Alaskey, who has
done most of the old Warner characters at one time or another since
Mel Blanc died, as well as several on
Duckman, a couple for Harvey Productions, and Grandpa Lou on
Rugrats. But during the second
season Maurice LaMarche (Hugh Tasmanian
Devil, The Brain) handled Plucky.
Plucky, who is about 14 years old, is a bit pushier about getting his career going than most of his contemporaries. In fact, he's pushy about everything. He's also self-centered, egotistical, easily frustrated, and similar to his mentor in dozens of other ways. Like Daffy, he makes a good foil for cooler-headed characters, such as Babs & Buster Bunny, Bugs's proteges on the show. Not surprisingly, he plays off Hamton Pig as well as Daffy plays off Porky.
But none of the Tiny Toons are exact duplicates of their older counterparts. Plucky differs from Daffy in more than just his green plumage. For example, as The Toxic Revenger, Plucky battles industrial polluters and other evildoers, whereas it's hard to picture Daffy mustering up either the courage or the selflessness to become a superhero.
Plucky's fortunes have mostly followed those of the Tiny Toons in general. He debuted with the rest on the syndicated Tiny Toon Adventures show in 1990, and has continued as a major cast member through its run on Fox, Nickelodeon and WB Network. Unlike the others, he had his own show on Fox for three months in 1992. It wasn't quite a spin-off, tho, since it consisted entirely of reruns.
Despite apparent expectations, Plucky and the other Tiny Toons never became merchandising superstars, tho they've done okay in that area. Fortunately, the old Looney Tunes guys show no signs of needing to be replaced.
