Duck Amuck (1953) *****

Arguably the greatest cartoon of all times and certainly the most self-reflexive and brechtian. Poor Daffy Duck is constantly frustrated by an invisible cartoonist, who insists on changing the scenery, manipulating the soundtrack and playing all kinds of dirty tricks on our hero. Daffy finds himself erased and redrawn as a ridiculous, four-leg monstruosity, while his voice is dubbed (by a chicken), only to be falling down from a crushed airplane with an anvil instead of a parachute. Daffy's very strong personality really emerges in this film, which he carries all by himself, giving an outstanding performance, full of rage and frustration. "Duck Amuck" is a marvelously entertaining, truly hilarious animated masterpiece.