The Up-Standing Sitter is a very good cartoon, but not quite one of the greats. The story is simple, perhaps a little too much so, but a number of things compensate such as the witty writing that is full of inspired puns and references and clever sight gags. Daffy still has his trademark persona but also has a caring side that I loved seeing. The chick, who is very like Tweety I agree, is very cute though thankfully not sickeningly so. Mel Blanc's vocal characterisations are as stellar as ever. The animation has been more fluid in other Looney Tunes shorts, but is bright and colourful on the whole, and the jaunty background music plays a vital part in making the humour work as always and succeeds. The song is very catchy also. All in all, not one of my favourites, but I like it very much. 8/10 Bethany Cox
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TheLittleSongbird16 August 2012
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With the ever brilliant Daffy Duck, good animation and good directing from Robert McKimson, this is an episode I enjoyed and one well worth watching. Personally, in this episode I did not enjoy the slapstick provided, but other people will probably find this part of the episode funny.
This short starts with Daffy Duck, a babysitter, going off to babysit and he sings a bright tune on his way:
"Life is bitter, for I'm a sitter and put little kiddies to bed. While I cup the sheet, around their feet, they're busy slapping my head. They throw their trains, they rattle my brains, my head is full of dents. No wonder I'm sour, goes on by the hour and each hour I earn fifty cents!"
As you have probably guessed by the tune, Daffy is unusually considerate and does a good job putting up with his job. Anyhow, he goes off to the mother of the chick he will babysit and finds that the baby is still an egg. He begins on his job to warm the egg. Just as he starts to read, the egg starts to move - and it hatches. It turns out the chick is a horrible little thing and Daffy plunges himself into deep trouble...
Poor Daffy! Folks who hate seeing Daffy being hurt will not enjoy this short. Otherwise, if you like Looney Tunes, you will probably enjoy this. I enjoyed, the main reason because Daffy is as he is here. Enjoy "The Up-Standing Sitter"! :-) -
. . . Warner Bros.' favorite Looney Tunes fowl, Daffy Duck, suddenly cannot fly and goes around exclaiming "Sufferin' succotash!" His main antagonists are a tiny yellow bird and Spike the Bulldog. One expects that Granny and a Smart Alec Daffy, Junior, will turn up at any moment. Daffy begins his career as Acme Corp.'s "star" baby-sitter by reciting a two-stanza ode to his new-found profession. Then THE UP-STANDING SITTER learns that a hen house can spawn a heinous hellion. Rocket rides ensue, as the animators find their over-chewed bits rolling off their pens as easily as dynamiting ducks in a barrel. Spike clearly needs to see Snoopy about taking out a Met Life Policy on his doghouse (assuming that that outfit had branched out into the home insurance market by the late 1940s). But if Daffy has retained most of his hourly haul of four bits for his roosting services, the appreciation of the silver in all those quarters probably has out-paced inflation. (If, on the other hand, he's foolishly converted his coins into a bank account, he's probably S.O.L.--a sadder but wiser duck).
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Chip_douglas19 January 2004Mr. I. Squeel (a big pig) of the Acme baby sitting agency sends Daffy Duck to literally sit on an egg. When the hatchling (a yellow version of Hennery Hawk) escapes from this 'stranger' and seeks refugee with that trustworthy foil Spike the Dog, the gags never stop coming. And why exactly are there so many explosives lying around on this farm?.
Although the story may be simple, back in the forties the Warners managed to cram as much as possible into their Merry Melodies: a song by Daffy, numerous puns ("Did you enjoy your trip, stranger?") and references ("or would you rather be a pig?"), silly sound effects, surreal sight gags, background jokes and just plain zany characters. At one point Daffy even uses Sylvesters' catchphrase `Sufferin' Succotash!'. Within ten years the merry melodies would settle down and concentrate on a maximum of two punchlines per scene, but in this early Daffy vehicle the pace is relentless. To say any more would spoil the jokes.
8 out of 10 -
utgard1429 September 2015Fun Daffy Duck short directed by Robert McKimson. This time Daffy works for a babysitting agency that places him in care of an egg. While he's sitting on it, the egg hatches and a cute little chick is born. When the chick discovers Daffy is not a relative, he runs away because he's not supposed to talk to strangers. Daffy chases after him and is met with one punishment after another from the cute little chicken.
The little chick is both adorable and hilarious, easily stealing the show from Daffy. Lovely animation with well-drawn characters and backgrounds. Bright, vivid colors are a plus. Great voice work from Mel Blanc. Energetic music from Carl Stalling. A funny cartoon but nothing extraordinary. -
ccthemovieman-15 November 2007Daffy is an employee at The Acme Baby-Sitting Agency. I liked Daffy's little poem as he headed out on his assignment for the day:
"Life is bitter for I am a sitter. And put little kids to bed.
"While I tuck the sheet around their feet, they are busy slapping my head They throw their trains and rattle my brains. My head is full of dents.
"No wonder I'm sour. Goes on by the hour. And each hour I earn 50 cents."
Daffy finds he has an odd assignment: he has to sit on an egg. A hen has employed him to sit on her egg while she goes out. Daffy calmly sits down and reads a book ("The Egg And I," naturally) and things look calm until the egg hatches and the little chick thinks Daffy is his mother, or father, or sister, on and on and on. This little chick is a strange one. He's very paranoid, too.
This little guy sounds almost exactly like "Tweety." Hey, there is almost no way Mel Blanc can disguise that unique voice of his. I wonder if this yellow bird was the inspiration for Tweety? It might have been, as Daffy uses Sylvester's line, "sufferin' succotash." We even have "Spike" in here. In other words, we almost have a Tweety and Sylvester cartoon here except that Daffy is trying to do his job and keep the little chick safe, not eat him as Sylvester would have preferred.
You had to feel sorry for poor Daffy in here. This time, he's the good guy and that little chick gets to be a real wise-guy. Overall, despite the injustice to our poor duck friend at the end, this is a very entertaining cartoon -
lee_eisenberg14 September 2006This time, Daffy Duck is a baby-sitter sent to sit on an egg, which happens to hatch. When the chick takes Daffy for a stranger and runs away, Daffy tries to catch him but this proves to be the most elusive chick on earth. Then again, he has the advantage of a bulldog, a high wire, and numerous explosives lying around.
"The Up-Standing Sitter" is one of the many additions to the pantheon of classic Looney Tunes cartoons. It was back in the days when everything was just a gag every second. It was just neat that they weren't afraid to do whatever they wanted.
So, maybe this wasn't the greatest of their cartoons ever, but it's still pretty funny. Sort of a precursor to "Calvin and Hobbes", with what Calvin always did to Rosalyn. -
Horst_In_Translation27 April 2016"The Up-Standing Sitter" is a cartoon from almost 70 years ago and as always with these little animated films from the 1940s, especially Warner Bros, it runs for slightly under 7 minutes. This one has no Bugs as it is all about Daffy. He is in charge of watching over a little chicken when Mama Hen is out. However, that chicken proves a true nuisance and it outruns and outsmarts our favorite duck from start to finish. The result is that Daffy keeps demolishing Spike's house and gets in real trouble with the big dog, who proves he is not so peace-loving when he won't get his rest. And as if this isn't already enough, there is also another hen that won't let Daffy check her place for the little chicken. All in all,despite the involvement of some of Warner Bros' finest, I was underwhelmed by this little film. It was really more loud and chaotic than funny. I give it a thumbs down.
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slymusic18 June 2010Daffy Duck, as "The Up-Standing Sitter", is hired to baby-sit a mischievous pain-in-the-ass baby chicken hawk who resembles our friend Henery. A bulldog gets into the act, and it's bedlam all the way!
My two favorite scenes from this cartoon: I love Daffy's introductory poem as he heads towards his baby-sitting job, as well as his large eyeballs after he gets blown up by dynamite from inside a barrel.
Directed by Robert McKimson, "The Up-Standing Sitter" is a baby-sitter's nightmare. It's quite obvious to us that Daffy Duck can't handle the job well. (In fact, I'll bet some Looney Tunes fans feel that Daffy is rather out of place in this barnyard cartoon, believing that his baby-sitting job should have been taken over by Foghorn Leghorn, but I think Daffy fits into this setting just fine.) Watch this cartoon, IF YOU DARE!