Dick Dastardly
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Dick Dastardly is a fictional character and antagonist who appeared in various animated series by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Dastardly's most famous appearances are in the series Wacky Races (his initial appearance) and its spinoff Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. The character was voiced originally by Paul Winchell, and currently by Jim Cummings or Jeff Bergman.
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[edit] Wacky Races
In Wacky Races, Dick Dastardly was one of the racers who competed in every episode for first place in a long and hazard-filled cross-country road rally. As his name implies, Dastardly aimed to win solely through cheating and trickery. His race car, named "The Mean Machine," featured all sorts of devious traps for him to use against his opponents. As Wacky Races is inspired by the film The Great Race, so was Dastardly derived from the film's chief villain, Professor Fate, played by Jack Lemmon. Dastardly in this series wore old-fashioned racer's gear — a long violet overcoat, long red gloves, and a large striped hat with driving goggles attached, and sporting a handlebar moustache.
Dastardly was aided in his schemes by his sidekick, a scruffy dog named Muttley who had a distinctive wheezy laugh, heard most often when Dastardly's schemes failed.
Despite Dastardly and Muttley's attempts, the "double-dealing do-badders", as the opening narration of Wacky Races describes them, failed to win a single race. Dastardly's plans were always foiled either by his or Muttley's incompetence, the actions of another racer, or sheer bad luck, resulting in Dastardly crossing the finish line last, if at all. Ironically, the one time he and Muttley did cross the finish line first, they were disqualified - an altered slow motion video revealed that he had just extended his car's "nose" to make viewers think he crossed the line first, even though similar things like shapeshifting cars, dragon flight and even cannon propelled turbo never prevented any other competitors from winning. Dastardly did, however, manage to cross the finish line in second-to-last place in a single episode, beating out Sergeant Blast.
One of the great ironies of the show was that if Dastardly had not bothered to cheat, often he would have won fairly. Upon tasting defeat, Dastardly would utter his catchphrase: "Drat, drat, and double drat!" and even "Triple drat!" His other main catchphrase was: "Muttley, do something!" Excluding Dastardly and Muttley, all of the other racers won at least one Wacky Race, although Dastardly and Muttley did come close once, only to pose for a photo finish, ending in fourth place, and he won a race, although he was unjustly disqualified for cheating (which is actually allowed, hence the name, Wacky Races).
[edit] Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines
Dick Dastardly continued his villainous career in the Wacky Races spinoff Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. The series was inspired by the 1965 film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and Dastardly's appearance this time was based on the film's villain, Sir Percival Ware-Armitage, played by Terry-Thomas. Dastardly and Muttley, as flying aces, with two other pilots, Zilly a coward who used to hide in his clothes when he was asked to go in his plane, and Klunk, the plane builder, who was speaking a language composed of strange sounds {only Zilly could understand him!}, composed the "Vulture Squadron", which tried constantly to stop a messenger pigeon "Yankee Doodle pigeon" from delivering messages to an opposing army, often with the song "Stop the Pigeon" playing; one typical scene shows the "Vulture Squadron" planes all convenging from different dirrections on "Yankee Doodle Pigeon" but end up crashing into one another-while the bird is unharmed! As in Wacky Races, Dastardly continued to fail miserably at his mission, only come near to success on a single occasion.
[edit] Other appearances
- In later years Dastardly and Muttley were the nemeses for Yogi Bear and his friends in the 1980s series Yogi's Treasure Hunt. This time, Dick repeatedly failed at discovering hidden treasure before Yogi and his team. It was in the this series' episode Yogi's Heroes that Dick's full name was revealed; as the leader of an island named Dicaragua, he introduced himself as Richard Milhous Dastardly (an obvious play on former U.S. President Richard Nixon).
- Dick Dastardly and Muttley were in the "Fender Bender 500" shorts on the early 1990s short-lived series Wake, Rattle, and Roll. In those segments, the duo once again appeared in a monster truck called the Dirty Truckster (a pun on ther phrase "dirty trickster"), but raced against such Hanna-Barbera stalwarts as Yogi Bear and Quick Draw McGraw.
- Dick Dastardly (alongside Muttley) also appeared as a teenager in the short-lived series Yo, Yogi! voiced by Rob Paulsen.
[edit] Dick Dastardly vs Dread Baron
In the TV series Laff-A-Lympics, there was a similar looking (and sounding) character to Dastardly named "The Dread Baron," voiced by John Stephenson. In fact, the similarity caused the translators in Brazil to mistake him for Dastardly. (In issue #12 of the Laff-A-Lympics comic book by Marvel Comics, Dread Baron and Dastardly are brothers.) The character's name is an obvious pun on the name of the infamous World War I fighter pilot, the Red Baron. In this series, the Dread Baron was seen wearing a World War I-era German fighter pilot's uniform. The Dread Baron was accompanied Mumbly, a dog that was similar to Muttley, with grey fur, and an orange trenchcoat. Mumbly actually had his own series in which he was a detective, and in a role-reversal, Mumbly acted as the team captain of the Really Rottens in Laugh a Lympics with Dread Baron and others serving as team members. The two later appeared in the made-for-TV movie Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose, where the Dread Baron and Mumbly are first seen in Dick Dastardly's plane from Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. In 2007 Dastardly makes a brief cameo as himself in a Cartoon Network commercial when - complete with a cartoon bomb - he is let into CN headquarters because he has the proper ID with him - beating out Yogi Bear who has forgotten his ID and can't get in! This is the only time Dastardly has ever "won" at anything in over forty years as a cartoon villain.
It is not certain why Dread Baron and especially Mumbly (who was a good guy in his original series) were used in roles that were identical to Dastardly and Muttley, especially for the Yogi Bear movie. Previously, it was assumed that Dread Baron was created as a substitute because Paul Winchell wasn't available for Laugh a Lympics where John Stephenson provided the Baron's voice. However, Winchell was available for the Yogi Bear TV movie, yet voiced the Dread Baron, not Dastardly. The situation may have concerned rights to the Dastardly and Muttley characters, suggesting that they were not fully owned by Hanna Barbera.
[edit] Proposed Appearances
Dastardly and Muttley were supposed to appear in the show The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, where they were to be the bodyguards of a younger brother of Penelope. Of course, this was in the first sketches of the series, and never make out in the final works.
[edit] Cultural references
- Dick Dastardly, Muttley, and the Mean Machine returned as a boss car in the Wacky Races video game voiced by Jim Cummings and Billy West.
- Universal Studios Florida formerly had a motion simulator ride titled The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera which was a tribute to Hanna-Barbara cartoons; Dastardly kidnaps Elroy Jetson, so Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo have to travel across the various worlds to rescue him.
- In 1994, British men's magazine Loaded nominated Dick Dastardly as one of the "Greatest Living Englishmen," despite the fact that the character is apparently not English (or living).
- An episode of the anime Digimon Frontier, entitled "The Great Trailmon Race" (a homage to Wacky Races), a ShadowWereGarurumon and his Dogmon sidekick attempted to undermine the other racers, as a reference to Dastardly and Muttley. On a related note, Dogmon's voice actor Michael Sorich made his laughter sound like Muttley's.
- In the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Dexter's Wacky Races", Mandark replaces Dick Dastardly and his car as the villain with his car "The Dark Man Special".
- Nintendo video game characters Wario and Waluigi bears a strong resemblance to Dick Dastardly.
- McLaren Formula 1 Team principal Ron Dennis and (now former) team driver David Coulthard were referred to as "Dick Dastardly and his sidekick Muttley," aided by Dennis' demeanor and Coulthard's haircut.
- Philip Reeve's 2005 children's novel 'Infernal Devices' refers briefly to a fictional organization called Richard D'Astardley's Flying Circus. This group is supposedly a rival to the Flying Ferrets, led by Orla Twombley, which is a team of daredevil aviators that flies a variety of strange flying machines in Reeve's 'retro futuristic' world.
[edit] Dick Dastardly in other languages
- Portuguese: In Portugal Dick Detestável in Brazil Dick Vigarista
- French: Satanas
- Romanian: Dick Dezastru
- Hungarian: Gézengúz Guszti (lit. Gustavus Rascal)
- Italian: Dick Dastardly
- Spanish: Pierre Nodoyuna ("Nodoyuna" doesn't exist as a name in Spanish, it's a joke on the Spanish idiom "no doy una" which roughly means "I fail miserably". Pierre is due to the French accent he had in this version.) Both in Wacky Races and Dick Dastardly and Muttley in Their flying Machines, he was voiced by Julio Lucena. In the new Spanish dub of Dick Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, Víctor Hugo Aguilar is the new voice of Dick Dastardly.
- Japanese: ブラック魔王 (Burakku Maō, "Black Demon King", or "King Black")
- Danish: Dan Døgenigt
- Swedish: Urban Usling, Baron Knäck, and others
- Catalan: Dick Destraler
- Polish: Dick Wredniak, Dick Dastardly
- Turkish: Hain Baron
- Dutch: Dick Draadnagel, Dick Dastardly
- German: Dick Heimtücke
