Dick Dastardly is a fictional character who appeared in various animated series by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Dastardly's most famous appearances are in the series Wacky Races and its spin-off Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines. He is essentially a caricature of the English actor Terry-Thomas, and of Professor Fate, a comic villain played by Jack Lemmon in the film The Great Race. 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.
History[]
A perpetual cheater and greedy schemer, Dastardly is always paired with sidekick Muttley. He debuted as the villain of Wacky Races, where his vehicle was the Mean Machine (Double Zero). He often resorted to many despicable tricks to win each race, but his schemes always backfired. In the debut episode, Dastardly lands in fourth place as he was seen taking a pose with his hat off when it shows in replay until the next episodes, he ends up being disqualified in first place and always in last place.
He later appeared in Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines, where Dastardly and Muttley led the Vulture Squadron with two other pilots: Zilly, a coward who used to hide in his clothes when he was ordered to deploy, and Klunk, the mechanic/inventor, who speaks a language composed of strange sounds that only Zilly can understand. The squadron constantly attempt to stop a messenger pigeon, Yankee Doodle Pigeon, from delivering messages to an opposing army.
The 1970s TV series Laff-a-Lympics had a near-clone of Dastardly named Dread Baron, voiced by John Stephenson. In fact, the similarity caused the translators in Brazil to mistake him for Dastardly. In this series, the Dread Baron was seen wearing a World War I-era German fighter pilot's uniform. The Dread Baron accompanied Mumbly, a dog that was very similar to Muttley, only 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 Laff-a-Lympics, with the Dread Baron and others serving as team members.
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 this series' episode "Yogi's Heroes" that Dick's full name was revealed; as the leader of an island nation named Dicaragua, he introduced himself as Richard Milhous Dastardly (an obvious play on former U.S. President Richard Nixon). Another episode, "The Greed Monster", shows that Dastardly and Muttley are the greediest creatures in the world.
Dick Dastardly and Muttley were in the "Fender Bender 500" shorts on the early 1990s short-lived series Wake, Rattle & Roll. In those segments, the duo once again appeared in a souped-up version of the Mean Machine as a monster truck called the Dirty Truckster (a pun on their phrase "dirty trickster"), but raced against such Hanna-Barbera stalwarts as Yogi Bear and Quick Draw McGraw. In one episode (the "Russian Around 500"), they were actually able to pull off a win when racing to Moscow's Red Square. Unfortunately, the prize was simply a red square of paper, and not the property deed to the Russian capitol as the title of 'red square' would imply. In another Fender Bender race (the "Hit 'n' Mississippi 500"), he plays on Yogi Bear's famous catchphrase of being "smarter than the average bear" by claiming to be "smarter than the average cheat".
Dick Dastardly (alongside Muttley) appeared as a teenager (known as Dickie) in the short-lived series Yo Yogi!, voiced by Rob Paulsen. In this series, he rides a bicycle that resembles the Mean Machine, and his outfit resembles that from Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines.
Appearances[]
- In Wacky Races, Dastardly was one of the drivers who competed in each episode 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.
- In the spin-off, Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines, the double-dealing do-badders became World War I-like pilots, accompanied by Zilly and Klunk in a neverending quest to stop Yankee Doodle Pigeon from delivering his messages.
- In their spin-off wardrobes and a new vehicle, the S.S Dirty Tricks, Dastardly and Muttley became the main enemies of Yogi Bear's company in Yogi's Treasure Hunt.
- The Wake, Rattle and Roll series featured a Wacky Races-themed cartoon racing series called "Fender Bender". Dastardly and Muttley drive an upgraded Mean Machine, while fulfilling the same roles from their original series.
- Dastardly's twin brother, the Dread Baron, and his dog Mumbly, who closely resembles Muttley, appear in Laff-A-Lympics because Hanna-Barbera wasn't sure it had the rights to use Dastardly and Muttley.
- In a popular live-action 2013 Peugeot commercial which did an homage to Wacky Races, Dastardly and Muttley were among the Wacky Racers that appeared.
- Dastardly appears as the main antagonist in the 2020 film Scoob!
Character Reflections[]
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 blue overcoat, long red gloves, and a large striped hat with driving goggles attached, and sported a handlebar mustache.
Tricks and Traps[]
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. On some occasions, Dastardly is very close to winning but will fail at the final hurdle either due to the other racers' intervention or even the finish banner itself.
If Dastardly had not bothered to cheat, he may have won fairly, as the Mean Machine was the fastest car, and his driving skill was superior to that of the other drivers. In Wacky Races Forever, when asked by Muttley why they always stopped to cheat, Dastardly answered that, as the villains, they absolutely had to.
Portrayals[]
Dick Dastardly was voiced originally by Paul Winchell in Wacky Races, Dastardly and Muttley and other cartoon series. Winchell's facial structures were caricatured in the related character design as well. He was later voiced by Rob Paulsen in Yo Yogi! and by Jim Cummings in Wacky Races Forever.
Chikao Ōtsuka was the voice of Dick Dastardly in Japanese from the original series and in all other media until his death in 2015. His son Akio Ōtsuka voiced Dastardly in the 2017 series.
In the 2013 Peugeot commercial, Dick Dastardly was portrayed by actor Porter Flynn.
Catchphrases[]
Upon tasting defeat, Dastardly would utter his catchphrase: "Drat, drat, and double drat!", "Triple drat!" and even "Curses, foiled again!" His other main catchphrase was "Muttley, do something!"
Trivia[]
- Excluding Dastardly and Muttley, all of the other racers won at least one Wacky Race. In one episode, they came extremely close to cross the finish line without cheating, but choose not to win that race and let the other racers finish before them. They want to win a race by cheating.
- On one occasion, in an episode which was voted the worst of the series, Dastardly actually won the race, but it was revealed he had cheated by extending the nose of his car (even though the actual finish shows no such cheating, implying that the judges possibly had the replay footage doctored due to prejudice against Dastardly. Although it should be noted that in the DVD release of this scene the photo finish was covered with smoke, thereby adding even more questions to this scene).
- Another time Dastardly has an opportunity to win legitimately, but stopped in front of the finish line to pose for his picture as it was a photo finish. Once he comes close to winning the race, but stopped to sign an autograph for Muttley, ending up in fourth place again
- One time he actaully won first place without cheating but was disqualifed because he accidently crossed the finish line in the wrong car!
- In a Cartoon Network spoof commerical Dick Dastardly actually beat Yogi Bear and was allowed to enter a studio because he was wearing an identification badge; Yogi for his part had accidently left his ID badge behind!
- In the Warrior Princess short, Dastardly is shown wearing his Wacky Races outfit while wearing his brown long cloak where he portrays as a sorcerer as the color scheme of his outfit is purple and red which is based from his military outfit in Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines.
- In the 2017 series episode "'Grandfather Knows Dast", it is revealed that the Dastardly from the original series is the grandfather of the 2017 version. It is also revealed that the original Dastardly went mad after his failed attempts to capture the pigeon.
- The main villain of The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Hooded Claw somehow knows Dastardly, since in the episode "Jungle Jeopardy" he mentions Dick Dastardly's name. Due to this, is implied that somehow Hooded Claw and Dick Dastardly know each other.
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