Lucky Luke: Daisy Town (originally titled simply Lucky Luke) is a 1971 French-Belgian Western animated film produced by the French branch of United Artists and Belvision. It is the first animation work to be based on the Lucky Luke comic books by Morris and René Goscinny. Morris and Goscinny themselves directed it, and Goscinny also co-wrote it with Pierre Tchernia. It was an original story not based off any comic book album, although it got its own adaptation in the comics canon in 1983.
When a caravan of pioneers find a daisy growing in the middle of the desert in The Wild West, they decide to stop there and found their town on this very spot. Houses soon get out of the ground, immediately followed by a bank, a saloon, a prison, etc... Thus Daisy Town is born. Unfortunately, the city also attracts criminals, and soon turns into a lawless place. Just when a lawman is needed, Lucky Luke, the cowboy who shoots faster than his own shadow, arrives in town.
The film was followed by Ballad of the Daltons in 1978. The 1991 Lucky Luke live-action film with Terence Hill borrows the town itself and plot points to Daisy Town.
Lucky Luke: Daisy Town provides examples of:
- All for Nothing: Lucky Luke does whatever he can to protect Daisy Town from bandits or Natives, but it all turns to ashes when gold is discovered nearby and everyone abandons Daisy Town for a gold rush.
- The Alcoholic: The very first customer of the saloon is visibly drunk, with a red nose.
- Bandito: Several are seen.
- In the parade of bad guys arriving to Daisy Town, there's a Mexican bandit wearing a sombrero and a bandolier (he's also his own Gratuitous Mariachi Band, with his donkey also vocalizing while he's at it).
- At least two other Mexicans with sombreros and bandoliers try to attack Luke during the Bar Brawl.
- One other tries to kill Luke after the Bar Brawl, with a throwing knife. Luke blasts the knife out of his hand.
- Bar Brawl:
- The very first saloon scene ends on one, triggered when it's found out everyone cheats at the card game.
- Another is triggered when Lucky Luke arrives at the saloon and shoots the beer he ordered after a jerkass took it from him and blew the beer foam in his face. He kicks much ass and ends up the last man standing.
- Bar Slide: The saloon's customers get their drinks this way. Somehow, the glass Luke orders seem somewhat sentient as it takes turns, avoids obstacles or jumps over them (or even splits in two and reassembles at that), all on its own.
- Boom Town: Daisy Town grows quite rapidly despite there being no apparent natural resource.
- Chandelier Swing: Luke swings on the saloon's chandelier to kick the saloon customers who attack him during the Bar Brawl and reach the saloon's first floor.
- Deadly Dodging: When the Bar Brawl involving him starts, Luke dodges a punch by the jerkass who provoked him, which ends up hitting a card cheater behind Luke instead.
- The Dreaded: The Dalton brothers scare everyone except Luke when they arrive in town.
- Exact Words: The very first customer of the saloon (the drunkard) asks for a "well struck" whiskey. He gets punched out of the saloon the next second and lands in the water trough.
- Five-Aces Cheater: In the first saloon scene, all players turn out to have four aces each (16 aces in total). A Bar Brawl ensues.
- Gargle Blaster: In the first saloon scene, one of the customers takes a single shot from a strong alcohol, has smoke coming out of his ears, spits fire, turns into a skeleton then takes off like a rocket. He lands safely on his feet moments later.
- Ghost Town: By the end, everyone leaves Daisy Town in a mad gold rush, and the town ends up abandoned.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: During the Bar Brawl that's triggered after Lucky Luke's arrival several bad guys order bottles of whiskey and break them on the bar to turn them into weapons... except the very short guy, who keeps trying and failing to break his bottle for the entire duration of the brawl, denting the bar quite deep after a while. When the brawl is over and Luke is the last man standing, he's still at it, and Luke ends the man's ordeal by breaking the bottle on his head, knocking him out.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Joe Dalton, out for revenge against Luke and Daisy Town, tries to provoke the Native tribe into attacking the town... by warning them of a future in which the railways have brought civilization across the plains, the buffaloes have been driven off, and the natives are reduced to selling souvenirs. The chief still makes the Daltons prisoners for their bounties, but he decides to attack the town to prevent said future.
- Lazy Mexican: As soon as the first half of the saloon is installed in Daisy Town, a Mexican starts sleeping against the wall. He won't get up until the very end of the film.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: When the city is at its worst with shootouts and fights all the time, citizens who don't take part to them hide in fear and close shutters... except, of course, Mathias Bones, the Undertaker, who rejoices for obvious reasons...
- Polka-Dot Paint: A Native American camouflaging his horse swipes his brush back and forth on the horse, and behold! the horse is coated in an elaborate landscape.
- Reused Character Design: One of the men trying to shoot at Luke and getting his gun blasted out of his hands looks exactly like Hank Bully, a recurring ally of Luke who was introduced in the 1967 album The Stagecoach (and also a case of Comic-Book Fantasy Casting with his face being based off actor Wallace Beery).
- Suspender Snag: During the Bar Brawl involving him, Luke grabs the suspenders of the jerkass who provoked him and punches him, sending him flying and hitting a wooden pole repeatedly with the suspenders acting like elastics. To cap it off as the jerkass grabs his gun, Luke uses the suspenders to catapult the saloon's cash register in his face.
- Women Prefer Strong Men: When Luke is the last man standing after KO-ing everyone who attacked him during the Bar Brawl that greeted his arrival, The Chanteuse brings him the beer he ordered and tells him she likes him.
- Wretched Hive: Shortly after its founding, Daisy Town becomes a lawless place where everyone fights each other. Luke's basically the town's only hope of restoring order.
