Film's Title (Year of Release)^{Director (see below)}

Short synopsis (or is that "short's synopsis?")

Cast (click here to learn about our new ongoing project, The Mel Blanc List)

Vintage Review (where available)

Critique

Video Release of the Cartoon (Video Studio, Video's Year of Release)

An ad appearing in the Bradford County Telegraph in Starke, FL on July 27, 1961.

Person to Bunny (1960)^FF

Cedric R. Burrows interviews Bugs from his rabbit hole, but Daffy and Elmer interrupt. Arthur Q. Bryan's final appearance as Elmer Fudd.

Mel Blanc: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck
Arthur Q. Bryan: Elmer Fudd
Daws Butler: Cedric R. Burrows

Critique
A sort of watered down version of This Is a Life?, lacking the energy or comedic punch of the former. The grand lead-up to Bugs's hole is a cute reveal, recalling a similar scene back in A Hare Grows in Manhattan. Daffy's jealousy is kept more or less in check this time out, as he really just wants to be on television, resulting in one of the more sympathetic portrayals of the duck in a while. The whole second half is just recycled footage and ideas, from Daffy's "Jeepers Creepers" tap-dance from Show Biz Bugs to the moldy All This and Rabbit Stew log gag, though the ending with Daffy's sudden stage fright is a charming surprise. This also serves as a bittersweet farewell to Arthur Q. Bryan, who passed away just ten months after recording his Elmer dialogue (and was already gone by the time the cartoon hit theaters). Unfortunately, it's not much of a performance; just a few rather generic lines in an uncomfortably raspy voice. Hal Smith would take over the role for two underwhelming cartoons and TV commercials, followed by a rather eerie silent appearance in Crows' Feat, but for all intents and purposes that was it. A sad send-off for such a viable major character.

A Night at the Movies 1960: Ocean's 11 (WHV, 1982)
Stars of Space Jam: Daffy Duck (WHV, 1996)
Stars of Space Jam boxed set (WHV, 1996)
Stars of Space Jam (WHV Japan Laserdisc, 1997)
Stars of Space Jam: Daffy Duck (WHV DVD, 2018)
Stars of Space Jam Collection Volume 1 (WHV DVD, 2019)
Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection - Limited Edition (WHV Blu-ray, 2020)

An ad appearing in the Anderson Herald in Anderson, IN on February 20, 1962.

The Abominable Snow Rabbit (1961)^CJ

Bugs and Daffy are burrowing to Palm Springs, but they end up in the Himalayas, where they meet a huge abominable snowman (Hugo), who is looking for a cute little rabbit to love.

Mel Blanc: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Hugo

Critique
Enjoyable Chuck Jones picture in the vein of his earlier Bugs-and-Daffy-travel cartoon, Ali Baba Bunny, while the pair's back-and-forth about who is and isn't a rabbit momentarily recalls the arguments from the "wabbit season trilogy." Daffy more or less steals the show with his reactions to being manhandled by Hugo, helped in large part by Mel Blanc's hysterical performance of such lines as the unbelievably reserved "You're hurting me. Put me down, please." Daffy gets in another choice one-liner later with "I'm not like other people. I can't stand pain. It hurts me," which is perhaps one of the wittiest things ever said in a Warner Bros. cartoon but would unfortunately also help cement the characterization of Daffy as a self-serving philosophical coward that Jones would later romanticize in writings and interviews. Hugo is a fun malice-free "villain" and the last of the Of Mice and Men Lenny archetypes that the studio had enjoyed using for decades. Master layout artist Maurice Noble starts receiving credit on Jones's cartoons as co-director, in part because Jones was busy co-producing The Bugs Bunny Show but also because as budgets and resources dwindled the visual design was becoming a more and more important factor in the success of the shorts. Speaking of longtime crew members, Abominable... marks the final story Tedd Pierce would supply for Chuck Jones, ending an off-and-on collaboration that lasted twenty-three years. It's also something of a last hurrah for Pierce at the studio--his name would appear on only a couple more unimpressive cartoons for the other units (including a very dubious credit on the Hippety Hopper cheater Freudy Cat) before leaving to work as a freelance writer to little success.

Looney Tunes After Dark (WHV Laserdisc, 1993)
Bugs & Friends (WHV Japan Laserdisc, 1998)
Bugs Bunny: Big Top Bunny (WHV, 1999)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Five (WHV DVD, 2007)
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection 5 (WHV DVD, 2007)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 1-6 boxed set (WHV DVD, 2011)
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Double Feature Vol. 2 (WHV DVD, 2014)
Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection (WHV DVD, 2020)

An ad appearing in The Winona Daily News in Winona, MN on April 7, 1963.

Daffy's Inn Trouble (1961)^RM

Porky's desert inn janitor Daffy is fed up with his job, so he decides to open up his own inn across the street. When Porky still gets more business, Daffy tries to get rid of the competition.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Bandit
Merrie Virginia: "Latin Quarter" Singer

Critique
It's been a while since we've had a good old fashioned Daffy and Porky cartoon that didn't hinge on some sort of genre or TV spoof, but unfortunately what we get leaves a lot to be desired. Fresh from a stint at Disney, newcomer Dave Detiege turns in his first Daffy story--he gets the basic characterizations of Daffy and Porky right, but it's the scenario and dynamic between the two characters that's an ill fit. Even in the earlier, zanier "Daffy irritates Porky" days of McKimson's shorts, the two were never depicted as rivals or competitors. This plays off almost like they wanted to do a version of the Bugs vs. Daffy formula but got cold feet at the last minute and swapped out Bugs. The questionable use of Porky isn't helped by an odd character design, with the once-youthful boy pig of old now sporting a tired, baggy-eyed look, mismatched with Mel Blanc giving an almost fatigued performance for the pig (and this was recorded before Blanc's car accident). There are faint sparks of originality present--such as Daffy's "Western spoken here" sign or his failed "Latin Quarter" number (where he not only starts dancing to the beat of the skipping record but then also gets hit by tomatoes in time, too)--but ultimately it's really nothing we haven't seen before and it hits all the expected beats, including Daffy sort of getting a comeuppance and Porky getting a happy ending (if only obliviously). The McKimson crew deserves credit for trying to scare up something original for Daffy, but the duck deserved better--meanwhile, this would be Porky's final speaking role until the DePatie-Freleng era.

Bugs & Friends (WHV Japan Laserdisc, 1998)

An ad appearing in The Winona Daily News in Winona, MN on October 21, 1962.

Quackodile Tears (1962)^AD

Henpecked Daffy is ordered by his wife to sit on their egg, but it gets mixed up in a nest of crocodile eggs. When the father croc thinks Daffy is an egg thief, the two chase after each other for the egg. Arthur Davis's final directorial work for Warner Bros.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, George Crocodile
June Foray: Daffy's Wife, Mrs. Crocodile

Critique
"Now pick up your face and sit on that egg!" Going in it feels like a garden-variety Warner Bros. cartoon of the early 1960s, but so very much is different. First up is that this is the first script by newbie Carl Kohler, who at Warner Bros. would perhaps earn greater notoriety for the other short he penned, Chuck Jones's hyper-stylized sci-fi epic Martian Through Georgia, but is likely best known altogether as co-creator of the hot-rod magazine CARtoons. Speaking of firsts and writers, this is also the first Daffy story by John Dunn, who would soon follow his fellow displaced Warner Bros. crewmates over to DePatie-Freleng and enjoy a long association there, eventually co-writing the duck's first movie Fantastic Island shortly before his death. But of course the biggest news is that this is the first Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Arthur Davis since 1949, doing a one-off production here with Friz Freleng's staff. Having already left Warner at this point after being denied a promised unit to direct the studio's animated TV commercials, Davis was working at various rivals such as Hanna-Barbera and Walter Lantz when an overworked Freleng asked him to helm this one as a favor. Davis would later tell Michael Barrier that his directing merely amounted to providing character layouts and briefly meeting with the animators--whether he was leaving out details or simply being modest is unknown, but the film does nevertheless have a very distinct Freleng vibe to it due to the crew. Having animated under Freleng himself for an entire decade, the director certainly knew the unit's aesthetic and tried to adhere to it, so the characters are missing that loose-limbed "gooey" look that was something of a trademark of Davis's 1940s shorts (and strangely, Daffy is missing his signature collar). In the end it doesn't look that much different from the other various Warner shorts of the era handled by the units' co-directors and animators--but there are flashes of visual flair that recall some of Davis's best and most beautiful animation (especially when it comes to the crocodiles, such as when the father first charges out of the lake at Daffy). The freewheeling Arthur Davis style of old is also hampered by dwindling budgets; the opening exposition-laden argument between Daffy and his wife takes place almost entirely off camera, though it's saved by the funny visual punchline of Daffy's rear being kicked high up his back. But once the central Daffy vs. crocodile conflict begins, the action moves at a rather brisk pace, and the nonstop back-and-forth nature of the gags foreshadows the eventual dynamics of the Pink Panther and Roland and Rattfink shorts by DePatie-Freleng (of which Davis would direct many)--and we even get a somewhat original, should-be-classic gag of Daffy's arm swimming between the croc's eyes, a goofy moment of comedy that harkens back to the Davis of old. And though funny, the ending is unsatisfying and even a little depressing--it tries to land the same punch as the classic mix-up ending in Freleng's excellent A Mouse Divided, but here with the actual baby characters involved it feels hollow. Unfortunately this was it for Arthur Davis during the classic era of Warner Bros. animation--a noble effort that makes one lament what we missed out on.

Looney Tunes Video Show #2 (WHV, 1982)
Looney Tunes Collector's Vault Volume 1 (WHV/Warner Archive Blu-ray, 2025)

An ad appearing in The Winona Daily News in Winona, MN on January 25, 1963.

Good Noose (1962)^RM

When Daffy is discovered stowing away on a ship, he talks the Charles Laughton-like captain to spare him from a hanging by promising him magic tricks.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Captain, Mr. Tristan, Islander

Critique
Disappointingly dreary cartoon that feels so much like a number of other, better shorts but does little to set it apart as something original. The main problem with the story from a comedic standpoint is that it can't decide which lane it wants to stay in. Sometimes the gags are "Daffy is a competent magician but Mr. Tristan keeps sabotaging his tricks," while other times they are "Daffy is an incompetent magician and Mr. Tristan keeps exposing him as a fraud." Ultimately we're left not knowing if we should feel sorry for Daffy or laugh at him, and Tristan isn't that impressive of a foil to make either option clear. The prime example of this ambiguity is the sequence where Daffy is trying to do an escape-artist trick. After bounding himself up and locking himself into a box, Daffy (naturally?) has trouble freeing himself, complete with "Days Later" transitions (which itself are odd to see in a Warner Bros. cartoon) and even a quick, genuinely funny bit where the captain and parrot briefly visit a native island. When Tristan finally frees Daffy, a gruesome-looking duck growls, "You switched boxes on me!"--but, did he? We didn't see Tristan go anywhere near Daffy when he was performing the trick, and he never made any indication that he knew how the trick worked. It's just vague and humorless. Leaning back on unoriginality, perhaps the funniest bit has Daffy performing a destroyed-watch trick with the captain's prized pocket watch a la Bugs's trick with Elmer's watch back in The Unruly Hare. Here the gag is extended with Daffy adding things like eggs and ketchup before smashing it to pieces, and the cuts back to the captain watching in nervous anguish are nice touches, but we know how it's going to end and the scene then just shrugs over to the next bit. Even the climax and final gag--complete with Daffy asking us, "What can you do for an encore?" after blowing up the ship--is just a watered down version of what was done back in Curtain Razor and Show Biz Bugs. What could have been a fun take on a classic comedy plot (staving off a due punishment) gets bogged down with an unclear direction and a severe lack of originality.

An ad appearing in The Escanaba Daily Press in Escanaba, MI on December 3, 1963.

Fast Buck Duck (1963)^RM

Daffy learns that a millionaire is looking to hire a boon companion, but the millionaire's bulldog Percy refuses to let Daffy on their property. Ted Bonnicksen co-directs, marking the animator's only directing credit.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Percy, Millionaire

Critique
Robert McKimson continues his streak of mostly serviceable Daffy cartoons with this effort, a sort of subtle rethinking of Chuck Jones's Daffy Dilly. Notably, this is the only McKimson cartoon to utilize a co-director, likely caused by his increased workload contributing to the ABC Bugs Bunny Show--unlike the many Jones and Friz Freleng shorts of the period that often had directing assistance, typically from the unit's layout men or top animators. Here the task goes to Ted Bonnicksen, who had been animating under both McKimson and Freleng for the past decade, and strangely he would never enjoy another directing credit for the rest of his career. Without knowing for sure how much Bonnicksen contributed, there is definitely a spark of finesse in the design unseen in the other McKimson productions. The story itself is just a standard "get past the guard" plot, but there is a distinct speediness to the proceedings that makes it feel a little different from the unit's other routine shorts of the era (again, it's unknown whether this was due to Bonnicksen). Surely the bits start to resemble blackout gags, and after a while it almost plays like a McKimson version of a Ralph Wolf/Sam Sheepdog cartoon. There is nothing especially original about any of the scenes, but to its credit the short at least commits to the gags: it's not enough for the dog to merely scare a bunch of cats and have them all fight on Daffy's head; Daffy has to also try to throw them into a lake and then, failing that, try to jump in himself, only to have the dog reappear and freak out the cats all over again. We kinda sorta get an expected "here we go again" ending but it feels earned--in this period a lot of the Warner Bros. cartoons were able to start strong and end strong; it was usually just the stuff in-between that felt like things were running out of gas.

An ad appearing in The Ottawa Herald in Ottawa, KS on August 13, 1964.

The Million Hare (1963)^RM

Daffy is in Bugs's rabbit hole watching the game show Beat Your Buddy, where they announce that Bugs and Daffy must race to the television studio for a prize of one million bucks.

Mel Blanc: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Beat Your Buddy Host

Critique
Robert McKimson's second and final face-off between Bugs and Daffy is slightly more tolerable and original than his previous People Are Bunny, and it's one of the more watchable McKimson shorts from this oddball era in the studio's history--but all that's still not saying much. It's still essentially a competition-race cartoon with typical traps and pratfalls, and the game-show trappings don't really add much to it--and of course, the major flaw in the short's premise is that the Beat Your Buddy game show makes two friends square off for a prize (not that crazy of an idea now in the days of reality TV), but almost all of the action between Bugs and Daffy takes place away from any television cameras, so what exactly is being broadcast? The pun surrounding the cartoon's final gag is a bit lame, but it gets saved by the subsequent (and more or less expected) twist and Daffy's resulting humiliation. Perhaps the funniest moments come not from the slapstick but rather from Bugs's quasi-meta jokes as Daffy falls victim to them, such as pondering while the duck plummets to the ground, "I wonder if Daffy will remember that he can fly."

Bugs & Friends (WHV Japan Laserdisc, 1998)
Looney Tunes the Collector's Edition: Cartoon Superstars (WHV/Columbia House, 2001)
Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection - Limited Edition (WHV Blu-ray, 2020)

An ad appearing in the Ogdensburg Journal in Ogdensburg, NY on January 15, 1965.

Aqua Duck (1963)^RM

Wandering and thirsty in the desert, Daffy comes across a large hunk of gold, but a local pack rat continues to offer Daffy water for the rock.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck

Critique
Disappointing cartoon that could have been so promising if produced at any other time in the studio's history. The "hero thirsty in the desert" plot is such a time-tested concept, but here it's executed in such a frustratingly weird way due to corners being cut and an unenthusiastic animation unit. Daffy's invisible heat delusions show the potential for this short, and if they were done right this could very well have turned into a brilliant character study along the lines of something like Duck Amuck, but at this point Daffy reacting to nothing (save for a cactus) makes it all look cheap and lazy. Mel Blanc was still in a full body cast when he recorded the dialogue, so Daffy's voice unfortunately has this nagging stuffy sound that has trouble delivering on some of the few genuinely funny lines ("Who needs water? With this, I could buy Lake Erie!") and even on the rare "woo-hoo-hoo" we get when the duck finally cracks up. The resolution and final line are pretty funny, and McKimson again is able to make Daffy something of a winner without betraying his "loser" persona, but ultimately this could have been so much better.

An ad appearing in The Chilliwack Progress in Chilliwack, BC on May 26, 1965.

The Iceman Ducketh (1964)

Impressed by the prices pelts are getting at a fur trader, Daffy goes rabbit hunting. Bugs isn't his only problem, as Daffy also faces a sudden winter and a few disturbed grizzly bears. The only Bugs cartoon directed by Chuck Jones animator Phil Monroe.

Mel Blanc: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Trapper, Henrique, Fur Trader

Critique
The plot makes little sense, smelling very much like the result of an edict to fill a quota for a Daffy cartoon this release season. Yeah, Daffy's motivated by greed, but after that conceit it just turns into a typical hunting cartoon, an idea which had worn out its welcome by 1964. The duck is beyond wasted here; there was no reason this couldn't have been Yosemite Sam or Blacque Jacque Shellacque or even a badly voiced Elmer at this point. Phil Monroe graduates from directing the studio's various commercials to taking over Chuck Jones's last couple of cartoons that were in the works when the latter was fired for moonlighting on the script for UPA's Gay Purr-ee. Monroe still has Maurice Noble and Jones's animators at his disposal, but the results leave a lot to be desired. Any subtle wordplay is gone, and Bugs's actions toward Daffy are without the smooth grace Jones would have given them. Much of the cartoon is awkwardly incoherent; Bugs knows Daffy is hunting him before the two even meet, etc. It makes the one or two good throwaway lines (Bugs's "I saw a guy do this in a toothpaste ad once") seem almost like non sequiturs. Chuck Jones lucked out by not having his name attached to this picture.

Bugs & Friends (WHV Japan Laserdisc, 1998)

An ad appearing in The Chilliwack Progress in Chilliwack, BC on April 27, 1966.

It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House (1965)^FF

When Sylvester has a nervous breakdown from chasing Speedy Gonzales, Granny hires exterminator Daffy to come in to trap the mouse. The first Daffy cartoon produced by DePatie-Freleng, the first of the illogical pairings of Daffy and Speedy, and the final theatrical Daffy short directed by Friz Freleng.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales
GeGe Pearson: Granny

Critique
And here we go. Wanting to bulk up the number of Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales cartoons to add to potential television packages, Warner Bros. tasked its new partner DePatie-Freleng Enterprises with creating a series of shorts starring both characters, feeling that would be the cheapest way to kill two birds with one stone. This certainly feels like a "pilot" film, not unlike how Friz Freleng would later helm the initial entries in DePatie-Freleng series like the Inspector and Ant and Aardvark before turning them over to other directors. (It should be noted that the 2020 remastered version of this cartoon outrageously edits out Freleng's director credit!) After a rather weak prologue with Sylvester, there is even an official hand-off of sorts between him and Daffy, signaling an end to the cat being Speedy's primary antagonist (even though he would still go on to co-star with the mouse in two further shorts, both directed by Freleng). The main problem here is that it's a stunningly boring cartoon, and the comic action is so listless and generic that one would have a hard time believing that this was the work of the same man who just a decade ago won an Oscar and set the tone for the entire Speedy Gonzales series. Granny's opening presence is strange and unnecessary, and though GeGe Pearson does an adequate job filling in for June Foray, her one good line ("I have a pest I want controlled") is still just a steal from Robot Rabbit. There are very minor sparks of silliness to indicate that a funny cartoon is trying to break free--Daffy adding a tiny candelabra to his dinner-table trap, Daffy's non sequitur references to "mother," and Speedy using a Daffy comic book to sic the robot onto the duck--but it's all buried in slow pacing and joyless action. The eventual Robert McKimson Daffy/Speedy shorts are all lousy in their own weird way, but there's just something so unwatchable about this one. Buckle in, folks, we're going for a ride.

Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles: Chuck Jones Collection (WHV DVD, 2012)
Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles: Chuck Jones Collection (WHV Blu-ray, 2012) (SD)

An ad appearing in The Chilliwack Progress in Chilliwack, BC on April 7, 1965.

Moby Duck (1965)^RM

Daffy and Speedy are starving and stranded on a desert island when a box of food washes up on shore. Daffy quickly takes possession of the box, only to find out that the food is all in cans...and guess who has a can opener? The only post-1964 Warner Bros. cartoon edited by Treg Brown.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Robinson Crusoe

Critique
We now begin the Daffy/Speedy series in earnest with Robert McKimson's first effort. It's not the unwatchable trainwreck that was It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House but it's still pretty lame, with its only saving grace being it has a decent plot to hang itself onto--a plot completely stolen from Friz Freleng's excellent Canned Feud, mind you, but still a good comedy plot. The heavy borrowing from the earlier film also leads to the curious fact that this one has no story credit (there are rumors about who wrote it, but nothing verifiable)--which is a shame because it does contain the occasional amusing throwaway line such as Daffy's "I wonder how prehistoric man used to open cans?" Speaking of weird credits, this also serves as the only Warner Bros. cartoon of the "modern" DePatie-Freleng/Seven Arts era to list Treg Brown among the staff. Strangely he's also credited on a pair of contemporary Pink Panther cartoons, making those his only other credited work for DePatie-Freleng. Considering around this time he was also doing post-production work on The Great Race for Panther creator Blake Edwards, maybe it's all connected--but unfortunately, there's nothing really significant about the sound design here, and most of the soundtrack is dominated by a very obnoxious "clanging" Bill Lava score. There is a fun back and forth in the beginning between Daffy and Speedy that kinda makes the argument against them being paired up in the first place ("Run? Big deal!"), but really the cartoon could have starred any two characters, and that's more or less what we're in for with this series. If anything, the idea of the duck and mouse being stranded together would lay the groundwork for probably their most beloved pairing in Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island.

An ad appearing in the Janesville Daily Gazette in Janesville, WI on January 5, 1966.

Assault and Peppered (1965)^RM

When evil landowner Daffy starts whipping the peasant mice on his property, Speedy arrives to challenge the duck to a cannonball duel.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, José, Speedy's Cousin, Starving Mice

Critique
It is here where the Daffy/Speedy series starts taking on a very specific formula, typically with Daffy as an abnormally cruel antagonist and Speedy making him out to be a fool. If anything, this dynamic turns Speedy into more of a defined comic hero (not that he wasn't already, but his motives in the past were often libido-based), but unfortunately it also makes Daffy a more rotten and unlikable character, even more so than when he was a jealous and greedy Bugs Bunny rival. This short's setup is pretty typical of those that will follow, although there are a few touches here that show more of an effort than in subsequent entries: namely Daffy's...well, name ("Don Daffy de la Scrooge del Meanie del Tora de la Quack, Jr.") and the duck's pretty fearsome, shadowy entrance complete with sinister laughter. We even get a bit of a throwback to the Speedy cartoons of old with a cousin promising that the mouse will help them and Daffy disbelieving him (with Daffy saying Speedy is just a myth...was that ever a thing?). But sadly, once we get to the actual "duel" it bogs down into a very routine cartoon, with the forts and canons and things making it come off like a cheap knock-off of Bunker Hill Bunny. There are a couple of brief, fun moments--Speedy eye-poking Daffy through his telescope, and Daffy nervously walking through his minefield--but it's nothing we haven't seen before and done better. Even a key action scene with Speedy leading a cannonball on a chase back to Daffy's fort feels tedious. What can be said is that Mel Blanc is in fine form, surprisingly giving perhaps his best performance as the mouse with a range that wasn't even seen back in the classic Friz Freleng shorts (from his indignant complaint of Daffy spying to his cool delivery on "Okay, Indian giver."). The conflict sort of ends abruptly with Speedy deciding to go home because it looks like rain, and it almost feels like we're getting the setup for some final gag (like, say, Daffy getting struck by lightning), but instead it just goes to the 21-gun salute gag. McKimson is still treating Daffy like a comic star by making him a loser even in victory, but soon such pretense will be dropped as the duck just becomes the series's outright villain.

Bugs & Friends (WHV Japan Laserdisc, 1998)

An ad appearing in the Janesville Daily Gazette in Janesville, WI on February 1, 1966.

Well Worn Daffy (1965)^RM

Speedy and his friends are wandering in the Sahara Desert dying of thirst. They come upon a well, but Daffy and his camel claim it as their own and try to keep the mice from it.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, José, Pedro, Camel

Critique
A very frustrating cartoon to watch due to a sadistic streak running throughout--not so much with Daffy (who is still very villainous here) but rather with the tone of the gags. In the classic Speedy shorts the mouse would still be able to succeed despite whatever traps the antagonist would set, allowing him to bring back whatever the target was (be it cheese, or a captured friend, or stolen money as recently as in Pancho's Hideaway); the humor often came from the ineptitude of the bad guy. Here we're presented with the inverse, with Speedy outwitting Daffy each time but still unable to deliver water to his friends due to some last-minute trip-up. It's not entertaining and it makes for a very tedious cartoon. Daffy's camel is easily the funniest thing in the entire film (if not the only funny thing), from his complaint about headaches while Daffy fires a rifle on top of his head to his obnoxious laughter after tripping Speedy. We're quickly getting out of the era where incidental characters in theatrical cartoons are anything more than just talking props, so enjoy little moments like this while they last.

Brainstorm (WHV/Warner Archive Blu-ray, 2025)

An ad appearing in The Maryville Daily Forum in Maryville, MO on October 27, 1966.

Suppressed Duck (1965)^RM

Daffy goes to a park to hunt for bears, but the forest ranger has set up a boundary line to protect them. So Daffy has to either sneak over the line and get in trouble with the ranger, or lure the bears over to him. The first of three non-Speedy "modern era" Daffy cartoons.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Bear, Forest Ranger

Critique
Now begins what is arguably the most fascinating part of DePatie-Freleng's time producing shorts for Warner Bros., a trio of Daffy Duck shorts without the inclusion of Speedy Gonzales. So little is known about what was going on behind the scenes during this era that it just leads to questions. Were these already in production before the Daffy/Speedy edict came from on high? Were these always written to be solo Daffy cartoons or to star other characters? Surely with its rather generic plot this one feels like it could have been crafted for any lead--Elmer, Yosemite Sam, heck even Foghorn. If anything these offer a glimpse as to what the DePatie-Freleng shorts could have looked like if they didn't have to grind out Daffy/Speedys or the Road Runners through Format Films: average, relatively harmless, but still mostly unnecessary product. It's a very paint-by-numbers hunting picture, with Daffy not really adding anything as the hunter other than his penchant for cheating (but again, that could have been applied to any character in this role). The funnier moments usually focus on the bear, such as his initial panicking about which side of the dividing line is theirs or his later employing of a computer to calculate where Daffy is digging underground to. But in the end it just doesn't need to be a Daffy cartoon--a duck threatening that he'll be eating bear fricassee for dinner just sounds weird--and the dusting off of Foghorn's classic "had my feathers numbered" gag isn't any kind of compensation. It also leads to a badly executed final line, with a bare-butt Daffy proclaiming "But you haven't seen the last of me" when it really should have been "you haven't seen the end of me" to be truly effective. Unfortunately, though, that's the era we're in: half-assed, both figuratively and literally!

Bugs & Friends (WHV Japan Laserdisc, 1998)

An ad appearing in The Chilliwack Progress in Chilliwack, BC on March 16, 1966.

Corn on the Cop (1965)

On Halloween, a supermarket burglar dresses up in an old lady's outfit, just as Granny is leaving the store with candy for trick-or-treaters. Sgt. Daffy O'Duck and his partner Porky confuse Granny with the robber and go after her instead. The only Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Irv Spector. Porky's first of only two appearances in a "modern era" cartoon, and his final speaking role during the original theatrical era.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Robber, Supermarket Cashier, Pirate Trick-or-Treater, Police Dispatch Sergeant, Officer Flaherty
Joanie Gerber: Granny/Mrs. Webster, Ghost Trick-or-Treater

Critique
Maybe the single oddest production in the DePatie-Freleng/Warner Bros. catalog. This marks the only Warner credit for Irv Spector, a very prolific artist who did a little bit of everything--newspaper cartoonist, freelance storyboard artist, and director at Famous Studios (where he had also written the cult classic La Petite Parade). Unfortunately, it's such an ill fit, with the director only barely having a handle on the established characters. Visually it's all over the map, with Daffy and Porky having an odd "generic" look to them and any original character sporting a chunky, Hanna-Barberaesque design. (Spector had such an unfamiliarity with the characters that he was handed a hodgepodge of old model sheets to work with, from a late '50s Freleng-unit sheet for Granny to an early 1950s-looking Porky sheet intended for the McKimson unit!) Perhaps sensing that they were throwing a new director into the deep end, the short's heaviest lifting is being done by Friz Freleng's story, which tries to craft a plot in the vein of the Jones/McKimson "Daffy as a genre hero" motif. But this is the cartoon's true fatal flaw, as Freleng never helmed a Daffy/Porky short in that style so he completely misses what made their dynamic in those films work. We get a few traces of an egotistical Daffy trying to get all the glory, but instead of a Porky serving as a Greek chorus like in the Jones shorts or an authoritative straight man in McKimson's, here we get a weird dopey sidekick Porky. It throws everything out of balance, and the gags that rely on the pig acting blissfully stupid are uncomfortable to watch--it's more Laurel and Hardy than Daffy and Porky. The best (worst?) example of this is a scene where our heroes are building a bridge from a construction site using planks of wood--Daffy asks for more boards, but before looking for them Porky starts removing the nails that are keeping the bridge in place, claiming, "One thing I can't stand is bad carpentry." It's such a strange, dumb gag and there's no way that was how it was originally written (the fact that Porky's mouth doesn't move during his comment suggests it might have been added later)--and if Porky was, say, getting more boards by removing the ones they've already laid down, well then it makes him even more stupid and unlikable. It's all the more frustrating because concept-wise this is perhaps the most refreshing cartoon of the DePatie-Freleng era: we get a silly crime story, another rare non-Tweety appearance from Granny (and yeah, according to the model sheets, it is supposed to be Granny), a few corny gags like the robber asking for his trading stamps, and the surprise return of Porky--this should have been the one to justify the glut of Daffy/Speedy pairings. But everything is just so awkwardly executed, and again most of the problems come from a lack of story structure. Ironically, Irv Spector would soon gain more noteworthy immortality thanks to Freleng's former Warner colleague Chuck Jones, who hired Spector to provide additional story material for How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Porky & Friends: Hilarious Ham (WHV DVD, 2012)
Family Multi-Feature: Looney Tunes Super Stars Vol. 2 (WHV DVD, 2017)

An ad appearing in The Chilliwack Progress in Chilliwack, BC on June 29, 1966.

Tease for Two (1965)^RM

Daffy is following a map promising gold, and it leads him to the Goofy Gophers' hole. The Gophers won't leave, so Daffy vows to "evict" them. The Gophers' final appearance and their only appearance in a '60s theatrical cartoon.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Mac, Tosh, Cosmonaut

Critique
Another interesting, even watchable, DePatie-Freleng cartoon that suggests that there could really have been some promise to their deal with Warner Bros. if they hadn't been saddled with the order to do Daffy/Speedy pairings. Like with Porky in Corn on the Cop, the unexpected return of the Goofy Gophers is such a nice surprise that one almost forgives the gimmick being used for such a mediocre plot. If anything, Daffy facing off against the Gophers is an inspired idea and the story at least fits this era's "Evil Greedy Daffy" well--thankfully we're not just getting some rip-off of a Donald Duck and Chip and Dale cartoon. Stan Freberg wasn't brought back to voice Tosh (whether due to budgets or other commitments), so Blanc handles both gophers, giving Tosh a sort of Marvin-like voice while Mac is more baritone than before (likely they simply forgot to speed up his voice). It's also perhaps the most subtle portrayal of the Gophers, whose overt politeness isn't really directed at each other apart from the occasional "May I?" and the like--thus preventing us from getting any good moments of comedic tension like in the earlier films where their polite back-and-forths would seemingly hinder their ability to escape some peril in time. Bill Lava, meanwhile, offers a charming score and in particular a cute little Irish-tinged theme for the Gophers--it's such a nice palate cleanser before we face a barrage of faux mariachi music in the upcoming Speedy shorts. The gags themselves aren't anything too unique, and we even get a repeat of the "gun magically coming out from behind" bit from A Star Is Bored, but there are moments here and there that stand out: Daffy mocking the Gophers and then stuffing them into a tin can is sadistically funny, while Daffy's mid-air meeting with a Russian cosmonaut (who even offers a polite "Dasvidaniya, Americanski!") is a rare extremely topical gag that still works. It's again just a real shame that there couldn't have been more cartoons like this in the DePatie-Freleng era, which as a whole gets derided for a very forced, very contrived character pairing. It would be fifteen years before Daffy would appear in another short without Speedy.

An ad appearing in the Alton Evening Telegraph in Alton, IL on November 11, 1967.

Chili Corn Corny (1965)^RM

Speedy helps his crow friend steal some corn from Daffy's cornfield, so the duck tries to get rid of the two.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Crow Relatives
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez: Loco Crow, Crow Relatives

Critique
At this point the Daffy/Speedy shorts begin falling into a very distinct formula, with a story usually whittled down into either one of two plots: some contrived circumstance entices Daffy to hunt Speedy for profit, or Daffy selfishly tries to keep something from Speedy. Here we have the latter with Daffy preventing Speedy and a crow from getting any corn, but this is really no different from the duck keeping water from the mouse in Well Worn Daffy, firewood in Snow Excuse, music in Go Go Amigo, etc. There are slight attempts to turn this into something more than just a "farmer chases away pests" type of story, all of which involve Daffy rather than the short's hero. All Speedy can muster is a forced, very watered down version of the Foghorn "I can step over the trap and nothing happens" bit (Speedy can kiss the corn and nothing happens?), while his crow friend is so bland as to practically be inconsequential. The funny parts are all window dressing: the trespassing sign that reads "violators will be shot and towed away," Daffy's rather sinister-looking scarecrow, and Daffy's sly demeanor while trying to entice the good guys to turn on each other. It all ends with a very unsatisfying resolution in which the crow turns heel, Speedy feels like a sap, and the crow potentially loses out on the corn after all--it's just a prime example of how frustratingly bad some of this era's shorts can be.

An ad appearing in the Buffalo Courier-Express in Buffalo, NY on April 27, 1966.

Go Go Amigo (1965)^RM

Speedy and his pals are having a party in the wall of Daffy's electronics store ("El Daffy's Radio & TV"), complete with dancing and music supplied by Daffy's stereos. The duck's not crazy about the freeloaders using his merchandise and attempts to stop the party one way or another.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Mouse Senorita, XYZ Radio Deejay, Mice Partygoers, Window Shoppers
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez: Mice Partygoers, Window Shoppers

Critique
"Hey duck, what you doing playing with dolls?"/"That's simple. Because I'm obviously stupid." The quick exchange is an isolated oasis of silliness in a desert of meanness. For a number of fans, this short is the point of no return, with Daffy no longer being merely petty or greedy and just becoming irredeemably evil. And it's really hard to make any kind of case to root for the duck; he's become Bluto without the fearsomeness or comic bluster. Unfortunately, Daffy isn't the only unpleasant character, as Speedy's own party guests--his supposed best buddies--are pretty fickle and keep hanging the threat of leaving over his head. There is a fun back and forth bit with Daffy turning the music off and on, resulting in off-screen cheering and groaning from the mice, but for the most part the gags are pretty routine--either Daffy sets a trap that backfires or the duck stops the music at some humiliating or painful cost (typically explosion-related). As bland of a hero as Speedy can be in these shorts, he at least provides what is arguably the cartoon's biggest laugh and most memorable moment: his frozen stance and "shocked" face as his gleeful dancing gets routinely interrupted by Bill Lava's brooding fake classical music, but even that is sullied by the fact that it's based on recycled animation from a better film (Freleng's Here Today, Gone Tamale). The whole thing ends with Daffy becoming a full-blown supervillain by holding the actual radio station hostage--the former troublemaker who was created for the purpose of bringing anarchy to everyday mundane situations is now one or two steps away from sabotaging a city's power grid out of spite. At this point it's getting harder and harder to think of this character as "Daffy" anymore.

An ad appearing in the Buffalo Courier-Express in Buffalo, NY on August 3, 1966.

The Astroduck (1966)^RM

Daffy buys a fixer-upper of a summer house, but Speedy is already living inside. Since Speedy won't leave, Daffy decides to force him out.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Real Estate Agent

Critique
If you squint real hard and tilt your head in a certain way, this can kinda sorta look like a rehash of the "one of us must go" type of plot like in The Fair Haired Hare, only without any wit, finesse, or Yosemite Sam's comic buffoonery. (Coincidentally, both films essentially share the same ending.) Instead it just boils down to another "Daffy tries to exterminate Speedy" cartoon, a genre that's (already) quickly wearing thin. The chase gags are nothing to write home about (Daffy gets it in the rear two scenes in a row, for example)--we even see a repeat of the "balloon explosion fake-out" bit from Mexicali Shmoes. Daffy's eerie, silent stare while Speedy is trying to reason with him is a neat visual, but that's all it is; there's no real payoff and it just leads to a lame shotgun gag. There's much of that in these shorts, some peripheral element that's more interesting than the central joke we're supposed to be paying attention to. Here again, Daffy gets poked with some nails and screams, and Speedy's only reaction is a calm, quiet "You say something?"--it's funnier than the slapstick that took more time to write and animate. If anything else notable could be said, it's the rare use of a cartoon's final line as its own title--Speedy's pun is in response to the climax of Daffy blasting his house into space, but for the six minutes preceding that moment the short's rather forced title just comes off as a weird non sequitur. (For a similar example, see the Three Stooges' Oil's Well That Ends Well.) Ironically, an actual outer space cartoon with Daffy and Speedy called The Astroduck might have actually been watchable!

Looney Tunes Video Show #4 (WHV Canada, 1988)

An ad appearing in The Edwardsville Intelligencer in Edwardsville, IL on October 3, 1967.

Mucho Locos (1966)^RM

Speedy uses a television to teach his little friend all about stupid ducks (Daffy) and smart mice (Speedy), thanks to (reanimated) clips from Robin Hood Daffy, Mexicali Shmoes, China Jones, and others. Porky's final appearance in a cartoon until 1979.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, José Mouse, Pelon, El Vulturo, Chased Mouse, José Cat, Manuel

Critique
One of the stranger cartoons of the DePatie-Freleng era. On the surface it's supposed to be a Daffy/Speedy cheater short, which in of itself is tolerable and the concept of using a TV to show clips isn't any worse than the framing devices in, say, His Hare Raising Tale or even McKimson's own Freudy Cat. But unlike traditional cheaters of old that utilized complete clips from previous films, here the "clips" are all reproduced using the original animation drawings (or were they rotoscoped?)--cels and backgrounds are newly painted, Mel Blanc re-records his original dialogue, and the segments are given a brand new score. The whole point of a cheater is for the studio to save money on new production, so it's hard to see where the savings lied when so much effort was made to recreate the sequences in question. And unfortunately, so little is known about what went on behind the scenes during this period that we're only left to speculate. Since they were nevertheless an independent contractor, was there some legal or contractual stipulation that prevented DePatie-Freleng from using the actual clips from Warner Bros. films? (Coincidentally or not, this was also around the time that DePatie-Freleng produced the two Adventures of the Road-Runner cut-downs, which were both shelved for a decade before turning up on television.) Regardless of the reasons why, the results are downright ugly. Every scene is recolored in murky browns, greens, and blues. The fluid animation from Chuck Jones's Robin Hood Daffy and Deduce, You Say comes off as choppy and ill-timed, foreshadowing the dreaded retraced colorized Porky cartoons from Korea. The new scores provided by sci-fi veteran Herman Stein are obnoxious and uninspired. (This was also Stein's only animation credit ever.) And even Mel Blanc doesn't offer much enthusiasm in his re-records, repeating himself by having a pained El Vulturo yelp out "Ho! Ha-ha!" with almost an identical read from Daffy's "buck-and-a-quarter-quarterstaff" showdown. We do get a genuinely funny end gag, giving Daffy a rare unquestionable win against Speedy, but there is a lot of crap to get through first. It is hands down one of the most visually unappealing cartoons in the entire Warner Bros. library.

An ad appearing in The Anniston Star in Anniston, AL on August 17, 1966.

Mexican Mousepiece (1966)^RM

In order to get rid of mice, Daffy plans to trick them into a crate and send them as a care package to starving cats. Speedy comes to the rescue.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Hungry Mice
Ralph James: Hungry Mice

Critique
After a seemingly endless glut of Daffy-chases-Speedy stories, McKimson finally gives us something that more closely resembles a classic Speedy Gonzales short with him saving friends a la The Pied Piper of Guadalupe, West of the Pesos, etc. It's arguably the best characterization for the mouse, as a noble hero using his speed for others. The only problem is that unless the gags themselves are funny or the director can keep the pace moving, it can also be a very boring idea. There is a fleeting moment in the middle where Speedy urges all of his freed pals to not fall for any more of Daffy's tricks, but naturally they all immediately get lured again by cheese. Speedy defeatedly shrugs and goes back to help them, and it feels like such a missed opportunity to do something inspired with the plot and have Speedy almost becoming reluctant to keep coming to the rescue--something silly, more along the lines of Tabasco Road. And as if the concept becomes tiring to even the writer and director themselves, the last third quickly switches to a couple "getting over a gap" blackout gags like in the Road Runner short Boulder Wham! The exhaustion of this series is becoming more and more apparent with each entry.

An ad appearing in The Anniston Star in Anniston, AL on September 7, 1966.

Daffy Rents (1966)^RM

When all of the cats of Mexico are in the hospital after chasing Speedy, Daffy's machine-rental company is hired. He sics a robot named Herman after the mouse.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Herman, Neurotic Cat, Stretcher Bearer
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez: Dr. Ben Crazy, Stretcher Bearer

Critique
The conceit to get Daffy and Speedy to square off is sort of a rethinking of It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House, complete with a cat nervous breakdown similar to (but funnier than) Sylvester's--and though Mel Blanc's performance as the initial cat patient is funny, it's only too bad we didn't in fact get a Sylvester cameo just yet. The cartoon does seem to be repeating some of the same beats as It's Nice..., particularly with Speedy turning Daffy's robotic help against him (and some of the back and forth between Daffy and Herman the robot seems to echo Sylvester and his robot back in Nuts and Volts). It's paced a little tighter and is a bit more watchable than Freleng's similar short, but there is a bit of a new mean streak throughout: the usually heroic or innocent Speedy shows up just to troll all the nervous cats, while much of the slapstick is amplified with oddly out-of-place bone-crunching and other painful sound effects. There are brief moments of frivolity, such as Daffy collecting his blown-off feathers into a pillow, but the overall nasty tone drowns it out. This is also something of a turning point in the series where a third party is more commonly present, either assisting one of the leads (such as here with Herman) or acting as a secondary antagonist. Speedy's cousin Ramon does make an effectively frightening entrance and Daffy's final word-salad of a last line is cute and earns a chuckle, but it's becoming clear that the formula is running out of ideas.

An ad appearing in The Maryville Daily Forum in Maryville, MO on May 18, 1967.

A-Haunting We Will Go (1966)^RM

Daffy's nephew is trick-or-treating and gets scared away by Witch Hazel. Daffy decides to visit the witch to show his nephew that she really is a nice lady, while Hazel has recruited Speedy to take her place while she goes on vacation. Witch Hazel's only appearance in a "modern era" cartoon. Uses a disturbing amount of animation from Chuck Jones's Broom-stick Bunny.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Daffy's Nephew
June Foray: Witch Hazel

Critique
Perhaps the most memorable of the Daffy/Speedy shorts, thanks to its later heavy use in 1977's Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special and perennial inclusions on Saturday morning come Halloweentime. It's also arguably the most entertaining in the series--the plot is nonsensical (and that's saying much for these shorts), but it is so illogical and twists itself into such a veritable pretzel knot that it nevertheless all works. (Speaking of the plot, it should be noted that there is no story credit here.) Daffy's unnamed nephew is sort of like Sylvester Jr. only without the guilt trips or hero worship, and it is actually a pity McKimson didn't continue the character past this short if for no other reason than to recreate the mentor/pupil dynamic he had with the cats. Both Witch Hazel and June Foray make welcomed returns (thus creating new character interactions with the duck and mouse never again explored), but unfortunately this is also where the film is at its weakest. The heavy use of Hazel animation recycled from Chuck Jones's Broom-stick Bunny does director McKimson no favors, as he has to awkwardly transition from the Jones unit's fluid 1950s animation to his own blocky, ultra-cheap work, resulting in some unintentionally ugly character design (while also turning the witch's typically green skin to more of a flesh tone, for some reason). The mining of elements from Broom-stick is so thorough that entire passages of dialogue are lifted, but even that gets reworked so ham-handedly that it doesn't quite land the same way (see Daffy's "she's not such a bad old lady" aside)--and even though he's fully costumed and masked, it is incredibly weird to see recycled Bugs Bunny animation in a DePatie-Freleng cartoon. For every brief moment that works, something else sticks out like a sore thumb: the bobby-pin gag returns whenever Witch Hazel speeds off camera, but elsewhere we also get a glaring animation flub via an invisible table edge from a Broom-stick Bunny shot. Speedy's monster-movie transformation into a witch is creepy and funny, but then the later handoff back is simply Hazel asking Speedy, "Do any business?"--was she running a shop?? The third act moves away from Broom-stick Bunny and starts retreading gags from another Jones short, Duck Amuck. In a way they do work and the return of "Screwball Thing Daffy" is a nice surprise, but again the transitions are very labored (though Thing Daffy offers a funny "angry" glare). It's certainly not a perfect film, but it's fun, something a number of this era's cartoons are sorely lacking.

4 Classic Cartoons (WHV DVD, 2005)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Four (WHV DVD, 2006)
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume One (WHV Blu-ray, 2011)
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume One: Ultimate Collector's Edition (WHV Blu-ray, 2011)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 1-6 boxed set (WHV DVD, 2011)
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume One (WHV DVD, 2012)
Best of WB 100: Looney Tunes Complete Platinum Collection (SDS DVD, 2023)

An ad appearing in The Maryville Daily Forum in Maryville, MO on February 1, 1967.

Snow Excuse (1966)^RM

During a snowstorm, Speedy is freezing and asks neighbor Daffy for a fireplace log. Daffy shoos him away and lives to regret it.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Mailman

Critique
"This is getting monotonous," Daffy grumbles at one point after sliding down the mountainside, and he's quite right. The Daffy/Speedy series has become so formulaic by now that not even a wintry landscape provides any unique inspiration. (While Bill Lava's typical faux-mariachi music playing over a snowman-themed title card is just strange and jarring. Coincidentally, this is also the final Warner Bros./DePatie-Freleng short to be scored by Lava.) There are very, very few cute touches here and there--such as Speedy's mouse-sized house complete with a postage stamp in place of a portrait--but it's just window dressing for a very routine plot. After a while it even becomes hard to sympathize with Speedy, who quickly goes from needing (stealing) one log to keep warm to needing (again, stealing) all of Daffy's logs; remember, he's the hero of these cartoons. There is one genuine laugh-out-loud moment when Daffy mistakes a mailman for Speedy and begins blasting at his feet, allowing for a wonderfully indignant look to the camera--but that's it. We get a rather weak "if you can't beat them, join them" ending that has faint echoes of that in Here Today, Gone Tamale, but it's rather unsatisfying considering Daffy has been put out for simply protecting what was unquestionably his in the first place. An all-around bad tone for a thoroughly bad short.

4 Classic Cartoons (WHV DVD, 2005)

An ad appearing in The Maryville Daily Forum in Maryville, MO on February 11, 1967.

A Squeak in the Deep (1966)^RM

Daffy and Speedy are competing in a boat race, and Daffy sabotages Speedy's craft. Speedy harasses the duck until he agrees to become partners.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Race Announcer

Critique
It's been a decade since Sid Marcus delivered a number of excellent mid-1950s scripts for McKimson like Dime to Retire, The Hole Idea, and Devil May Hare, and now he's reunited with the director after a stint working for Walter Lantz and Grantray-Lawrence. There's nothing revolutionary going on here--and certainly nothing of the same caliber of the pair's previous collaborations--and much of the humor swings back and forth between hacky (Daffy scaring random fish while underwater) and awkward (the entire butt-whacking scene). Where the cartoon works is in its atmosphere, from Walter Greene's light cabana-like score to the generally fun vibe of the nautical setting--it's leaps and bounds more cheerful and pleasing to the eyes and ears than the murky Mexican ghetto look in most of the Daffy/Speedy shorts. But unfortunately at its essence it's still just a cookie-cutter race/competition plot, one that doesn't quite fit the characters well and one that can't even really utilize the one character known for his speed. There are a few nice touches here and there--such as Daffy's "There's something there that appeals to my finer sensibilities: money!" and Speedy's charming singing of "Hula Lou," even while tying up the duck's foot--but it's a pretty paint-by-numbers conflict that could have used any two characters. Marcus's unfamiliarity with Speedy is pretty apparent throughout but most notably during the climax, where the mouse begins sadistically beating an incapacitated Daffy in the rear to negotiate a partnership. It's uncomfortable to watch and even from a plot perspective is unnecessary; keeping Daffy stuck in the porthole should be enough leverage for Speedy to get his way...and remember, Speedy's supposedly the hero of these cartoons. It's a very tone-deaf moment that makes a bland cartoon all the stranger to sit through.

An ad appearing in the Ames Daily Tribune in Ames, IA on October 5, 1966.

Feather Finger (1966)^RM

Beggar Daffy learns that a gunslinger is wanted for a bounty hunt, so he shows up as cowboy Feather Finger. Daffy is sent to go after Speedy.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Mayor Phur E. Katt

Critique
A novel approach that goes absolutely nowhere. Credit is certainly due for the attempt to take a western-gunslinger approach to an increasingly tiring series, but apart from some charming establishing moments (including the obligatory "population on town's welcome sign decreases after a gunshot noise" gag) once the setup is done it just gets bogged down into a very routine chase cartoon. (Ironically, this was a few years after Gene Deitch had done a slightly better job adapting a longtime cartoon series to the Old West with the Tom and Jerry entry Tall in the Trap, using a script by Tedd Pierce that was originally intended for Speedy and Sylvester!) It's always funny to see Daffy take on some sort of "heroic" persona (and it's unbelievable to think that Robin Hood Daffy was only eight years ago), but after the first gag he completely abandons his Feather Finger guise and it just becomes him setting up blackout traps Wile E. Coyote-style--even at their creative zenith the Daffy/Speedy shorts were never that generic. (We also get a variation of the Coyote paradox: Daffy can afford a gun, nitro glycerin, a giant mousetrap, a giant hunk of cheese, and a cannon but he's poor?) As if to punctuate how bland these scenes are, each explosion or mishap ends with Daffy grumbling a worn-out punchline like "I hate you," "This is getting monotonous," and even the return of "He's despicable." (Perhaps not surprising then that we also get an "It's a living" for the final line.) There are a few attempts to liven up the proceedings, but it's not much. Daffy literally blasts Speedy to "Smithereens, Mexico"; Speedy using the French greeting "Comment ça va?" on Daffy instead of, well, anything else; and the mayor calculating how much of Daffy's weekly salary was earned in just an hour and a half--gags that are actually new and clever, but just not all that funny. Very emblematic of the cartoon's general concept.

An ad appearing in The La Crosse Tribune in La Crosse, WI on August 13, 1967.

Swing Ding Amigo (1966)^RM

Daffy is trying to get some sleep, but underneath his apartment is Speedy's nightclub with the mouse on guitar all night.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Drunk-Driving Mouse, Drunk Mouse

Critique
A sort of spiritual successor to Go Go Amigo that's not quite a retread of the earlier film but really doesn't do anything that differently to make it stand out. There is so much going on in the opening scenes that we're almost led to believe that we're in for an abnormally entertaining short: Speedy's dancing patrons provide a couple of seconds of visually upbeat animation, and the mouse's drunken buddies liven up the setup so much that they almost make one wish we could have instead gotten a Daffy/Speedy version of Tabasco Road. But then it all just devolves into a typical "Daffy tries to trap/evict/deprive Speedy" plot. Even the usually unique Walter Greene score loses any inspiration after its opening quiet-Mexican-village music and nightclub rock and roll, as during the chase gags it becomes as distracting and literal as anything Bill Lava wrote for these cartoons. Once we get into the central conflict of the short everything becomes labored, with the "best" example being a needlessly extended scene in which Daffy drops a grenade into Speedy's club but it keeps getting returned to the duck regardless of where he hides, Droopy-style. It's long, it's unfunny, and it's the type of gag that had been done much better decades before. At this point the Daffy/Speedy cartoons are just blending together, and even the rare one or two funny lines--such as Speedy pleading with Daffy that "this nightclub is my bread and butter," only for Daffy to reply, "Eat cheese, ya rat!"--do little to make any of these stand out. We're not even allowed an original ending, as we just get a typical defeated Daffy doing an if-you-can't-beat-'em-join-'em gag. At this point DePatie-Freleng was nearing the end of their contract with Warner Bros., and with the bigger studio not looking to renew there was little incentive to try anything worthwhile with most of these remaining shorts.

An ad appearing in The Daily Illini in Champaign, IL on January 12, 1967.

A Taste of Catnip (1966)^RM

Daffy visits a shrink because he thinks he's becoming a cat, hence his strange appetite for neighbor Speedy. Sylvester makes a cameo appearance, making this his last cartoon until 1979.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Butch
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez: Dr. Mañuel Jose 'Olvera Sebastian Rudolfo Ortiz Pancho Jiminez Perez III

Critique
Arguably the most memorable and entertaining of the entire Daffy/Speedy series, and easily the one with the most creative spin on the awkward character pairing. Daffy's constant unnerved narration gives the story an eerie Twilight Zone/Outer Limits type of vibe, an infinitely refreshing change of pace from the typical hunter/chase/asshole type of plots we've been getting--dare say it even goes very far in redeeming a character who has been thoroughly unlikable the last couple of years (and also finally giving Mel Blanc something to actually work with). Speedy is more of a prop than a protagonist here, so he doesn't come off nearly as grating as he has been of late, while Daffy's visions of a rather happy-looking Gonzales served as various dishes offer some cute visuals. And of course, the Sylvester cameo is such a welcomed surprise that even if the rest of the short had been utterly bland it would have made the whole thing worth it. As a one-off short it would have been brilliant, on par with something like The High and the Flighty, but as just another entry in an already illogically unnecessary series, it could only shine so much. At the same time, it also would have served as an adequate farewell to both the Daffy/Speedy series and to DePatie-Freleng's tenure at Warner Bros.--if such an intention was even envisioned--but alas neither would be the case and we'd soon return to business as usual.

An ad appearing in the Buffalo Courier-Express in Buffalo, NY on August 30, 1967.

Daffy's Diner (1967)^RM

When a brutish cat discovers that the mouseburger he bought from Daffy's lunch stand has a rubber mouse in it, he threatens Daffy to find a real one, just as Speedy comes by. The final theatrical Warner Bros. short produced by DePatie-Freleng. Robert McKimson's final theatrical Daffy or Speedy cartoon.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, El Supremo, Garbageman

Critique
And DePatie-Freleng's time with Warner Bros. comes to a close, fulfilling their contractual commitment of thirty-nine cartoons (including the two Adventures of the Road-Runner cutdowns). Their finale isn't especially bad or particularly impressive--it's just ordinary, in many ways indistinguishable from the rest of their Warner output. Michael O'Connor provides his final script for a theatrical cartoon before moving over to television (primarily Filmation), and unfortunately whatever inspiration he used to come up with the preceding A Taste of Catnip isn't repeated here. If one looks at it a certain way the plot kinda sorta resembles a redo of Friz Freleng's Slick Hare, but ultimately it just comes off as yet another "Daffy chases Speedy" story. Like always, there are brief bits of silliness such as a trashcan-stuffed Daffy yelling at the garbageman, while Daffy dressing Speedy with a pepper-and-onion "sombrero" is a cute gag reminiscent of the type from Tweety and Sylvester shorts--nothing to really seek this one out for, but fun flashes to break up the dreariness. If any one thing does stand out, it's the number of asides that characters make to the audience--Daffy, Speedy, and even an enraged El Supremo suddenly calming down to confide in us, "He is lucky I don't get mad easy." Robert McKimson would later return to Warner Bros. cartoons under the Seven Arts management, but this was his swan song directing any of the classic characters in a theatrical film, including one he had actually created. The most encouraging thing that could be said about the director's time with this series is that he tried admirably despite economics, studio mandates, and a revolving door of crew members all working against him. These were assembly-line shorts in the coldest way possible, meant to be cranked out quickly for theaters and then shuffled off to television. The fact that we did get a few above-average entries like Catnip or A-Haunting We Will Go--not to mention Rushing Roulette with the Road Runner--speaks volumes to McKimson's ability to squeeze some small merit out of nothing.

An ad appearing in The Chilliwack Progress in Chilliwack, BC on July 10, 1968.

Quacker Tracker (1967)^RL

In order to obtain a membership into the Tooth & Nail Hunting Society, janitor Daffy must go after the club's most elusive target, Speedy. The first of three cartoons farmed out to Format Films while Warner Bros. was setting up a new animation studio of its own.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Tooth & Nail Hunting Society Chairman, Injured Hunter, Mice Amigos

Critique
Not even four years after they shut the whole thing down, in May 1966 Warner Bros. came to the decision to reopen its own in-house animation studio. The initial plan was to acquire and absorb DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, but that would have required the independent studio to give up on any of its lucrative TV work and its homegrown--and infinitely more successful--Pink Panther shorts for United Artists. So this left Warners having to rebuild its team from the ground up, with documentary filmmaker William Hendricks coming in as new producer. In the meantime, though, Warner Bros. still had a release schedule to maintain, so Herbert Klynn's Format Films was hired to provide three pictures in the intermin, having just delivered eleven low-budget Road Runner entries by former Chuck Jones animator Rudy Larriva. The director uses much of the same crew he utilized for the Road Runners--including writers Tom Dagenais and Don Jurwich and such ex-Warner animators as Bob Bransford and the legendary Virgil Ross--and ironically the results are more effective here than they were for that entire series. Not that this is a good cartoon by any means, but it blends in much better with the Daffy-and-Speedys that came before it (which perhaps speaks less of Larriva's skill and more of how generic the Warner Bros. shorts were becoming). And as if to underscore how little things have changed, we even kick things off with another hyperactive Bill Lava mariachi score under the title card. (In all fairness, Lava is only credited with "music supervision" here, with the actual "music" credit going to Frank Perkins, who incidentally provided the score to the final project of the original Warner cartoon studio, The Incredible Mr. Limpet.) Story-wise it's the most ordinary of the three Larrivas, falling back on a paint-by-numbers "Daffy hunts Speedy for x reason" plot. The lazier gaps in logic to the actual gags--such as why Daffy's snare trap doesn't go off or why the mouse grenade would be attracted to the duck--are in part balanced by some cute peripheral humor like the scoreboard inside Speedy's mousehole and Daffy trying to convince the grenade that a relationship would never work out. A scene like the giant enchilada trap is at least original and suggests that there are a few sparks of irreverence in the writing (although arguably Speedy straight up shooting Daffy in the eye might be a bridge too far), but unfortunately the short as a whole just gets muddied with a severe lack of artistic finesse. This is apparent right at the start where some nice poses and facial expressions of Daffy bragging about his hunting prowess sit uncomfortably next to the club chairman staring blankly into space while describing their prized target. The only truly positive thing that can be said is that unlike the eleven Road Runner shorts, we only have three Daffys by Larriva to sit through.

Looney Tunes Video Show #3 (WHV, 1982)

An ad appearing in The La Crosse Tribune in La Crosse, WI on January 23, 1968.

The Music Mice-tro (1967)^RL

Vacationing movie star Daffy is looking for some peace and quiet, but Speedy and his pals think he's the ticket to their band's big break.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Miguel, Mouse Bongo Player

Critique
Perhaps the most frustrating of the three Rudy Larriva Daffy shorts, one that has trouble picking a lane and staying in it. Coming in to co-write with Tom Dagenais is legendary Termite Terrace gagman and oh-so-brief director Cal Howard, earning his first screen credit on a Warner short in sixteen years and serving as the chief writer for the reopened animation studio until its closure in 1969. Unfortunately for the brain that helped concoct the likes of Canned Feud and Rabbit Every Monday, Howard has only a tenuous grasp on either Daffy or Speedy, going for a weird Dennis the Menace/Mr. Wilson vibe than the established duck-versus-mouse dynamic. It's all the more frustrating because a plot where Speedy innocently keeps blundering attempts to butter up Daffy for his band would be genuinely unique for this series, but instead we cut to Speedy making wisecracks or goading the duck whenever he gets injured, making the mouse extremely hard to sympathize with (remember, he's the hero of these shorts). If there are any bright spots in this mess then they all come from Daffy, whose nervous-wreck characterization is a refreshing change of pace from either the greedy or grouchy modes we've been getting lately. There's also a moment where the duck gets frustrated with a Mexican-jumping-bean-filled golf ball, and it's enough to make one imagine a scenario with one of these later studios taking a risk and trying something more akin to the Disney Goofy sports cartoons as opposed to just more ham-handed clashes with Speedy. But every glimpse of some new idea is undercut with retreads of bits done much better elsewhere like an "instant replay" of Daffy crashing his golf cart that just simply reuses the animation (at least the original gag done back in Tabasco Road was because Speedy was too fast for us to see, not simply because we wanted to see the villain in pain again) or the "climax" that just amounts to Speedy's band showing in random places a la Droopy. All of it is just a six-minute-long missed opportunity.

An ad appearing in The Chilliwack Progress in Chilliwack, BC on May 28, 1969.

The Spy Swatter (1967)^RL

Speedy is in charge of guarding the formula for strength-enhancing cheese, and secret agent Daffy is sent to steal it from him. Sylvester's occasional feline nemesis Sam appears as Daffy's boss.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Mouse Professor, Hugo the Robot, Mr. Brain

Critique
An unsatisfyingly lazy cartoon, one that took one of the most prevalent pop culture influences at the time and couldn't come up with anything more inspired than blackout chase gags. The fundamental problem here is that despite the spy motif, most of the setups are very close to just repeats of things we've seen before: the spy car booby-traps seem like leftovers from Sugar and Spies, while Speedy changing the mouse-tracking missile to a duck-tracking one is almost directly lifted from It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House. Even when there is a genuinely unique and mildly entertaining idea--such as Daffy's gun glove that he ends up shooting himself in the head with--one isn't sure whether to chalk it up to actual creativity or desperation to come up with something utilizing as little art and animation as possible. Surprisingly, one bright spot comes from William Lava's cool spy score, one that's more restrained and well-crafted than what Walter Greene offered back in Sugar and Spies (we even get to hear "42nd Street" under the establishing shot of the city!). But such elements do little to detract from the fact that it's still a very thinly written, very cheap-looking cartoon. Notably, this marks Rudy Larriva's final directing credit on a theatrically released production, after which he would soon migrate over to television full time and direct Saturday morning fare for Filmation and Ruby-Spears such as U.S. of Archie and the Mister T cartoon. Even the worst of the Looney Tunes directors deserved a better legacy.

An ad appearing in the Clovis News-Journal in Clovis, NM on February 28, 1968.

Speedy Ghost to Town (1967)^AL

Speedy and his friend arrive in a ghost town to get Speedy's secret stash, with Daffy close behind thinking the mice are hiding gold. The first Warner Bros. cartoon from its newly reopened animation department headed by William Hendricks, and the first one directed by Alex Lovy.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Miguel

Critique
Here we go, folks, the home stretch. After a handful of years being farmed out elsewhere, Warner Bros. cartoons are once again being produced in-house by the studio itself. In charge of the new operations is documentarian William L. Hendricks, who had previously served as head of Warner's publicity department but is perhaps better known today as founder of the Toys for Tots charity organization. His appointment as producer was likely due to the fact that the cartoon department was managed under the auspices of Warner's division that also handled commercials and particularly industrial films such as Hendricks's own Oscar-winning A Force in Readiness, so his new role was more just an additional title to his current position than out of any love or even knowledge of the art form. (Sure enough, one of the more-obscure works animated by the new studio would be an industrial PSA short for Lockheed, The Effects of Drugs.) On the creative side of things, Alex Lovy leads the new crew as director, fresh off a stint at Hanna-Barbera and having previously directed for Walter Lantz and Screen Gems. The animators themselves are all of a respectable pedigree--former McKimson artist Ted Bonnicksen, Lantz and DePatie-Freleng veteran Laverne Harding, Disney workhorse Volus Jones, and UPA's Ed Solomon--and with only a couple of exceptions would work on every one of the new studio's films until the bitter end in 1969. And yet, despite such genuine talent behind the scenes, what we get is a very weak, very cookie-cutter type of cartoon, hardly anything to kick off a brand new studio with. Any distinctive character traits the duck or mouse might have maintained during the DePatie-Freleng era have all but vanished, with Daffy now just being portrayed as a full-blown villain and Speedy as merely a slowly(!) moving target (Daffy's intro in this film depicts him hiding behind a boulder atop a cliff, for some reason). The lack of personality in the story or character dynamic is matched with a thoroughly generic design throughout, apart from someone (either Lovy or Bonnicksen) giving Daffy a very weird beetle-browed look. Any of the "slapstick" present in the gags is more painful than comical, some bits go on much longer than necessary (particularly Daffy with the bull head on), and the ending's climactic revelation is not so much bad or unfunny as it's just unoriginal to anyone who had watched an animated cartoon at any point during the last four decades. When arguably the funniest gag is a comment on the difficulty of glass ketchup bottles, you know you're in for a rough ride.

An ad appearing in the Buffalo Courier-Express in Buffalo, NY on October 13, 1967.

Rodent to Stardom (1967)^AL

In this remake of A Star Is Bored, Daffy is hired to appear in the movie Nursery Rhyme Revue, albeit only as Speedy's stunt double.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Harvey Hasenpfeffer, Assistant Director, Ducky Lamour

Critique
Only the second film from the new cartoon studio and we're already getting recycled classic plots, which wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that the same antagonist was used better and funnier the last time it was done. A great deal of creative acrobatics are present to try to fit the story into the Daffy/Speedy formula (Speedy's a movie star now?), but the specter of the funnier and more natural Bugs-and-Daffy dynamic of the original is simply too great to make this retread stand on any merits of its own (even giving the director the rabbit-oriented name of "Hasenpfeffer" reinforces the Bugs influence). Once we do get into the meat of the story, the execution is crippled by an oddly frantic pace--lots of characters zipping back and forth (but, ironically, not Speedy), Daffy tossing Speedy out of frame, etc. (Including the obligatory run-and-smack make-up artist; they couldn't even get the original's "MAKE UP!" gag right!) Despite the derivative nature of the film, Daffy does get one or two very fleeting moments to shine, primarily due to some good posing and facial expressions while he's scheming but also the genuinely funny gag of the duck trapping Speedy inside a book and rushing to a library across town to place it onto a shelf. But unfortunately the rest of the cartoon is predictably paint-by-numbers, even swapping out A Star Is Bored's more-sinister final gag with a milquetoast "turnabout is fair play" type of ending. This was a cartoon that practically wrote itself and they still couldn't do it any justice.

An ad appearing in the Buffalo Courier-Express in Buffalo, NY on November 24, 1967.

Go Away Stowaway (1967)^AL

Desperate to get away from singing Speedy, Daffy goes on a cruise. But Speedy has sneaked into Daffy's suitcase.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales

Critique
A very off-putting cartoon, primarily because of how nasty our supposed hero is portrayed. Say what one will about Freleng and McKimson's Speedy shorts for DePatie-Freleng, they at least had a handle on the character. But here under director Alex Lovy and writer Cal Howard--both still relatively new to the mouse--he's a conniving sneak. Speedy tricking Daffy into going on the cruise already leaves a bad taste in one's mouth, but then later he tricks Daffy into being seasick so he can eat his meal. (What, is he Dennis the Menace now?) Once we get to the main setting of the ship, it just becomes a standard chase cartoon pretty quickly, with Daffy becoming his usual unpleasant self. (Why is Daffy even chasing him in the first place? Sending the ship's staff out to do it while he orders and irritates them in a Greek-chorus sort of way would have been a funnier change of pace.) One or two moments are good for a chuckle, such as the ship-appropriate gag of Speedy hitting Daffy with a shuffleboard disc, but for the majority of it there's nothing we haven't seen before. This would arguably be the final entry in the series relying on the "Daffy wants to chase/kill/eat Speedy" trope, with the remaining films instead doing slight twists on the formula. It was clear from this one that something needed to change.

An ad appearing in the Traverse City Record-Eagle in Traverse City, MI on July 22, 1968.

Fiesta Fiasco (1967)^AL

Daffy hears that the mice are planning a party, and that they don't want him to know about it. So Daffy creates a raincloud to spoil the festivities.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Pancho, Rodolfo, Pedro, Watermelon Mouse, Party-Ready Mouse

Critique
Somewhat different but terribly bland. With the series again showing signs of formula fatigue, protagonist Speedy only appears at the beginning and end of the cartoon. The bulk of the action is Daffy fighting with the raincloud in a vague Wile E. Coyote sort of way (an allusion only heightened at one point by the duck suffering from a desert cliff fall). The gags themselves are all done in a very weak blackout style, though one slightly clever bit plays with the physics of how one would be able to "catch" a gas with a butterfly net--but the whole thing is just hanging on a thin stretch of logic: why would Daffy even care that he wasn't invited to what appeared to be an all-rodent party anyway? The relatively best moments are all peripheral, such as the little kid mouse jumping on Pedro's stomach to inflate the balloons or Daffy uttering out "Suffering succotash!" at the climax--but it's all more cute than funny. Even a somewhat satisfying ending can't do much; it's all just so tedious and dumb.

An ad appearing in the Traverse City Record-Eagle in Traverse City, MI on September 27, 1968.

Skyscraper Caper (1968)^AL

While sleepwalking, Daffy wanders onto a construction site, with Speedy after him hoping to wake him up.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Ice Cream Man

Critique
Arguably the most memorable of the Seven Arts Daffy/Speedy shorts due to the pair being friends at the start, and even that's a little arguable. They're not bitter enemies here, but they're not exactly best chums either; Speedy again comes off as a little too conniving here by trying to take advantage of Daffy. It comes off more as if Lovy and company were trying to turn the duo into a lukewarm Tom and Jerry knock-off (which would be ironic considering who had just finished producing those cartoons over at MGM). The central story involves Daffy facing a number of perils around a construction site, over three decades after the brilliant Fleischer cartoon A Dream Walking essentially created the genre and long after nearly every other studio (including Warner Bros.) had already done their own versions of the trope. But even the reliance on a time-tested cartoon plot is bungled by its execution. The grace and humor of those types of cartoons are from the unending movement of the inebriated/dazed/asleep character; here, Daffy sleepwalks to the end of a metal beam and just stops before it gets lifted up. We thankfully have little time to endure such a mishandled premise because after another potential trap, Daffy just wakes up and is subjected to witless, more-direct abuse (strangled in a noose, pummeled by the hands of a clock, etc.). Even the "was it all a dream?" exchange at the end feels clumsy. Again, this is a pretty standard cartoon plot, and it's frustrating to see it done so ham-handedly not by a bunch of novices but by industry veterans who had been making theatrical cartoons for decades. Fortunately for them, Daffy and Speedy won't have to suffer much longer.

An ad appearing in The Chilliwack Progress in Chilliwack, BC on April 29, 1970.

See Ya Later, Gladiator (1968)^AL

Daffy is a scientist's assistant who is annoyed by Speedy's band, so Daffy tricks Speedy into entering the scientist's time machine. Daffy accidentally sends them both to the time of Nero, who watches as they get thrown to the lions. The last theatrical Speedy cartoon.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Scientist, Fathead, Nero, Lion

Critique
And here we are, the final Daffy Duck cartoon and the final Speedy Gonzales cartoon of the classic theatrical era. And how does the studio end a character series that started with a simple hunting picture thirty-one years ago? Why, with a time travel story, of course! Any two random characters could have starred in this cartoon other than the duck and mouse, and most likely that was the intention. It was around this time that the cartoon studio drew up a pitch for a new series of shorts about a pair of time-traveling human adventurers, and the first proposed plot mentioned meeting Emperor Nero in Rome, so it's possible that when that pitch failed to generate any interest the story simply got recycled here--but with so little concrete background material from this era surviving, that is merely speculation. (Another cartoon that was in pre-production would have had Daffy and Speedy meet a new leprechaun character, who would have been spun off into a series of his own.) Even apart from the concept, it's just a boring cartoon--the only debatable laugh comes from Speedy blowing Daffy's alibi with the insulted Roman: "I Speedy Gonzales. He's Fathead." Ultimately the cartoon is a victim of its era: there's no difference between the crappy Bill Lava mariachi score running throughout and the supposed "annoying" music provided by Speedy's band, while a lion that a decade ago would have been depicted as relatively realistic and fearsome is now an odd biped running around in a frantic leg-spinning manner a la Cool Cat. Miraculously, Daffy and Speedy would have one final, arguably much better theatrical adventure in 1983 with Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island, but mercifully the most illogical, unfunny series of Warner Bros. cartoon shorts has now come to an end.

A TV listings blurb appearing in The Tacoma News Tribune in Tacoma, WA on April 14, 1981, specifically highlighting this short from the Daffy Duck's Easter Show special.

The Yolks on You (1980)^FF

Miss Prissy accidentally lays a golden egg and gets rid of it in fear of being fired by Foghorn Leghorn. The egg winds up in the possession of hobos Daffy and Sylvester, who each try to get rid of the other. The first of three cartoons produced for the TV special Daffy Duck's Easter Show (aka Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-citement).

CREDITS NOTE: Friz Freleng is credited with directing the entire Easter special in its opening title sequence, with Tony Benedict, Gerry Chiniquy, Arthur Davis, and Dave Detiege listed as "sequence directors" during the end credits. However, when the three individual shorts were later distributed to television packages with unique title sequences, Freleng was no longer credited and the other four were now listed as the primary directors. For the purposes of this guide Freleng will be noted as the sole director.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Sylvester, Foghorn Leghorn
Nancy Wible: Miss Prissy, Overworked Hen

Critique
Seeing the success CBS was having with its various Bugs Bunny prime time specials, NBC decided to get into the act, using the more-limited batch of characters appearing on its Saturday morning Daffy Duck Show. Warner Bros., still in the process of reopening an in-studio animation department of its own, hired old standbys DePatie-Freleng to produce this first special, repeating the "three all-new cartoons" formula that worked so well the year before with CBS's Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales. All three of the cartoons in the special suffer from a severe lack of energy and visual flair, but this first one is arguably the most tolerable. Despite having the faint smell of a choice made out of desperation, the pairing of Daffy and Sylvester is both bizarre and inspired, creating a dynamic that maybe isn't a perfect fit but is at least entertaining to watch--though in all fairness, Sylvester does get the shorter end of the stick as far as any real characterization, even though the back-and-forth conflict is very reminiscent of such classic shorts with the cat such as Mouse and Garden. (Ironically, the opening sequence with actual established co-stars Foghorn and Miss Prissy quickly grows tedious and almost completely unnecessary.) Perhaps lending to the utilization of a variety of sequence directors (see above), the overall style comes off as very inconsistent, with only Harper MacKay's pedestrian "whimsical" music tying it all together. Expectedly, the one truly hilarious and gorgeous scene belongs to Art Davis, with the duck and cat attacking each other from opposite sides of a fence, containing everything from a funny play on words to Daffy comically overreacting to some well-timed slapstick. The rest of the short never comes close to matching this level of comic fun, and when it tries to go in the other direction with Daffy acting all paranoid in the back of a taxi, the gags feel labored and the timing forced. It's just a very stiff Looney Tunes cartoon, and unfortunately this is as good as it's going to get with this special.

VIDEO RELEASES NOTE: This short did not originally feature a title sequence in the TV special, but one was later added when it was distributed to television on its own. The videos listed below include the cartoon as it was originally seen, without a title.

Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-citement (WHV, 1992)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Six (WHV DVD, 2008)
The Essential Daffy Duck (WHV DVD, 2011)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 1-6 boxed set (WHV DVD, 2011)

A TV listings blurb appearing in the Lexington Leader in Lexington, KY on April 14, 1981, specifically highlighting this short from the Daffy Duck's Easter Show special.

The Chocolate Chase (1980)^FF

In the second cartoon produced for the TV special Daffy Duck's Easter Show, Speedy is asked to help a town get its chocolate bunnies from a factory, but he must get past guard Daffy.

CREDITS NOTE: Friz Freleng is credited with directing the entire Easter special in its opening title sequence, with Tony Benedict, Gerry Chiniquy, Arthur Davis, and Dave Detiege listed as "sequence directors" during the end credits. However, when the three individual shorts were later distributed to television packages with unique title sequences, Freleng was no longer credited and the other four were now listed as the primary directors. For the purposes of this guide Freleng will be noted as the sole director.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Chocolato Factory Owner, Father Mouse, Senor Mayor, Speedy's Cousin, Child Mouse
Nancy Wible: Mice Children

Critique
It was probably inevitable that with the glut of Daffy/Speedy cartoons being shown on NBC's The Daffy Duck Show (so much so that by its fourth season the program would be renamed The Daffy—Speedy Show) that the network's Easter special would also have the duo square off. And perhaps not surprisingly, it's the worst of the three created for the special, and miraculously it's even blander than the theatrical Daffy-and-Speedys DePatie-Freleng themselves produced back in the day. The whole cartoon is a kinda sorta remake of the Oscar-winning Speedy Gonzales, only with Speedy getting chocolate instead of cheese. But all of the same beats are present: the comically evil guard with a lisp (although Daffy beaming "I love symbols of authority!" upon receiving his security guard cap is good for a chuckle), the desperate group of poor mice villagers, the one mouse who has an in with Speedy (only this time it's a more family-friendly direct relative rather than the brother of a hookup), and then the eventual blackout-style gags of Speedy eluding the villain each time. Even with a proven premise and formula, everything is just executed so clumsily. The nastiness is turned up on all sides--Daffy just straight up steals the town's money, the mouse mayor acts bossy toward Speedy's cousin (screw him then), etc. The chase gags are all watered down versions of those done better before, perhaps none more frustrating to watch than a repeat of the classic net-and-drag bit. The timing in this retreaded version is just awkward, with Daffy simply getting pulled over a cactus and then through a fence knothole--none of the about-to-strike-before-the-sudden-slam comic peril we used to get in Freleng cartoons. The climax involves a chase through the actual factory, with Daffy getting caught up in the assembly line. The sequence does recall earlier factory bits from the classic shorts (the big "lump" of chocolate indicating Daffy is definitely a funny gag Friz would have used back in the day), but it all results in a toothless "heartwarming" ending. All that chocolate must have rotted the teeth away from this one.

VIDEO RELEASES NOTE: This short did not originally feature a title sequence in the TV special, but one was later added when it was distributed to television on its own. All of the videos listed below include the cartoon without this title sequence.

Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-citement (WHV, 1992)
4 Classic Cartoons (WHV DVD, 2005) (with its CBS title card!)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Six (WHV DVD, 2008)
The Essential Daffy Duck (WHV DVD, 2011)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 1-6 boxed set (WHV DVD, 2011)

An ad for the entire Daffy Duck's Easter Show special appearing in The Corpus Christi Caller in Corpus Christi, TX on April 6, 1985. After its final airing on NBC in 1982, the special moved to CBS in 1984 for two Easter seasons before being distributed internationally in 1987.

Daffy Flies North (1980)^FF

In the final cartoon produced for TV's Daffy Duck's Easter Show, Daffy seeks an alternative to flying back north for the spring. He spends much of the cartoon attempting to capture a horse.

CREDITS NOTE: Friz Freleng is credited with directing the entire Easter special in its opening title sequence, with Tony Benedict, Gerry Chiniquy, Arthur Davis, and Dave Detiege listed as "sequence directors" during the end credits. However, when the three individual shorts were later distributed to television packages with unique title sequences, Freleng was no longer credited and the other four were now listed as the primary directors. For the purposes of this guide Freleng will be noted as the sole director.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Flock Leader

Critique
The most generic and least Eastery of the three cartoons made for the special, it doesn't work within that context yet it's too mediocre as a standalone short. An actual full cartoon about Daffy trying to find different ways to avoid flying would have been tolerable and certainly not an alien concept (see Cracked Quack), but unfortunately halfway through everything just falls apart and we're instead stuck with a pointless remake of DePatie-Freleng's own Pinto Pink from 1967, right down to the same repeated animation of the horse guffawing. Any momentum the cartoon had been working on just stops, and instead of the horse being just one failed idea before moving on it becomes the new central focus. Almost everything from the Pink Panther short is now repeated in half the time and with half the grace, with Daffy expositing every action that had been so elegantly conveyed in the earlier film in mere pantomime. And things come full circle for DePatie-Freleng, which started its Warner productions in the 1960s by recycling animation before moving on to recycling Looney Tunes plots for its own shorts--and now here we are, a Looney Tunes production remaking a DePatie-Freleng cartoon. Notably (tragically?), depending on which set of credits one believes this marks the final cartoon short ever directed by Friz Freleng. Upon his move to the newly reopened Warner Bros. animation studio, he would helm a few more full-length projects (including Daffy's first feature film, Fantastic Island), but as for traditional shorts this was it; an inglorious end for one of the artform's true pioneers.

VIDEO RELEASES NOTE: This short did not originally feature a title sequence in the TV special, but one was later added when it was distributed to television on its own. The videos listed below include the cartoon as it was originally seen, without a title.

Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-citement (WHV, 1992)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Six (WHV DVD, 2008)
The Essential Daffy Duck (WHV DVD, 2011)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 1-6 boxed set (WHV DVD, 2011)

An TV listings blurb for the entire Daffy Duck's Thanks-for-Giving special appearing in The Philadelphia Inquirer in Philadelphia, PA on November 24, 1981. This would be the program's final year on NBC before moving to CBS in 1983 and then again in 1987.

Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24 1/2th Century (1980)^CJ

Duck Dodgers and his Eager Young Space Cadet are sent to the egg-like Rack and Pinion Meteor to retrieve the molecule for yo-yo polish. They are distracted when they see Marvin the Martian there about to solve Earth's fuel problem...by blowing up the planet. Dodgers tries to stop him, but he first must get away from Gossamer (the red hairy monster in sneakers)!

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Marvin the Martian, Gossamer, Commander

VERSIONS NOTE: Approximately two minutes of footage were edited out to create the final, official version of this short, trimming bits of dialogue and removing the entire final scene. All of this deleted material was seen when the cartoon was presented as part of the Daffy Duck's Thanks-for-Giving TV special, but the official "uncut" version of the cartoon is in fact the shorter version.

Critique
Spurred by the novelty of George Lucas's request that the original Duck Dodgers cartoon be screened before a San Francisco engagement of Star Wars--and by Steven Spielberg's desire to see a brand new Daffy Duck cartoon shown before his Warner-produced comedic opus 1941--Warner Bros. commissioned Chuck Jones to craft a sequel to his by-now-regarded-as-classic short. Expectations were so high that the studio envisioned the new film being paired with Fox's The Empire Strikes Back following its run with 1941. Ultimately, both features came and went without the short and the Daffy Duck's Thanks-for-Giving TV special was hastily put together to give the cartoon some sort of outlet. It's unclear as to whether it was poor production timing or poor quality that prevented the cartoon from a theatrical release, but an argument could certainly be made for the latter since what we're left with is a very lackluster film, definitely one that doesn't live up to its famous predecessor. The plot starts off as a carbon copy of the original before turning into something of a redo of Hare-way to the Stars once Marvin gets involved, only without either the short's snappiness or sense of adventure. As is typical of most of his works of the period, Chuck Jones's writing is more clever than funny (Marvin complaining about computers being too complex, etc.), a far cry from the wacky space gadgets and slapstick of the original. (And Mike Maltese's writing credit is a mere formality, as his original storyboards tell an almost completely different story, including a pretty dynamic third act with K-9 and Daffy teaming up to save Marvin from Gossamer--not to mention some actually savvy references to both Star Wars and even Close Encounters of the Third Kind!) The inclusion of Gossamer is pretty inspired and his reveal is actually quite effective, making him more of a natural fit for a sci-fi cartoon than, say, Hugo the abominable snowman was in Spaced Out Bunny. It also leads to a weirdly funny resolution of Porky dispatching him via haircut (and offering a genuinely memorable line from Marvin: "Gossamer is quite nervous about barbers."). That's essentially what's so frustrating here, there are nuggets of a good short that could come together but never do. The animation is at times lovely to look at, but the action being drawn is little more than characters walking back and forth and monologuing. Composer Dean Elliot tries to go for something of a John Williams inspiration with the score, but his use of Frédéric Chopin's Polonaise in A major, Op. 40, No. 1 for the short's theme makes the music instead come off as overbearing. Even Maurice Noble doesn't turn in anything remarkable, mainly just an overly designed spaceship for Dodgers at the start and then a drab backdrop for the meteor sequence--it's a very dreary-looking cartoon. Every element just clashes with the next, almost as if every crewmember was working on a different type of film. The combined two minutes that were removed from the final short were ideally meant to be more superfluous material, but ironically the final cartoon suffers because of it. Some geniunely funny moments are now gone (such as Daffy threateningly referring to Marvin as "Canister Head"), while Marvin is presented far more sinister ("Gossamer, kill.")--Marvin's entire final scene is now gone, in which he menacingly proceeds to carry out his plan to destroy the Earth. The final edit of the short now not only lacks any bite or comedic tension (while making Marvin's surviving "it's only a cartoon" bit during the "That's all, folks" tag meaningless) but also ends with a bunch of stupid wordplay between Daffy and Porky, standing around talking like a lame vaudeville act. Even with the threat of world annihilation, a depressing but at least definite ending just gets replaced with a non-ending. The eventual Thanksgiving TV special ends with J.L. telling Daffy to remake the picture before shelving it, which might have been Jones's attempt at making light of the cartoon's production and fate, but it's very likely that the director didn't quite comprehend the real turkey that he made. Thankfully, the Star Wars franchise didn't get saddled with this.

VIDEO RELEASES NOTE: For the videos listed below, titles without an asterisk include the shorter, "official" version of the cartoon. Titles with an asterisk include the longer version of the cartoon with all of its deleted footage, but alas without the short's title sequence.

*Daffy Duck's Thanks-for-Giving (WHV, 1992)
Bugs & Friends (WHV Japan Laserdisc, 1998)
Marvin the Martian: 50 Years on Earth! (WHV, 1998)
Marvin the Martian: Space Tunes (WHV, 1999)
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (WHV DVD, 2009)
*The Essential Daffy Duck (WHV DVD, 2011)
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume One (WHV Blu-ray, 2011) (SD)
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume One: Ultimate Collector's Edition (WHV Blu-ray, 2011) (SD)
4 Kid Favorites: Looney Tunes Collection (WHV DVD, 2015)
Looney Tunes Double Feature (WHV DVD, 2016)
*Looney Tunes Holiday Triple Feature (WHV DVD, 2020)
Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes/Marvin the Martian: Space Tunes Double Feature (WHV DVD, 2020)

An ad appearing in Daily Variety on December 17, 1987.

The Duxorcist (1987)^GF/TL

Daffy, paranormalist at large, receives a phone call from a lady duck claiming that her kitchen has been possessed by demons. When Daffy gets there, he's momentarily distracted by the homeowner before discovering that she's the one in need of an exorcism! The first theatrical short produced by the modern Warner Bros. Animation studio.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck
B.J. Ward: Lady Duck

Vintage Reviews
"Bears only the remotest resemblance to the vain water fowl's vehicles of old" (Boxoffice, February, 1988)
"I laughed more at this Daffy Duck cartoon than I did during several recent full-length movie comedies" (Roger Ebert, Siskel & Ebert, December 5, 1987)
"Just the simple little opening shot of a very bright red car on a city street. It was so beautifully drawn and colored--brightly colored. It took me back thirty years" (Gene Siskel, Siskel & Ebert, December 5, 1987)

Critique
It's the dawn of a new era, the first theatrical Warner Bros. cartoon since 1969, produced by the still-relatively new Warner Bros. Animation, the division formed in 1980 for the creation of commercials, compilation films, and TV specials. With a lured-out-of-retirement Friz Freleng and longtime department head Hal Geer both stepping down for good the year before, the studio was ready for some fresh blood to lead the crew into their next projects. Enter future motivational speaker Steven S. Greene and former Freleng assistant Kathleen Helppie-Shipley, who both felt the time was right for the veterans on staff to collaborate with the newer talent and create classic cartoon shorts like the Warner Bros. of old, with Daffy's fiftieth birthday being the perfect catalyst to tie it all together. Helming this first short as co-writers and co-directors are Greg Ford, an animation scholar and critic who had spent years submitting ideas to Warner Bros. for possible TV specials and compilation movies, and Terry Lennon, a chief animator on all of the recent Warner productions such as Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island and Bugs Bunny's Mad World of Television. It's a unique and effective combination, utilizing Ford's knowledge of the characters and history and Lennon's ability to mimic classic character designs, and those talents would definitely serve the team well the next year on the film Daffy Duck's Quackbusters. Here, however, only certain elements work as opposed to the sum of all parts. The short does a great job setting up a funny-spooky mood with its opening pan and the gags in the kitchen, but afterward it bogs down into just some toothless wordplay. Though a lot of it is genuinely funny (including the obligatory "exorcise/exercise" pun), the verbal gags don't provide the animators much to work with, and as much as Greene bragged in the press about how the cartoon was fully animated in Burbank with no foreign outsourcing or computer assistance and how much the old-timers like lead animator Norm McCabe were showing the new artists the ropes, there's not much on screen to make any of it stand out or look any different from the above-average Saturday morning fare that did farm out work overseas. The whole cartoon just takes on a rather ordinary feel, not helped by a rather indistinct design style; Daffy for example looks simply like a generic mid-1950s Daffy, as if it was more important to invoke the classic era than to make this short look fresh and modern. The odd retro emulation is echoed by the music "score," which is merely a selection of vintage Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn recordings edited together by Hal Willner. The kit-bashing of music starts to get a little distracting, to say nothing of the fact that it betrays the genius of Stalling and Franklyn (and even Bill Lava, whose Transylvania 6-5000 score gets used without credit) and their ability to create new music to actually fit the on-screen action. (The crew's very next short, The Night of the Living Duck, will show how much of a difference original music can make.) The lady duck is an interesting foil, if maybe a little thinly written. (There's strong speculation that this character is supposed to be Melissa from The Scarlet Pumpernickel, but it's never made clear and little really matches as far as the design or voice. Is she supposed to be??) The lack of a solid characterization isn't helped by B.J. Ward, whose performance is all over the map--sometimes she's timid, sometimes seductive, and then all of a sudden at the end she's a southern belle? (And though Ward is an accomplished actress with an impressive filmography, it's perhaps not a coincidence that she was also the wife of the production's voice director, Gordon Hunt.) If anything in this short truly works then it's Daffy, period. Ford and Lennon nailed his characterization without making him a caricature of an earlier era's version. He takes his absurd occupation seriously (with his commercial's choice line of "UFOs KO'd!"), he's allowed some funny moments to shine (either by dressing up as Sigmund Freud or by referring to the possessed girl as "Sybil"), and most importantly he's not being characterized as stupid or oblivious as is often the norm in "spooky" comedies--there's even a momentary flash of alert concern when the lady's voice cracks at the word "DUCK!" And of course, the use of Mel Blanc still goes a long way in legitimizing the whole affair. This is a team clearly using the duck out of love for the character, and their efforts with him will only get better.

NOTE: Although most video releases of this short are uncut, at least one release is missing the end-credit sequence that appears after the "That's all Folks!" closing tag. For the videos listed below, titles without an asterisk include the entire cartoon complete with its end-credit sequence, while titles with an asterisk include the credit-less version of the short.

*Looney Tunes After Dark (WHV Laserdisc, 1993)
Space Jam 2-disc set (WHV DVD, 2003)
The Essential Daffy Duck (WHV DVD, 2011)
Looney Tunes Parodies Collection (WHV DVD, 2020)
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (WHV/Warner Archive Blu-ray, 2025)

An ad appearing in the Daily News in New York, NY on October 8, 1988.

The Night of the Living Duck (1988)^GF/TL

While desperately searching for a comic book, horror fan Daffy is konked on the head and dreams that he's a lounge singer in a monster nightclub. Mel Tormé sings Daffy's big musical number, "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives." The final theatrical short featuring newly recorded dialogue by Mel Blanc.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck, Stage Manager, Schmodzilla
Mel Tormé: Daffy Duck (singing)

Critique
Ridiculous cartoon that works in spite of its complete lack of a story. The opening sequence is sort of a modern version of the comics-obsessed Daffy we last saw back in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (even the transition into the dream is similar), and the slow pan of Daffy's geek and horror memorabilia (Frankenstein coffee mug, Mad magazine, etc.) is fun and more or less sets the tone for the short that follows. Ford and Lennon are much more comfortable coming up with original gags here than they were in The Duxorcist, and the juxtaposition of classic movie monsters in a cheesy nightclub setting is infinitely more inspired than the earlier film's exorcist plot (such as the Fly constantly sugaring his coffee or the Mummy wearing a fez). The entire song sequence is brilliant, from the ghost piano player sporting a hat and cigarette to the smarmy two-headed monster trading finger-points with Daffy to the insane appearance of Leatherface--to say nothing of Mel Tormé giving the lyrics a sincere read and delivering arguably the crooner's last great performance on screen. Daffy's banter with Schmodzilla is a little on the (intentionally?) lame side, saved only by a sight gag of Scmod's table having a little martini glass on it, but thankfully it's just a short bridge to get to an appropriately corny ending. Perhaps the worst thing that could be said about the cartoon is despite its title, it's nowhere close to being an actual Night of the Living Dead parody, and ironically it would be Ford and Lennon's most successful horror short.

NOTE: When this short was featured before the movie Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, it was shown uncut but was missing the end-credit sequence that appears after the "That's all Folks!" closing tag. For the videos listed below, titles without an asterisk include the entire cartoon complete with its end-credit sequence, while titles with an asterisk include the credit-less version of the short.

*Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (WHV, 1989)
*Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (WHV Laserdisc, 1989)
Looney Tunes After Dark (WHV Laserdisc, 1993)
Space Jam 2-disc set (WHV DVD, 2003)
*Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (WHV DVD, 2009)
The Essential Daffy Duck (WHV DVD, 2011)
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (WHV/Warner Archive Blu-ray, 2025)

An ad appearing in The Deseret News in Salt Lake City, UT on February 13, 1991.

Box Office Bunny (1990)

A multiplex is built over Bugs's rabbit hole. When Bugs climbs up to check it out, usher Elmer Fudd thinks he snuck in. Meanwhile another patron, Daffy, really does sneak in and gets caught in the middle. Directed by Darrell Van Citters. Jeff Bergman begins voicing Bugs, Elmer, and Daffy. Previewed in Los Angeles in November 1990 with Reversal of Fortune to qualify for the Academy Awards before being released wide in 1991 with The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter.

Jeff Bergman: Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Audience Member
Jim Cummings: Vinnie
Tress MacNeille: Battle for Brooklyn Actress

Critique
Frantically paced cartoon that can't quite decide if it wants to be a chase picture or a Chuck Jonesian battle of wits. Clocking in at just under five minutes, it's the shortest Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon released thus far, doing director Darrell Van Citters a great disservice by preventing him to let any of the gags breathe or develop any sort of style apart from sharp character design--for example, Bugs disguised as a concession worker is merely throwing menu items at Elmer just for the sake of speed and not to convey any actual joke. On the other end of the spectrum, Bugs and Daffy's initial argument about which one of them is a rabbit seems like an artificial attempt to recreate a "wabbit season/duck season" type of wordplay, but there's no momentum or rhythm to it; it sits uncomfortably in the middle of a short that is essentially just characters running back and forth. The centerpiece "sticky floor dance" is an interesting (if a tad dated) bit, but it goes on a second or two too long...and in a five-minute short that's a awful lot of time to kill (although, Daffy finally scolding Elmer with "Knock it off, Baryshnikov!" is one of the cartoon's few genuinely funny lines). Jeff Bergman does a fairly admirable job taking over as both Bugs and Elmer (despite the occasional shift to a more baritone range), but his Daffy is downright painful on the ears, sounding more like a shrill Foghorn Leghorn than the duck we all know and love. Rocky waters are indeed ahead for Bugs and friends in this next decade.

The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (WHV, 1991)
The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (WHV Laserdisc, 1991)
Winner By a Hare (WHV Laserdisc, 1993)
Carrotblanca: Looney Tunes Go to the Movies (WHV, 1996)
Looney Tunes the Collector's Edition: Wabbit Tales (WHV/Columbia House, 2001)
The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (WHV DVD, 2009)
Looney Tunes 3-Pack Fun (WHV DVD, 2011)
Looney Tunes Triple Feature: Looney Tunes 3-DVD Collection (WHV DVD, 2016)
Looney Tunes Double Feature (WHV DVD, 2017)
Looney Tunes Center Stage (WHV DVD, 2019)

The William Tell Overture (1991)

In this quick, mostly dialogue-free short, Daffy and Porky perform a trumpet rendition of the classic William Tell Overture on stage, but Porky's immense musical skill enrages Daffy. The first cartoon directed by modern Warner Bros. character designer Daniel Haskett. Originally released edited into the TV special Bugs Bunny's Overtures to Disaster.

RELEASE YEAR NOTE: The uncut, complete cartoon with credits did not see the light of day until the release of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Four DVD set, on which it was advertised as a "new 2006" short complete with a 2006 copyright notice. For the purposes of this guide we are going with the year that the bulk of the footage had first seen release, 1991.

Jeff Bergman: Porky Pig

Critique
Frustratingly short cartoon--the total action runs only a little more than a minute and a half. After decades of honing his craft as designer and animator at studios big and small, director Daniel Haskett definitely plays to his strengths--Daffy and Porky look funny and move funny, a unique change of pace from the stay-on-classic-model style of the Ford and Lennon shorts. The animation has a nice bounce to it; it's not rubberhose-style, but it definitely has a buoyancy that works well with the music (and again, it's most impressive given the limited runtime). Porky gets a lot of choice moments here, starting with his peppy entrance skip, and seeing him paired again with Daffy in a thankless-sidekick role after decades on the sidelines is a treat. The coda looks weirdly animated when compared to the rest of short with some stilted movements (though it does have one of the funnier gags showing the Lone Ranger and Silver taking bows with Porky), as if it hadn't originally been finished back in 1991 and they were just using layout drawings to complete it in Adobe Flash. Most of the peripheral elements have that same awkward quality--circa 1930s theme music being used for the titles, model sheet drawings used to illustrate the credits, etc. In one way it's a noble effort if it was meant to finally complete the cartoon, but it doesn't add much to what was already seen in Overtures to Disaster. It would have been much more respectful to simply have allowed Haskett to produce a full-length short.

Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Four (WHV DVD, 2006)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 1-6 boxed set (WHV DVD, 2011)

(blooper) Bunny! (1991)^GF/TL

A behind-the-scenes look at the (fictional) commemorative short Bugs Bunny's 51rst 1/2 Anniversary Spectacular starring Bugs, Daffy, Elmer, and Yosemite Sam, outtakes and all. Remained unreleased until 1997's "June Bugs" marathon on Cartoon Network.

Jeff Bergman: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Announcer, Teamsters
Gordon Hunt: Director

Critique
Inventive show-biz cartoon that proves to be a worthy successor to the likes of A Star Is Bored and Show Biz Bugs. There are a couple of punchlines that are a little racier than what was done back during the Golden Age (a toilet flush sound effect is heard, and Daffy calls Bugs a "smug son of a--"), but the stage-mishap gags for the most part work, and the various reactions are very much in-character--and thankfully it's all relatively free of that bland hacky feel that faux-blooper comedy bits usually have. The blooper gags are almost upstaged early on by a single, continuous, three-dimensional shot showing various backstage goings-on, offering everything from Elmer trying to grow hair with minoxidil to a blink-and-you-miss-it reference to none other than Bosko! The film's overall theme amounts to a pretty biting satire of how Warner Bros. treated the Looney Tunes property at the time, especially during Bugs's birthday year--sadly, those very (funny) digs at the studio would ultimately cost the cartoon from seeing any kind of timely release. Easily the most entertaining of the studio's '90s shorts; it's a shame it didn't get the proper exposure when it was made.

Looney Tunes Golden Collection (Volume One) (WHV DVD, 2003)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 1-6 boxed set (WHV DVD, 2011)
Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection (WHV DVD, 2020)
Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection - Limited Edition (WHV Blu-ray, 2020)
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (WHV/Warner Archive Blu-ray, 2025)

Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers (1992)^GF/TL

Strange alien carrot pods have created limited-animation duplicates of Elmer, Yosemite Sam, and Daffy, and it's up to Bugs to set things right. Features animation parodies of Clutch Cargo and Terry Gilliam, among others. Porky Pig makes a cameo appearance.

Jeff Bergman: Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Black Hole

Critique
For as long as it is (clocking in at over eleven minutes!) and as much story is packed into it, the cartoon is weakly written at best, while the continued running of Bugs through his three environments gets wearying after a while. Once Bugs uncovers the Nudnik conspiracy behind the whole thing, we're left with more questions than answers: Who exactly are the aliens? What did they do with the real Elmer, Sam, and Daffy? Why would they suddenly return once Bugs gets rid of the phonies? Considering writers/directors Greg Ford and Terry Lennon previously excelled with such horror-themed cartoons as The Duxorcist and the compilation movie Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, their mishandling of such a classic horror trope is disappointing (although the scene of Bugs's duplicate emerging from the carrot ooze is eerily effective). The main problem is Ford and Lennon's penchant for recreating past, classic Bugs Bunny bits; they're wedged into the story without context and are almost hastily presented. It's like hearing a cover band do a bad medley of a group's greatest hits; they may know all the notes, but there's no soul in it. The repeated material tries to play to Jeff Bergman's skills as an impressionist, but his performances ultimately come off as artificial carbon copies. Surely, when Bergman is given original lines to say then his voices sound closer to the mark than when he's forced to repeat old dialogue. The various parodies of limited animation are inventive if maybe a little unfocused as to what the specific targets are (save for Daffy's hilarious Clutch Cargo lips and the surprise post-credits bit), and there seems to be an attempt to make some comment on how studios regard classic animated characters, but it's not nearly as clear or clever as the gags in Blooper Bunny! that ground the same axe. Years later, that same anti-Hollywood snarkiness would become one of the bigger script problems with the feature Looney Tunes: Back in Action; when everything is a vague dig at corporations or movie studios or producers then it starts coming off like an episode of Animaniacs--jokes not necessarily for the audience to laugh at but for animation writers to sit back and smirk about. Bugs deserves better for such an epically long cartoon.

The Essential Bugs Bunny (WHV DVD, 2010)
Looney Tunes Parodies Collection (WHV DVD, 2020)
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (WHV/Warner Archive Blu-ray, 2025)

An ad appearing in the Standard-Speaker in Hazleton, PA on August 25, 1995.

Carrotblanca (1995)

In this parody of Casablanca, Bugs is a juice-joint owner who meets up with a long-lost love, Kitty (Penelope, in her first speaking role). Meanwhile, Kitty's husband (Sylvester) has been taken prisoner by evil German policeman General Pandemonium (Yosemite Sam). Daffy is in the movie's Sam role playing the song "Knock on Wood" (during which he hits himself over the head). Directed by Douglas McCarthy. Joe Alaskey begins voicing Daffy. Features the most appearances of Warner Bros. characters than any other short.

Greg Burson: Bugs Bunny, Foghorn Leghorn
Joe Alaskey: Daffy Duck, Sylvester, Train Announcer
Bob Bergen: Tweety, The Crusher
Tress MacNeille: Penelope
Maurice LaMarche: Yosemite Sam, Pepé le Pew

Critique
Generally entertaining cartoon, though maybe a bit too Animaniacs-ian at times--and thankfully not as soul-crushingly depressing as the later direct-to-video movies with Tom and Jerry figuring into classic Warner-owned movies. The specific jokes that spoof Casablanca are decent while staying respectful (whether by design or from studio pressure); not all of the film's iconic scenes and lines are here, but enough of the more-universally known bits are represented for casual movie buffs to get. The various cameos from the Looney Tunes characters are fun to look for without being distracting, although one can't help but suspect that maybe the reason for them was to sell the production cels through the Warner Bros. Studio Stores. Of the main cast, Tweety is a scream as Peter Lorre's Ugarte, and it's refreshing to see Daffy being funny without him acting as an adversary to Bugs. Having already voiced Bugs a few times before on Tiny Toon Adventures and other quick TV appearances, this marks Greg Burson's first major performance as the wabbit. The whole cast really stands out (Burson and Joe Alaskey especially), turning in some excellent takes on the characters without making them sound like hastily done impressions of Mel Blanc. Fresh off doing a few episodes of Taz-Mania and storyboarding a wealth of other series for various studios, director Douglas McCarthy juggles all the characters nicely and keeps the story moving. If there is to be any major criticism, then it's simply a longing to see what McCarthy could have done with the characters without a specific, famous plot to use as a crutch.

Carrotblanca: Looney Tunes Go to the Movies (WHV, 1996)
Casablanca: Two-Disc Special Edition (WHV DVD, 2003)
The Bogart Collection boxed set (WHV DVD, 2003)
Best Picture Oscar Collection set (WHV DVD, 2005)
Best Picture Oscar Collection: Drama boxed set (WHV DVD, 2005)
Humphrey Bogart: The Signature Collection Volume I boxed set (WHV DVD, 2006)
Casablanca (WHV HD DVD, 2006) (SD)
Casablanca: Ultimate Collector's Edition (WHV DVD, 2008)
Casablanca: Ultimate Collector's Edition (WHV Blu-ray, 2008) (SD)
Casablanca (WHV Blu-ray, 2009) (SD)
Casablanca (WHV Blu-ray, 2010) (SD)
The Essential Bugs Bunny (WHV DVD, 2010)
Casablanca: 70th Anniversary Edition boxed set (WHV Blu-ray, 2012) (SD)
Casablanca (WHV Blu-ray, 2012) (SD)
Casablanca/The African Queen (WHV Blu-ray, 2013) (SD)
The Best of Bogart Collection boxed set (WHV Blu-ray, 2014) (SD)
Looney Tunes Parodies Collection (WHV DVD, 2020)
Casablanca (SDS UHD/Blu-ray, 2022) (SD)

An ad appearing in the Santa Cruz Sentinel in Santa Cruz, CA on August 23, 1996.

Superior Duck (1996)^CJ

Daffy is the superheroic Superior Duck who is about to go on a mission, but he just can't get through the comic-like narration that describes him. Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Porky Pig, Marvin the Martian, Taz, and even Superman all make cameo appearances. Chuck Jones's final animated Daffy work.

Frank Gorshin: Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Observer
Thurl Ravenscroft: Narrator
Eric Goldberg: Tweety, Marvin the Martian, Porky Pig, Observer
Jim Cummings: Tasmanian Devil, Superman, Observer

Critique
Dull, overly talky disaster. Attempting to present itself as a sort of cross between Stupor Duck and Duck Amuck, the short fails at replicating either the goofiness of the former or the meta cleverness of the latter. Having Daffy being unable to get through the traditional opening Superman narration might have been a funny idea on paper, but when bloated into nearly seven minutes the parody instead becomes a travesty. (Jones's own Super-Rabbit, meanwhile, was able to spoof the Superman narration in a few quick shots and then follow it up with a normal adventure!) Even Daffy's motives are unclear: at one point he complains about working in cartoons, so is he being an actor or a superhero in this? When the narrator (a thoroughly wasted Thurl Ravenscroft) threatens Daffy with "No work, no pay" in order to continue showing off his powers, you have no idea which "work" he's referring to by then. The miscasting of Frank Gorshin in these 1990s cartoons is simply baffling; here he sputters out lines in a "Daffy with a sinus infection" sorta way. Chuck Jones had recently worked with such Mel Blanc mimics as Jeff Bergman, Joe Alaskey, and Greg Burson, so it's not like he was unaware of potential "established" Daffy voices--and the employment of animator Eric Goldberg as a voice actor (using the pseudonym "Claude Raynes" to prevent jeopardizing his work at Disney) is beyond questionable. The numerous character cameos are condescendingly gratuitous--and Marvin and Porky's involvement seem to serve no purpose other than to repeat the classic disintegration-proof vest bit from Duck Dodgers... (why does Superior Duck even have a "Space Cadet"?). In Carrotblanca, for example, the various cameos are fun Easter eggs but they're also used to populate the bustling city; here, everyone essentially comes on screen and stands with Daffy just long enough as if to say, "Hey, did you know this production cel is available signed by Chuck Jones for just $1,600 at your nearest Warner Bros. Studio Store?" (Seriously, though, that was in fact the reason for all the various cameos, to sell the production cels. It's also why Daffy's costume is green and not the intended Supermanesque blue, because Warner Bros. gallery marketing suggested that the cels would sell better if he looked more like Duck Dodgers.) By the time we get to the Tasmanian Devil's appearance and hear a welcomed familiar voice in Jim Cummings, the whole story has fallen apart anyway and we're left with a quasi-hipster joke of Taz becoming a vegetarian because he hates raw duck--you know, the character whose main trait is that he eats raw animals (especially when any other line could have worked to show his revulsion: "Taz hates SPANDEX!"). The final "surprise" Superman cameo is so joyless that you almost forget that they're just copying the "I'm working this side of the street" gag from The Great Piggy Bank Robbery. (To say nothing of the fact that someone should have been fired for not thinking to approach Christopher Reeve with voicing Superman, since the short was in production before his tragic 1995 accident.) A completely pointless exercise in tedium.

Superior Duck (WHV, 1998)
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (WHV DVD, 2009)
The Essential Daffy Duck (WHV DVD, 2011)
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume One (WHV Blu-ray, 2011) (SD)
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume One: Ultimate Collector's Edition (WHV Blu-ray, 2011) (SD)
4 Kid Favorites: Looney Tunes Collection (WHV DVD, 2015)
Looney Tunes Double Feature (WHV DVD, 2016)
Joe's Apartment (WHV/Warner Archive Blu-ray, 2024)
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (WHV/Warner Archive Blu-ray, 2025)

Duck Dodgers in Attack of the Drones (2004)

Chomping alien balls of doom are making their way toward Earth, so Duck Dodgers photocopies himself into a whole army of robot clones. All goes well until he decides to turn the copies onto society. Directed by Rich Moore and produced by Larry Doyle. Jeff Bennett voices Daffy. Features Daffy recreating the famous mirror routine from Duck Soup, perhaps the only time the duck has emulated one of the Marx Brothers. Also features the first ever reference to Star Wars in a theatrical Warner Bros. short. Remained unreleased in the United States until 2011.

Jeff Bennett: Daffy Duck, Council Elder, ATM, Garbage Can
Billy West: Porky Pig, Dr. Zoidberg

Critique
One of the better entries in the small batch of shorts produced by Larry Doyle in the wake of Looney Tunes: Back in Action, but it nevertheless still suffers from the same overall blandness of the others. This is quite frustrating because this is a sci-fi cartoon, and a team of writers and artists from the likes of The Simpsons and Futurama should have been able to knock this out of the park. Alas, it's loaded with gags that had been done much better elsewhere: there's a Star Wars opening-crawl spoof, like in Spaceballs; there's a sight gag of several famous pop-culture aliens hanging out together, like in the X-Files episode of The Simpsons; etc. It tries to earn points for doing something original with the Duck Dodgers concept--there's no Marvin, no Porky as the Eager Young Space Cadet--but it's all so ordinary that nothing makes it stand out, just a bunch of derivative jokes and scenes; even a couple of lightsaber gags in the middle feel like cast-offs from Robin Hood Daffy. (It should be noted that including Larry Doyle's "The Room" group, there are eight credited writers on this short.) There are a couple of funny moments--the clone copier having a "violence" setting, a drone smashing on a kid's jacks only to be told by Daffy to "stop ruining this comically outdated child's game"--but they get lost in the shuffle of the weak set pieces. Jeff Bennett does an admirable job as Daffy (though why Joe Alaskey wasn't used is a mystery considering the Back in Action connection), but he isn't given much direction to go with for the other characters--the voices are mostly just grouchy, particularly Daffy's commanding elder. (Was he supposed to be a Yoda archetype? It's never made clear.) Considering the Cartoon Network Duck Dodgers television series was still in production at this time, this short remains a curious off-shoot and makes one wonder if Doyle's team should have simply done something else, or more unique, with the duck.

The Essential Daffy Duck (WHV DVD, 2011)
Looney Tunes: Back in Action (WHV Blu-ray, 2014) (SD)

Daffy Duck for President (2004)

Daffy runs for public office in various roles, hoping to pass legislation to outlaw rabbits (namely one). However, no matter where he ends up, he discovers that getting laws passed on your own isn't that easy. Directed by Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone and based on the book by Chuck Jones. Originally planned for production and release around the 2000 election.

Joe Alaskey: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Speaker of the House

Critique
Cute but pointless cartoon, coming off more like those 1980s "Constitution works for everybody" Saturday morning PSAs than something meaningful and entertaining like, say, Chuck Jones's Old Glory. Jones's original storybook provides some clever puns and wordplay, and gives Joe Alaskey some great dialogue for Daffy to work with, but it doesn't really make for interesting on-screen action. Directors Brandt and Cervone do an admirable job invoking Jones's visual style, which is unfortunately soured by some rather cheap-looking (and outsourced) animation. Disappointing.

Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two (WHV DVD, 2004)
The Essential Daffy Duck (WHV DVD, 2011)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 1-6 boxed set (WHV DVD, 2011)

An ad appearing in The San Francisco Examiner in San Francisco, CA on February 10, 2012.

Daffy's Rhapsody (2012)

Stage star Daffy performs the one-fowl musical Requiem for a Hunt, only to find Elmer Fudd in the audience ready to make the show an interactive experience. Directed by Matthew O'Callaghan. The first CGI theatrical Daffy short, utilizing Mel Blanc's classic Capitol Records recording of "Daffy Duck's Rhapsody." Released in 3D.

Mel Blanc: Daffy Duck
Billy West: Elmer Fudd

Critique
Unnecessary, but at times lovely to look at. Like with the previous year's I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, the main problem is that Mel Blanc's Capitol records tell their own stories and set their own paces--putting visual action on top of that doesn't add anything. It's like when Charlie Chaplin added narration to a rerelease of The Gold Rush; it doesn't enhance the film. On the contrary, the attempts to add things between verses and in the song's negative space (the shotgun blasts, Elmer's groans) are often distracting, as if something is throwing off the timing. Or worse, the song gets buried in other noises (most notably the banjo music), which either muffle Daffy's lyrics, weaken Mel's performance, or spoil whatever tempo the song was building to. (Remember, we're talking about the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, a piece of music that doesn't need any help building its tempo!) On the plus side, the stage-show setting works perfectly for the song, providing a neat acoustic effect to Daffy's voice (since the original recording sped and mixed Mel's voice differently than the cartoons did). Matthew O'Callaghan does the same respectful job of designing and directing the characters in CGI as he did back on his Road Runner shorts (Daffy especially, Elmer not so much), but he's too busy spinning plates between illustrating the song's lyrics and trying to provide gags between Daffy and Elmer. When it gets to the song's frantic climax of Daffy listing animals and such, the literal illustrations unfortunately win out--the lyrics and music are providing the energy, so we don't need Daffy to be physically sprinting about at the same time. For an obvious comparison, it's why Bugs wasn't also doing fourteen things during his "yell and scream and rant and rave" verse in Rabbit of Seville. If you're going to adapt a song you need to be able to respect the song; it's the difference between a music video and someone on Tiktok doing a dance with a random song playing in the background.

A movie listing appearing in The Los Angeles Times in Los Angeles, CA on September 13, 2019, one of the short's only theatrical appearances to qualify for an Academy Award.

Curse of the Monkeybird (2019)

While treasure-hunting somewhere in the jungle, Daffy and Porky incur the wrath of the fearsome Monkeybird. A chase begins all throughout the monster's temple. Directed by Peter Browngardt. The first released episode from the Looney Tunes Cartoons series, initially released theatrically at select festivals to qualify for an Academy Award.

Eric Bauza: Daffy Duck, Baby Monkeybirds
Bob Bergen: Porky Pig, Baby Monkeybirds
Fred Tatasciore: Monkeybird, Police Officer, Skull, Baby Monkeybirds

Critique
Here we go, the debut of Looney Tunes Cartoons, Warner Bros. Animation's ambitious project to create new Looney Tunes cartoons for a variety of media platforms, hoping to wash the episodic, sitcommy taste of Cartoon Network's The Looney Tunes Show, New Looney Tunes and even Duck Dodgers out of everyone's mouths and get back to the irreverent spirit of stand-alone short cartoons. As a preview for the eventual series this entry does a good job of alleviating any concerns, and as an individual short it's a fine return to form for the more-zany style of Looney Tunes, and it's also definitely a return to a funnier, uninhibited Daffy Duck. The intent here is to harken back to an older, classic dynamic for Daffy and Porky--here the pair are essentially comedy partners, not antagonist/victim like in the 1940s or hero/sidekick like in the 1950s. (And it should be noted that apart from a random short such as, say, Porky & Daffy or Porky Pig's Feat, the "screwball buddies" type of pairing usually had Porky with someone other than Daffy, such as Gabby Goat.) Even when Daffy keeps activating the Indiana Jones-style traps and dooming Porky, the comedy recklessness is still there but it's not done out of maliciousness--and the trap gags get so more and more ridiculous that the supposed violence on the pig becomes a farce. The Monkeybird is a neat idea, leaps and bounds more original of a one-off character than the parade of generic humans from The Looney Tunes Show or the indistinguishable animal blobs in New Looney Tunes; while the central chase leads to one of the short's more memorable moments of the three falling to their deaths only to have their photos taken a la a theme park and all emerging to look at them, laughing. The wedding finale, though maybe a bit labored, also offers some choice throwaway bits, from Porky's "always a bridesmaid, never a bride" lament to the snake performing the ceremony through a series of hisses. There is still very much a strong feeling of an episodic-television influence in this cartoon, but for a complete visual and tonal overhaul of the franchise, the Looney Tunes were in pretty good hands for once.

The official poster prepared for the cartoon's screening at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 17, 2023, one of the short's only theatrical appearances to qualify for an Academy Award.

Daffy in Wackyland (2023)

Dying of starvation while wandering the desert, Daffy comes across an egg and hopes to eat it. But the egg belong to the Do-Do, who snatches it back and leads Daffy on a psychedelic chase throughout Wackyland. Directed by Max Winston. The first Looney Tunes cartoon produced with stop-motion animation. Screened theatrically at select festivals to qualify for an Academy Award before airing on Max.

Eric Bauza: Daffy Duck, The Do-Do, Duckling
Bob Bergen: Star
Fred Tatasciore: Narrator
Kari Wahlgren: Snake

Critique
A decent attempt at doing something new, but it's very high on style without the substance. The short does a good job at diffusing any instinctual desire to compare it to Porky in Wackyland with the new medium and vastly different setup, but it still just ends up being a chase cartoon. It's definitely visually stunning at times--the production design of the desert and then Wackyland are inventive and the characters translate well to stop motion--but the gags themselves are more imaginative than funny. The supposed egg turning out to be a live-action human head is a neat trick, but the joke structure of the scene is repeated immediately with the subsequent snake bit. A number of elements, such as the dog-eating-cat-eating-dog shot or the chase changing into a variety of shapes and styles, can't help but give off a vague student-film vibe, as if to say, "Look at what we can do!" It's a bit of a sensory overload that unfortunately overtakes the funny material, as there is some. The opening "good thing everyone's second favorite duck is also here" fake-out is fun (if a bit expected), and the shape-shifting star pleading "Don't make me do it again!" is something that could have come right out of Clampett's original. The central premise itself, however, is a bit tedious and ends awkwardly (with a couple of weird shades of cannibalism), and it would be excusable if it was just being used as a hook to hang a bunch of crazy Wackyland gags onto, but there's not a lot there. Yes, Wackyland is known for telling us, "It can happen here"...but it can happen a little funnier than this.