Own it now on DVD

There were at least six compilation films starring the Looney Tunes made between the early 1970s, and 1989. For the most part, they seemed to be a way of reissuing the shorts to theaters in a “package film”, while at the same time keeping job security for Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and all the other still living, still working animators. Most of these films are pretty hit-and-miss amongst Looney Tunes buffs (“Daffy Duck’s Fantastic Island” is dreadful in my opinion), but one compilation film is frequently cited as the best, or rather the favorite. And, that is “Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters”, brought to us by the talented team of Greg Ford and Terry Lennon.
 
Honestly, I had been waiting a long time for this one to come out to DVD. Well, okay maybe not that long; Looney Tunes only started coming out on DVD six years ago, and it’s better just to have the shorts themselves, but this film is a bit different. The background story and linking footage is interesting, well written, and fun to watch. Like you’re really watching a full-length Looney Tunes adventure flick! Well, okay maybe not that far. But, I’m sure many well say Quackbusters is more enjoyable than “Looney Tunes Back in Action” (which I like).

The film begins with the then-new short “Night of the Living Duck” (the last short to feature work by Mel Blanc!), which contains a premise similar to Bob Clampett’s surreal outing, “The Great Piggybank Robbery”. Daffy is reading his horror comics, when he notices he’s missing an issue and frantically searches for it, and getting klunked on the noggin, resulting in a dream sequence. Subconsciously, Daffy finds himself as a nightclub singer for various Hollywood monsters including Dracula, The Gill-Man, The Fly, just to name a few. With Mel Torme’s voice, Daffy croons the tune “Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives”, which is actually a hilarious song, if not a tad morbid (“They’ll steal your heart, tear you apart, limb from limb, on a whim”).
 
After the short, the movie begins, using Chuck Jones’ “Daffy Dilly” as a springboard. J.P. Cubish, a rich millionaire, wills his money to Daffy Duck because Daffy made him laugh during his “dying days”. There is one catch though, Daffy must use the money to help others or the money will disappear into Heaven or Hell, or wherever Cubish went. Mostly to spite Cubish, Daffy uses the money to open up a ghost busting company, and hires Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny as his employees. The supernatural (or just plain cryptic) encounters that our toon heroes have are demonstrated through classic adventures such as “The Abominable Snow Rabbit”, “Water, Water Every Hare”, “Hyde and Go Tweet”, “Claws For Alarm”, “The Prize Pest”, and others. And if the title and plot isn't a dead giveaway of a Ghostbusters spoof, Daffy Duck goes out of his way to parody the old Ghostbusters advertisement that was used to promote the original film. I wonder if WB used Daffy's commercial to promote this film.
 

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One of the interesting aspects of this compilation film, and something that was not done in the other ones, was how in the linking footage, the animators made sure the characters matched their model for the next short. Example, before The Prize Pest footage starts, Daffy and Porky are drawn to look like Robert McKimson’s designs, or before “…Snow Rabbit”, Daffy melds into Chuck Jones’ depiction. A nice touch from Ford and Lennon, and less jarring then in say “The Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie”, Bugs looks like Freleng’s 80s design, and then suddenly we’re in classic footage and now Bugs looks like Virgil Ross’ Bunny look from the 50s! Trust me, it may seem trivial, but even to a casual viewer, it sticks out.

Is there anything bad about Quackbusters? Well, not totally a disgrace, but one thing that is bothersome is that due to Mel Blanc being much older than when the classic shorts were (in fact he passed away a year after this was made), the voices for Daffy, Bugs, and Porky sound much older, and even odder, they are not sped up like in the classics. This really doesn't gel well when the film links into a classic short. Even stranger is how some lines in the actual cartoons are dubbed over with new lines to fit with the Quackbusters storyline. This is very noticeable during "Transylvania 6-500", where for one line Bugs' voice sounds normal, and then on the next line, he sounds like Heathcliff! Would have been nice if Ford and Lennon went that extra mile to raise Blanc' pitch up in post. They did a great job on the animation interludes though.

Now on to bonus features. When it was first announced that this film was coming to DVD, I thought of how nice it would be for a Ford-Lennon audio commentary, but that wish didn't come true. Instead the only bonus features are three more recent Looney Tunes shorts; two of which are less than sub-par. The first bonus short is “Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24 1/2th Century”, made in 1980. I first saw this short when it was released on that Marvin the Martian VHS collection in the late 90s, and was not impressed by it. It’s only real notoriety is that two versions of the cartoon exist. A 6-minute version, with an ending that makes no sense, and an 8-minute version with a slightly more coherent ending, but it still doesn't make the cartoon better. The 6-minute version seems to be the favorite at WB, as that’s the one that was aired on television for many years, put on home video, and now on DVD. The 8-minute version was only used as part of “Daffy Duck’s Thanks-For-Giving” special.

Left: "Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24 1/2th Century" (1980); Right: "Superior Duck" (1996)

The next cartoon is “Superior Duck”, created in the mid-90s by Chuck Jones Film Productions. Sadly, hardly any of the cartoons that Jones produced during this time were very good, save for maybe “Chariots of Fur”, his final Road Runner short. “Superior Duck” is basically a cross between “Duck Dodgers”, and McKimson’s “Stupor Duck”, but without the clever writing. In fact, according to Jon Cooke, Jones actually wanted Daffy to be wearing the Stupor Duck outfit, but WB thought the cells from the short would sell more if Daffy was wearing his Dodgers outfit. It’s probably just as well, because if Jones had gotten his way, legions of fans might have accused him for trying to copy McKimson, and somehow make it “more sophisticated”. As for the short it self, the first 4 minutes of the cartoon is built around one simple joke: The narrator (Thurl Ravenscroft) messing up the intro and Daffy frustratingly correcting him. It’s as dull as it sounds. The rest of the short is just Daffy (voiced by Frank Gorshin, who makes Daffy sound like Rip Taylor with a cold) randomly bumping into various other characters like Foghorn Leghorn and Taz, all while trying to prove himself to them, and the audience. The ending gag is actually kinda funny, but that’s the only humorous moment.

Now, don't let the quality of those two train wrecks prevent you from checking out the last cartoon, “Little Go Beep”, because this one is a joy to watch! Originally planned as a 50th anniversary short for Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, this features the two main characters as babies, and their first encounter with one another. The short was written by Earl Kress, and directed by Spike Brandt. These two provide proof that modern Looney Tunes shorts can be made GOOD, as long as they follow the rules of the classic shorts, don’t farm the animation overseas where the animation will be cheap, don’t rely so heavily on dialogue, have some action occur, and above all, have a good story! The short was made in 2000, and originally planned for a wide theatrical release, but that ended up not happening due to in-studio politics (basically, WB had been taken over by some new studio heads at that time who figured it was easier to keep the short on a shelf, then pencil it into one of their family films). Now that the public can finally see it, I’m sure many will wonder how they could let this short rot in their vaults, and yet allow something like “Superior Duck” be released.

Overall, if you’re a Looney Tunes fanatic, or just a casual fan, or are just being introduced to the franchise and want something cheaper than the (totally worth buying) Golden Collections, then yeah I would buy this and check it out. Picture quality is nice, sound is clear, the movie has optional subtitles, and has a scene selection (which I really don’t care about, but many people find that sort of thing convenient). There is some mild DVNR throughout, but it’s not terribly noticeable. All in all, I say go out and pick up the DVD. You won’t be disappointed. Except by the first two bonus shorts.

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