1988 gave us the final Looney Tunes Compilation film and is also unfortunately the final review of Looney Tunes Month 2.
Quackbusters is as the pun intends a spoof of the 1980’s hit film Ghostbusters, it was the second movie to have its own coherent story intertwined with animated shorts. The movie stands out for being Halloween themed and featuring shorts which are almost all spooky in nature.
Daffy Duck has inherited the fortune of a millionaire business tycoon but he is only allowed to keep the money if he uses it for good, of course Daffy ignores this rule since the man is dead but is soon shocked when he realises that he loses money every time he is unkind, greedy or selfish.
After learning this Daffy comes up with a business plan that can help the community, earn him more money and hopefully one day get rid of the spirit who is watching over his fortune.
Daffy sets up the Paranormalists at Large a company set to eliminate all evil spirits for a hefty price, he hires his Looney Tunes co-stars Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig and the ghost hunting begins.
As per usual I will go over each short that is in the film and give my brief opinion
Night of the Living Duck
Daffy Duck is an entertainer for classic movie monsters, this short was made for the film as an opening and its a nice way to get you ready for the upcoming movie, there isn’t really any comedy here it is just a song and is there to really get you into the spooky mood of the movie although it is pretty cool to see all of these classics characters drawn in the style of Looney Tunes.
Daffy Dilly
1948’s Daffy Dilly is a Chuck Jones cartoon that sees Daffy Duck as a gag joke salesman failing to make even a dollar on the streets, he over hears a Television broadcast that a dying millionaire will leave his fortune to the person who gives him his last laugh, Daffy seeing a way out of his financial failures heads over to his mansion and has to out wit the butler to see his master and make a quick million.
A really fun short that ties in heavily with the movie, in fact this short is expanded upon in the film to make the plot which is a first for these compilation films and its executed extremely well, in fact I assumed this was all new footage for the movie before I began researching for this review.
The Prize Pest
Porky Pig has won the grand prize in a radio competition, his prize is Daffy Duck a goofy and reckless animal who wants to make Porky’s home his own. He makes up a Jekyll and Hyde condition where he turns into a monster when he’s angry scaring Porky into doing all of his bidding until Porky decides to give him a taste of his own medicine.
A great short and almost all of this one is used in the movie, of course the parts where daffy is delivered as a prize are not here but the majority of the remainder of the short is here in full.
Water Water every Hare
A sequel to Chuck Jones excellent short Hair Raising Hare is included here but it is broken up into small segments and used as part of commercials, Its a shame because the original short is very good and it just doesn’t work when its not shown as a whole, I don’t see why they couldn’t have cut out the beginning and ending segments as it would have fitted into the movie perfectly if they did this.
Hyde and go Tweet
This Friz Freleng short is another Jekyll and Hyde inspired cartoon, this time starring Sylvester and Tweety, its a very funny film seeing Tweety trying to eat Sylvester for a change but the roles of who is hunting who changing back and forth as the unfinished Hyde formula keeps undoing and resetting its effects.
Definitely one of my favourites in this film and only very small segments were cut and is hardly noticiable.
Claws for Alarm
Two Sylvester cartoons in a row and this is another great one, this was one of few shorts where Sylvester is the pet of Porky Pig and plays much more of a sidekick roll than his usual antagonistic self. In this cartoon Porky and Sylvester are looking for a place to spend the night while travelling. They come across an old Hotel in the middle of nowhere but no one seems to be awake, they decide to find a room and stay the night anyway but Sylvester soon catches onto mischievous mice who are trying to murder his master. He makes it his sworn duty to protect his Master no matter what unfortunately Porky doesn’t believe him about the mice and puts all of Sylvester’s heroic deeds to mischief and nuisance.
The Duxorcist
This short was specifically made for this movie which is very cool, it is available in other releases but Quack busters was the original !
In the short Daffy has been sent to deal with poltergeists in a young woman’s home, this is an obvious homage to Ghostbusters which has a very similar scene. Of course the self centred Daffy mistakes the woman’s possession for flirting and actually has no idea how to really deal with this kind of evil to the point that he has to read up how to perform an exorcism.
I did enjoy this one but it wasn’t as funny to me as the other shorts payed before it, but this does fit best into the movie and of course is not cut at all which is to be expected.
Transylvania 6-5000
Bugs Bunny is lost on his travels and ends up at an old castle, he enters the home looking for a phone to call his travel agent, The host is none other than famous vampire Count Dracula who gives him a room for the night so his blood is well rested. During the night Bugs can’t sleep and reads a book of magic words not realising that every time he reads one he transforms Dracula into a bat, this leads to plenty of hilarious slapstick.
This is one of the better shorts in the film and is my second favourite, this had me in stitches during both viewings of it and I would recommend this one to anyone trying to get into Looney Tunes.
The only changes I noticed to this one was the ending was cut and for some reason they changed Bugs dialogue of Moth to Mosquito.
The Abominable Snow Rabbit
Bugs and Daffy get lost in the Himalayas while looking for the paradise island of Palm Springs. They run into a very stupid Abominable Snowman who is very excited then he captures Daffy who he thinks is a pet bunny rabbit, Daffy and Bugs keep tricking the Snowman to grab the other while they try to escape before Bugs tricks the Snowman into his own demise.
This short is ok, it is funny at moments with the Snowman but honestly I didn’t like the ending much, the Snowman is shown to be so innocent that when he melts in the end I felt really sorry for him.
Punch Trunk
This short is the most unique here because its actually a Merrie Melody cartoon which has none of the Looney Tunes in it, A tiny elephant is released into the city after he is trapped in a box of Banana’s after getting out he innocently sends the general public into a frenzy whenever he is seen as no one can quite believe that an elephant can be so small, he even sends one man to a mental institution. A good short and a nice break from the regular Looney Tunes characters.
Jumpin Jupiter
This short was only used for a very small clip out of context of the rest of the cartoon, the original cartoon about Martians is quite good but its far from my favourite of the genre. The clip here was used right at the end of Quackbusters and to be honest I wouldn’t have even known it wasn’t new animation before I did research for this review.
Daffy Ducks Quackbusters is a really entertaining clip show that hardly ever cuts or alters the shorts, compared to Fantastic Island this is better for the shorts chosen but I feel the story lacked a little bit. It was really cool for them to expand the story around an already existing short and for a Ghostbusters spoof this is excellent and only goes to show how inspirational the original Ghostbusters is.
I really like this movie and I could recommend it to anyone but I prefer Fantastic Island and I think I would still put this one just below the Bugs Bunny and Road Runner movie, This is one spooky Looney Tunes film I am sure to watch again.
And that’s Looney Tunes Month 2 completed I had a lot of fun this month and it was great to revisit the Looney Tunes, There will definitely be a part 3 but for now I think a little break from our wacky friends is needed and we will be back to see them some other day
and with that said and done I hope you enjoyed Looney Tunes Month 2 and for now th th th That’s all Folks !
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