"Daffy Duck's Quackbusters" Talkback (Spoilers)

[Kolbar]

It's everything it's quacked up to be.
http://collectibleshop.tripod.com/wb-quackbusters-movie-one-sheet-poster.jpg
"Just call Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig, paranormalists at large. Spooks spooked, goblins gobbled, UFOs K.O.ed, aliens alienated, vampires evaporated, and monsters remonstrated." - Daffy Duck
Release Date: September 24, 1988
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Directors: Greg Ford, Friz Frelang, Chuck Jones, Terry Lennon, Robert McKimson
Starring: Mel Blanc, Julie Bennett, Roy Firestone, June Foray, Ben Frommer, Mel Torme, B.J. Ward

Plot Summary: In this feature-length film combining footage from classic Warner Brothers cartoon shorts with newly animated bridging sequences, Daffy Duck, after having induced laughter in an ailing millionaire and forestalled the millionaire's death for a time (as chronicled in Daffy Dilly (http://imdb.com/title/tt0040261/) (1948), is the beneficiary for the deceased millionaire's assets. But the millionaire's will clearly stipulates that Daffy must use the money for the common good, by providing a service, and should Daffy think of pursuing selfish aims, the millionaire's ghost will "repossess" his millions by making them disappear from Earthly existence. Under the pretense of community service, Daffy opens an exorcism agency and employs Porky Pig, Sylvester Cat, and Bugs Bunny to track and eliminate ghosts, ghouls, and other monsters, while Daffy secretly schemes to use his learned "ghost-busting" talents to rid himself of the millionaire's nagging spirit.

Comments?

Boomerang airs this Looney Tunes movie today at 4:00pm!

[J. B. Warner]

I always thought this was the best of the Looney Tunes compilation features. The other ones didn't really have a plot, but Greg Ford and Terry Lennon found a way to weave an intricate story between the clips, while maintaining the characters' personalities throughout. Interesting to think that they did a better compilation movie than either Chuck Jones or Friz Freleng - the masters were just better suited to the seven-minute cartoon, I guess.

What I like about the film is how well it's assembled. To better disguise the break in the footage between the new animation and the clips from the classic shorts, Ford and Lennon had their animators adapt the style of whatever short they were segueing into or out of. Note that the scenes surrounding "The Prize Pest" depict Daffy and Porky in the 1950-era Robert McKimson character designs (with backgrounds by Richard Thomas, who did the backgrounds for the short too). Leading up to the clip from "The Abominable Snow Rabbit", Daffy's character design takes on the appearance of early 1960s Chuck Jones. And most interestingly, the placement of the clips from "Hyde and Go Tweet" allow for a logical explanation for Sylvester's shift in personality between the scenes in Daffy's office and the clips from "Claws for Alarm". You can tell Ford and Lennon strived to make this film as good as it could be with the limitations they had.

[Steve Carras]

I mainly go with "J.B.Warner'"s comment (I rated "***"). Except for the ending there are a number of seamless uses (the only IMO appropriate) of the old Stalling/Franklyn score, since contextually they were doing yet another compilation flick and it fit in. I noted that June Foray was absent from the new footage but B.J.Ward, another more recent staple of voices since the 70s (reportedly though going far back to the early 1960s!) was the female voice of the film, and sportscaster Roy Firestone! This "compil-flick" :) utilizied then-new shorts "Night of the Living Duck" (whose live inspiration, George A.ROmero's 1960s cult flick used a lot of the same Mutel/Capitol ("John Seely") stock music acording to what I have read as did the six shorts using it in 1950s due to a strike) and "Duxorcist" (whose ALSO WB produced 1972 film inspiration "Exorcist"'s very lengthy, and very famed Mike Oldfield theme music "Tubular Bells" I got from WinMX (Part II)....it's easy to see the reason for the almost bare theatrical release this got, since Columbia Pictures released the title influence "Ghostbusters" ALSO to theatres in 1984, when a television or direct-to-video experience would be better and not in direct compettion (one can only wonder what.."Hareplane" (but that's a spoof of a spoof)"Fast times with Tasmanaian Devil and a surfboard" "Flashduck" would have done in the eitghties.."Daffy Duck's Fantastic ISland?"--hey, there WAS one like that!).

Mel Torme was in the 1988 short 'Night of living duck".For once due to "Transylvania 6-500" Ben Frommer (Count Bloodcount) and Julie Bennett (weird two headed girl vulure) in the latterday Jones short got credited (personally, I always thought Hans Conreid and of course Bela Lugosi inspired the COunt, the altetr the obvious;when in 1989 I saw Jerry Beck and WEill Friedwald's book LOONEY TUNES AND MERRIE MELODIES, I was startled to see THIS unfamiliar name--"I AM A VAMPIRE"..a near return to some of his past glory for Jones in his last Bugs short, not counting "Iceman Ducketh" by his animator Philip Monroe)

"Quackbusters" got a VHS release.

[Dudley]

This is up there with Bugs Bunny/ Road Runner Movie as one of my favorite LT compilation movies.
Plus the poster for it was teh best of all of them.

Nontheless, I never truly cared for the movies on how they tried to bring everything together like they were related. Still it's better than the holiday specials they did long ago. *shudders*

[aalong64]

It was alright. Probably the most entertaining of all the compilation stuff, with the worst I've seen being the Easter one where Daffy and Sylvester fight over an egg. Mel Blanc's voices weren't sped up for this later stuff for some reason, so his Daffy and Sylvester voices sounded almost identical (even moreso than normal!) It was awful. I forget what that one was called, but I'm sure it used "The Duck that Laid the Golden Egg".

[Tinytooncrazy]

I like this comlataion film even the new ones are well done one of my favs I also like the bugs/roadrunner movie , bugs bunny movie and daffy duck fantasic island