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Daffy Duck's Quackbusters

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Daffy Duck's Quackbusters is a 1988 animated compilation film featuring classic Warner Bros. Cartoons shorts and animated bridging sequences, starring Daffy Duck.[1] The film was released to theaters by Warner Bros. on September 24, 1988. It was the final theatrical production in which Mel Blanc provided the voices of the various Looney Tunes characters before his death in July 1989.

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGreg Ford
Terry Lennon
Written by
Produced by
  • Steven S. Greene
  • Kathleen Helppie-Shipley
Starring
CinematographyTim Whintall
Edited byTreg Brown
Music by
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • September 24, 1988 (1988-09-24)
Running time
78 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Unlike previous compilation films, Quackbusters uses pre-existing music from older Looney Tunes shorts composed by Carl Stalling, Milt Franklyn and William Lava for both the new animation and classic footage. It was also one of the two compilation films of classic Warner Bros. cartoon shorts not composed by Robert J. Walsh (the other being 1979's The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, which was composed by Dean Elliott).

Similar to The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, which was preceded with the Oscar-winning Knighty Knight Bugs (1958), Quackbusters is preceded with the exclusive short The Night of the Living Duck (1988). This film is inspired by Ghostbusters. Most of the films included in the compilation have a comedy horror theme, with stories involving spirit possession, exorcism, Transylvanian vampires, magic words, and Yetis. This was the only Looney Tunes compilation film to be aired on HBO in the early 1990s. It later aired on Cartoon Network.

Plot

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Salesman Daffy tries to make a pitch to reclusive millionaire and "ailing buzzsaw baron" J.P. Cubish – a dog who has offered wealth to anyone who can make him laugh before he passes on. Daffy becomes his jester, taking uncounted pies in the face while Cubish laughs. After Cubish "dies laughing", Daffy inherits his fortune. The money is locked in a safe, under the provision that it will be used to provide a beneficial public service and Daffy follow Cubish's creed to display honesty in business affairs. If the now-wealthy Daffy does not comply with the will's terms, the ghost of Cubish will reclaim the fortune. The irked Daffy vows to use the money to wipe out ghosts such as Cubish.

Setting himself up as a "Paranormalist at Large", Daffy persuades Bugs Bunny to appear in commercials and hires Porky Pig (accompanied by Sylvester) as an underling; Cubish makes money from the safe vanish whenever Daffy seems to do or say something dishonest. Meanwhile, Sylvester is continually chased by a monstrous version of Tweety and develops paranoia in front of Daffy and Porky. Daffy assigns Porky to investigate the resort town of Dry Gulch for any suspicious ghost activity. Porky is accompanied by Sylvester, who defends his owner from the hotel's killer mice.

Meanwhile, Daffy exorcises three ghosts possessing Melissa Duck. After being chased back to his office by them, Daffy discovers that Cubish has stripped his money down to his last million. Daffy reassigns Porky to the Superstition Mountains, much to Sylvester's chagrin. After receiving a call from Transylvania, Daffy assigns Bugs to investigate. Bugs encounters Count Blood Count and defeats him in a duel of magic words, but Daffy is displeased to hear from him about "getting two couples together". After receiving a call from the Himalayas, Daffy phones up Bugs again, and together they go up against Hugo the Abominable Snowman.

When the city is swept with reports of a tiny elephant, Daffy, presuming this to be mere hysteria, hopes to profit by soothing the public with his "expert" testimony. However, no sooner does he announce to the audience that there is no such thing as a tiny elephant when it turns up on Daffy's television interview, rendering him a public laughing stock. Daffy decides to blame someone else for the debacle and absent-mindedly remarks that there was "nothing wrong with a little dishonesty in business affairs." This proves to be Daffy's undoing however, as upon realizing of what he said, Daffy discovers that the safe is now completely empty except for a few cobwebs and a sign reminding Daffy “you lose, duck!”. Then Egghead appears with a singing telegram, announcing to Daffy that due to unpaid rent, he is being dispossessed. After the repo crew takes away his desks, the building is condemned and destroyed, with Daffy still inside.

In the epilogue, Bugs enjoys his vacation in Palm Springs and reads about Daffy's downfall, while Porky and Sylvester are stranded in the Superstition Mountains. Meanwhile, Daffy becomes a salesman again, this time selling paranormal-themed trinkets. However, when he earns a dollar bill, it instantly vanishes. Daffy angrily shakes his fist at the sky and screams "Cubish!".

Film segments in order

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Several cartoons are re-edited either for time, to connect with the plot, or have redubbed lines.

  • The Night of the Living Duck – This cartoon is an exclusive to the film.
  • Daffy Dilly (1948) (used at beginning when Daffy tries to get to Cubish; with the report on Cubish now shown on TV; this short is used as one of the central elements in the film)
  • The Prize Pest (1951) (used when Daffy recruits Porky; shortened starting from when Daffy warns Porky of his "split personality", cutting to before Porky hides in a closet and ending after Porky accidentally scares himself)
  • Water, Water Every Hare (1952) (used progressively for the Paranormalists at Large commercials)
  • Hyde and Go Tweet (1960) (Sylvester encounters Tweety, who changes into a monster without him realizing it, which leads to his paranoia; edited with new animation showing that Sylvester had gone into Daffy's office)
  • Claws for Alarm (1954) (Porky and Sylvester's Dry Gulch assignment, with Porky's lines up to when they arrive at the hotel redubbed)
  • The Duxorcist (Daffy's first assignment, where he ends up getting temporarily possessed) This is another exclusive short to the film. It was previously released theatrically with Nuts the previous year, and was shown as an individual short years later.
  • Transylvania 6-5000 (1963) (Bugs' Transylvania assignment; the short's opening credits have been removed, most of Bugs' lines are redubbed to reflect the film's plot and the ending where Bugs' ears turn into bat wings and Bugs flies away was cut and replaced with Bugs calling Daffy)
  • The Abominable Snow Rabbit (1961) (Bugs and Daffy's Himalayas assignment; the opening is altered to reflect the plot)
  • Punch Trunk (1953) (a miniature elephant wanders through town, having many encounters with various people; the cartoon was heavily shortened with the bird bath scene edited to reflect the plot. In the credits, the title was mistakenly read as "Punch Truck".)
  • Jumpin' Jupiter (1955) (seen in epilogue, identified as the Superstition Mountains)

Voice Cast

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Home media

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The film was released on VHS on July 19, 1989, and later on DVD in the United States on August 4, 2009, by Warner Home Video. Three bonus cartoons are included as extras in the DVD release: Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century, Superior Duck and Little Go Beep. It was later released in the UK on July 5, 2021, with the same bonus shorts. It is also available on iTunes.

The Duxorcist saw an individual release as part of the Looney Tunes Parodies Collection on February 4, 2020.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 175. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  2. ^ "Animation Anecdotes #195". Retrieved 2018-11-04.

Notes

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  1. ^ A majority come from old cartoons
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