Review: "DAFFY DUCK'S QUACKBUSTERS" Mixes Old and New Quite Well

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 250 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters (1988) – animated

Running time:  78 minutes (1 hour, 18 minutes)

MPAA – PG

DIRECTORS:  Greg Ford and Terry Lennon with Friz Freleng; Chuck Jones; Robert McKimson; and Maurice Noble

WRITERS:  Greg Ford and Terry Lennon (story) with John W. Dunn; Michael Maltese; and Tedd Pierce

PRODUCER:  Steven S. Greene

EDITORS:  Treg Brown; Jim Champin

ANIMATION/COMEDY/FAMILY

Starring:  (voice) Mel Blanc, Julie Bennett, Roy Firestone, June Foray, Ben Frommer, B.J. Ward, and Mel Tormé

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters is a 1988 animated compilation film directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon.  The film is comprised of classic Warner Bros. Cartoons animated shorts with animated bridging sequences and other new material.  It was released to theaters in September 1988 and was released on VHS in July 1989, which is how I saw it.

This film was the final theatrical production in which the primary “Looney Tunes” voice actor, Mel Blanc, provided the voices of the various Looney Tunes characters before his death in July 1989.  Daffy Duck's Quackbusters focuses on Daffy Duck who opens a detective agency for the supernatural with the help of his Looney Tunes buddies in a bid to deal with meddlesome ghosts.

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters is preceded by Night of the Living Duck, a 1988 Daffy Duck animated theatrical short.  It works as a kind of appetizer for what comes next.  Then, comes Daffy Dilly, a 1948 Chuck Jones cartoon in which Daffy Duck (Mel Blanc) tries to earn a rich reward by making ailing millionaire J.B. Cubish (Mel Blanc), who hasn’t laughed in ages, laugh one more time.  This short is the jump-off point for Quackbusters' story, as it ends and new animation footage and the film’s main plot and narrative begin.

The plot concerns Daffy who has inherited the bulk of J.B. Cubish’s fortune, but Cubish’s will stipulates that Daffy must use the money to further business and enterprise and also for goodwill.  Daffy brushes off the stipulation, but he soon discovers that Cubish’s spirit/ghost/poltergeist can reach beyond death and take his millions with him to the next world.  Every time Daffy lies, cheats, or acts like a jerk to someone, cue the lightening and magic and Daffy’s inherited millions start to disappear as wads of cash fade away.

Enraged, Daffy forms a ghost-busting agency, “Ghouls ‘R’ Us,” a group of “paranormalists” who fight meddlesome ghosts (like Cubish), as well as monsters, aliens, and other weird creatures.  The agency is really a front for Daffy, behind which he can hide and pretend to do good.  He convinces Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc) and Porky Pig (Mel Blanc), as well as Porky's pet, Sylvester the Cat (Mel Blanc), to join the agency.  Daffy sends them out ghost and monster hunting, but in the end, as with all his machinations, Daffy is destined to fail.

I have been anticipating the new animated film, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (2024), which just went into wide theatrical release in the United States.  With that in mind, I decided to re-edit my review of Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters.  This film falls into the tradition of such Warner Bros. Looney Tunes films as Daffy Duck’s Fantastic Island (1983) and The Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981).  Quackbusters is a kind of “clip show” movie in which the filmmakers combine new, original animated film footage with footage from classic “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies” cartoons – also called a “compilation film.”

Writer-directors Greg Ford and Terry Lennon and their fellow filmmakers seamlessly weave classic cartoons with new animation.  In fact, one has to look carefully to see where the Ford/Lennon-directed animation ends and old cartoons by famed Looney Tune/Merrie Melodies directors begin and then move back to Ford and Lennon’s work.  In fact, only 40 percent of this film is classic animation from the 40s and 50s.  These include The Abominable Snow Rabbit (1961) with Bugs and Daffy; Hyde & Go Tweet (1960) with Sylvester and Tweety; The Prize Pest (1951) with Porky and Daffy; Punch Trunk (1953); Scaredy Cat (1948); and its 1954 remake, Claws for Alarm (1954), both with Porky and Sylvester; and Transylvania 6-5000 (1963) with Bugs.

The other 60 percent is made of brand new animation and two of Ford and Lennon’s late 80’s animated shorts.  That includes The Duxorcist, which, when it appeared in 1987, was the first Warner Bros. animated theatrical short in 20 years, and also the aforementioned Night of the Living Duck.  The new animation and narrative is so well done and incorporated with the older material that Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters is the best of the clip show movies.  In fact, the new animation, while not nearly as good as the “Golden Age” Warner material, only looks a little off in a few minor instances.

Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters is not great, but is certainly good.  It is fun, kid’s stuff that is as surprisingly entertaining as it is well put together and designed.  I think Looney Tunes fans, in moments of nostalgia, will like this, so it is too bad that Warner has not tried this again (as of this writing).

6 of 10

B

★★★ out of 4 stars

Re-edited:  Thursday, March 13, 2025

The text is copyright © 2025 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Animated Short Review: "Baby Buggy Bunny" is One of the Great Bugs Bunny Shorts (Happy B'day, Mel Blanc)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 163 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Baby Buggy Bunny (1954)
Running time: 7 minutes
DIRECTOR: Charles M. Jones
WRITER: Michael Maltese
PRODUCER: Edward Selzer
ANIMATORS: Ken Harris, Abe Levitow, Lloyd Vaughan, and Ben Washam
LAYOUT ARTIST: Ernest Nordli
BACKGROUND ARTIST: Philip DeGuard
COMPOSER: Milt Franklyn

SHORT/ANIMATION/COMEDY/FAMILY

Starring: (voice) Mel Blanc

The subject of this review is Baby Buggy Bunny, a 1954 animated short film directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. This animated film is part of the “Merrie Melodies” series of cartoon shorts from Warner Bros. Pictures. The film stars Bugs Bunny, as he takes on an orphaned baby who is definitely more than he seems.

In Baby Buggy Bunny, Baby-Faced Finster (aka Ant Hill Harry) (Mel Blanc) robs a bank, but his loot ends up in Bugs Bunny’s (Mel Blanc) home (the hole in the ground, rabbit hutch). Finster disguises himself as an orphaned baby, and perches himself on Bugs’ doorstep as an orphaned infant, left with a note by the missing mother in which she ask Bugs to care for Baby Finster. Bugs takes Finster in, but finds the baby quite ornery. Soon, Bugs figures out that Baby Finster is really Baby-Faced Finster, hot off a bank robbery, and Bugs is determined to see justice done.

Although there are so many Looney Tunes animated shorts that I could call a favorite, Baby Buggy Bunny stands out because the entire cartoon is top-notch – from the stylish character designs and quicksilver animation to the superb sketch comedy and gag writing. This is one of the Looney Tunes that is as much for adults (if not more so) as it is for children.

Classic Bugs Bunny cartoons usually set the rabbit up against worthy adversaries; in the case of Baby-Faced Finster, the short film has a nasty and sneaky creep who is as malevolent as he can be in Looney Tune cartoon. A good villain really kicks Bugs Bunny’s smarts and luck into high gear, and Finster certainly does that. Outside of cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny vs. Daffy Duck or Yosemite Sam, Baby Buggy Bunny is one of the better fight Tunes.

8 of 10
A

Tuesday, October 25, 2005