Daffy Duck's Quackbusters

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Greg Ford Friz Freleng Chuck Jones Terry Lennon Robert McKimson
Produced by	Steven S. Greene
Written by	John W. Dunn Michael Maltese Tedd Pierce
Starring	Mel Blanc Julie Bennett Roy Firestone B.J. Ward
Music by	Milt Franklyn William Lava Carl W. Stalling (majority from old cartoons)
Editing by	Treg Brown
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	September 24, 1988
Running time	78 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters is a 1988 Looney Tunes film with a compilation of classic Warner Bros. Cartoons shorts and animated bridging sequences, starring Daffy Duck. It is the final Looney Tunes project in which Mel Blanc provided the voices of the characters. The film was released to theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures on September 24, 1988.

Synopsis

Street corner salesman Daffy tries to make a pitch to reclusive billionaire and "ailing buzzsaw baron" J.P. Cubish (a dog)---who has offered wealth to anyone who can make him laugh (which he hasn't done, apparently, for 50 years) before he passes on---only to be stymied by Cubish's butler (also a dog). Eventually driving off the butler, Daffy becomes Cubish's jester, taking uncounted pies in the face while Cubish laughs uproariously. After Cubish's death soon afterward ("Died Laughing," reports one newspaper), Daffy inherits the Cubish fortune, under the provision that he will use the money to provide an honest service to the community and follow Cubish's creed to display honesty in business affairs. The now-wealthy Daffy derides the idea ("What a rube!" he says of Cubish), but his deceased benefactor returns as a ghost, making wads from Daffy's pile of money vanish until Daffy agrees to uphold the terms. The irked Daffy vows to use the money to wipe out ghosts (à la Ghostbusters) such as Cubish.

Setting himself up as a "Paranormalist at Large," Daffy persuades Bugs Bunny to appear in commercials, then hires Porky Pig (accompanied by Sylvester) as an underling; Cubish continues to make money vanish whenever Daffy seems to be operating dishonestly. Although Daffy successfully exorcises the ghosts possessing a lady duck, he discovers that Cubish has stripped his money down to his last million ("The money supply is dwindling! I'm down to my last million!"). He then receives a call from Porky, who is returning with Sylvester from an assignment to Dry Gulch, and Daffy reassigns him to the Superstition Mountains, much to Sylvester's chargin. Daffy then calls up Bugs, who is leaving following his encounter with Count Blood Count, and together they go up against Hugo the Abominable Snowman, with Hugo repeatedly mistaking Daffy for a rabbit.

When the city is swept with reports of a tiny elephant (from Punch Trunk), Daffy, presuming it mere hysteria, hopes to profit by soothing the public with his "expert" testimony. However, the elephant turns up on Daffy's own broadcast, making him a laughingstock. When Daffy decides to blame the debacle on the absent Porky and mistakingly remarking that there was nothing wrong with a little dishonesty in business affairs, Cubish takes away the last of the money. Egghead appears as a singing telegram, announcing to Daffy that he is being dispossessed. After the repo crew takes away his belongings, Daffy gets evicted and his building is condemned and demolished, with him still in it ("One thing's for sure, I've got nowhere else to go but up!")!

In the "epilogue", Bugs is shown enjoying his vacation in Palm Springs (which was what he wanted throughout the film) and reading about Daffy's downfall, and Porky and Sylvester are stranded in the Superstition Mountains, with Sylvester as cowardly as ever. After a shot of Cubish's grave, it is revealed that Daffy is back where he started, as a street corner salesman (this time, selling supernatural trinkets, including wind-up dolls of Gossamer at one dollar each). Unfortunately, when Daffy earns a dollar bill, it instantly vanishes. The film ends with Daffy angrily shaking his fist at the sky and screaming, "Cubish!" (implying that Cubish has beckoned Daffy and that his curse would continue on for the rest of Daffy's life), which cuts to a 'Finis' card.

Film segments in order

• The Night of the Living Duck (1988) (opening sequence). This is exclusive to this film
• Daffy Dilly (1948) (used at beginning when Daffy tries to get to Cubish)
• The Prize Pest (1950) (used when Daffy recruits Porky)
• Water, Water Every Hare (1950) (Used 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)
• Claws for Alarm (1954) (Porky and Sylvester's Dry Gulch assignment)
• The Duxorcist (1987) (Daffy's first assignment, which was successful). This is also exclusive to this film, though it was shown as an individual cartoon short years later.
• Transylvania 6-5000 (1963) (Bugs' Transylvania assignment, only the ending where Bugs' ears turn into bat wings and Bugs flies away was cut)
• The Abominable Snow Rabbit (1961) (Bugs and Daffy's Himalayas assignment)
• Punch Trunk (1953) (a miniature elephant wanders through town, having many encounters with various people, with only a drunk man not expressing any shock whatsoever)
• Jumpin' Jupiter (1955) (seen in epilogue, identified as the Superstition Mountains)

DVD release

• The film was released on DVD in the USA for the first time ever on August 4, 2009 from Warner Home Video. 3 bonus cartoons are included as extras: Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century, Superior Duck and Little Go Beep.

External links

• Daffy Duck's Quackbusters at the Internet Movie Database
• Daffy Duck's Quackbusters at the Big Cartoon DataBase