Quack Shot

The beginning and end of this cartoon were the best parts, as the middle is very repetitive in a traditional Looney Tunes style, with Daffy Duck trying to stop Elmer from shooting ducks - and rightly so! The beginning is entertaining in the way Daffy proposes to stop Elmer and the ending is funny and quite unexpected, especially for Daffy Duck in this era (as usually in the time period this cartoon was made Daffy Duck was not so happy at the end).

Anyway, in this cartoon, Elmer Fudd is on a little boat on a lake, trying to shoot ducks. He eventually catches a mallard, but just on cue Daffy Duck takes the mallard, bandages him and puts him back in the water. Good on Daffy! Of course, Elmer does not take this kindly and does his best to get revenge on Daffy. Who will win the fight..? There are many shooting and TNT related jokes in this cartoon, which bothered me a bit because it is one of my least favourite aspects of Looney Tunes as a whole. However, overall this cartoon is worth watching and is entertaining.

I recommend this episode to people who like Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd and people who object to hunting for sport. Enjoy "Quack Shot"! :-) 8 and a half out of ten.

Simple but fun Daffy Duck & Elmer Fudd short, directed by Robert McKimson. Elmer's duck hunting at a lake when Daffy interrupts repeatedly, coming up with various wacky ways to cease Elmer's hunting. These include an attempted bomb drop from a hot air balloon and a miniature toy boat with cannons that, to Elmer's dismay, actually work. The gags are great and some of the lines are really funny. The animation is colorful and charming, if not overly impressive for the time. Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan provide wonderful voice work, as usual. It's not the best short I've seen with either of these characters but it is a good one that I can't find much to complain about.

While as cartoon characters during the era were often default winners (Bugs, Tweety, Roadrunner) or Losers (Elmer, Yosemite Sam, Daffy, Sylvester, Wile E. Coyote), This cartoon is one of the rare cartoons where both characters win and lose throughout. There are times where Daffy gets blasted or injured like in Chuck Jones Hunting trilogy, but there are other times where he wins and something bad happens to Elmer like in some Friz cartoons. This is what I enjoyed about McKimson where apart from Hippety Hopper, More often than not you had no idea which character would win or lose by the end of it and this cartoon is a great example to prove it.

Looney Tunes, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd are a great collaboration, and while Quack Shot is not among the best of their cartoons it is still a well worth watching one. The beginning sets the tone of the story well, though you can tell by that Daffy posing to stop is not going to work, and the ending is very unpredictable and funny. I don't agree though that the middle is repetitive, some of the moments for me was in this particular section were what made Quack Shot. Daffy's "nothing more serious than a few minor concussions and some broken bones", and stuff" is one of my personal favourite lines of Daffy, "If you shoot one more duck just ONE more duck you'll be in trouble(.. BAM.. )Now you're in trouble!" is also hilarious, while there are some clever gags. While perhaps not the best one, the one that always makes me laugh is Elmer's "what a cute wittle boat" and the boat blows up. The dialogue has some great lines, and is a little more different than the typical Looney Tunes humour relying on a lot of surprises and reverse situations. Daffy works whenever he is a trickster or a foil, a little bit of both is here and it adds to his wacky screwball personality seen. I also like that Elmer is smarter than with Bugs, where he is more dim-witted compared to Bug's more intelligent persona, it is good to be a little different with somebody else, it could get stale otherwise. The animation has beautiful colours and fluid backgrounds, and the two characters are not too blockily drawn either. The music and pacing are crisp and very energetic, while Mel Blanc's vocals are stellar as always. All in all, a great if not quite outstanding Looney Tunes short. 9/10 Bethany Cox