La patrouille de l'espace

Joe Monday (Daffy Duck) and his partner Shmoe Tuesday (Porky Pig) are space cops in the future. They are assigned to investigate a series of bank robberies. They use all kinds of strange advance tech. The case turns back on them.

This is a futuristic take on Dragnet. Daffy is more reserved than usual. They are doing old hardboiled cops. The look is Jetsons which is a few years away. I love all the visuals. I love most of this except the ending. It is too abrupt and not well set up. This is almost begging to be something longer. I wouldn't mind cutting out the ending and extend this into a full half hour.

More than any other Looney Tunes cartoon, "Rocket Squad" proves - in my opinion, at least - that they didn't have to do much to be hilarious. In this case, the setting is the space age (in fact, pretty much the same setting as "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century") and humans now populate the entire universe. The men in charge of law enforcement are Sgt. Joe Friday (Daffy Duck) and his sidekick Sgt. Shmoe Monday (Porky Pig). Even though Friday never gets the time right, he always springs into action when called upon to stop crime. In fact, it's really easy, as the transport machine is labeled "Scene of the Crime". Having collected the evidence, they set out to find the perpetrator. Only there's a twist at the end.

Aside from the simple "Dragnet" spoof, it's just a riot how this cartoon offers a new gag every minute. Aside from the transporter, there's the no-parking sign, the chief on the TV, and the ubiquitous in-joke: the names of criminals features John Burton, Tedd Pierce, C.M. Jones, Mel Blanc and Eddie Selzer. No matter how irreverent they get, you can't assume that it's the limit.

I should identify that Daffy and Porky aren't their usual wacky selves here. In fact, they mostly stare and talk softly. Of course, since they're spoofing "Dragnet", they have to imitate it. And maybe the creators did sort of rip off "Duck Dodgers..." with the backgrounds, but that's no crime. This cartoon is a laugh riot the whole way through. I'm sure that the creators must have had a great time making it.

This takeoff on both Dragnet and Sci-Fi space stories is just incredibly fun to watch. Daffy Duck is "Monday" and his partner Porky is "Tuesday." ("He always follows me," explains Daffy.) They are space cops. We then get the old "Dragnet" Joe Friday narration of a case from the long-standing successful cop TV program. The more you know those old Dragnet shows, the more you'll laugh at this parody, even down to Porky's hat which was an exact replica of the one Ben Alexander wore on the show as Jack Webb's sidekick. As someone pointed out, the title is a reference to an older show called "Racket Squad" but this cartoon is strictly a takeoff on Dragnet.

The attraction of this cartoon is not the story but the drawings, the artists depictions of the future. They are both spectacular and full of humor. Check out all the signs on all the wild space stations, making fun of drive-in restaurants to space farms to police stations....you name it. (i.e. Notice the names of the most-wanted criminals on the typewriter keys.) There is a lot to see in this cartoon. These writers had some imagination!

It is highly recommend and can be seen on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Three.

I was really surprised at how much I loved Rocket Squad. I love Looney Tunes and I love Daffy Duck, and I loved this. Why? Well for starters the art work is absolutely fantastic here, the colours, the rockets, the sceneries and backgrounds are top notch throughout, with some truly delightful visual ideas(ie. tubes for stairs). The music is lovely as well, and the dialogue is wonderful in a deadpan sort of way. You can argue that the supporting characters are rather stereotyped, yes they are in a sense, but I was enjoying myself too much to really care. Daffy, in manic and cynical mode is on top form, and while Porky is merely a side character he does well with what he has. Once again, the one and only Mel Blanc does a stellar job with the voices. Overall, visually imaginative and funny cartoon. 10/10 Bethany Cox

In the future, the world has spread over the universe and everyone travels in spaceships in a technology filled world. However one thing hasn't changed - crime still exists and we still need law enforcement officers to stop it; that's where Sgt Joe Monday and his partner Detective Shmoe Tuesday come in. When a bank is robbed, the two are dispatched to solve the crime.

When writing a cartoon it is often a spoof that is used as the basis - be it Robin Hood, films of the period, genres etc; however this must rank as one of the most unlikely combination of spoofs I have seen in ages! This cartoon takes Dragnet and sets it in the future of Duck Dodgers (even using some of the animation and backgrounds from that cartoon). Despite this weird combination, it works pretty well - mainly the deadpan delivery of the Dragnet spoof though. The juxtaposition of the two genres is very smart and each makes the other seem even more fanciful. Some good running gags help cover the material that isn't quite as smart.

Daffy and Porky are not really the characters I love in this cartoon but they are great in their roles. Having seen this I wondered if there were other shorts where they played the Dragnet characters because here they are very funny with it. Supporting cops and criminals are basic American Irish stereotypes of the day and do what they are there to do. The ending is amusing and is unintentionally a pretty accurate prediction of the PC state of the law these days!

Overall this cartoon has elements that aren't funny and don't really work; and if you were being cynical then it is probably a bit lazy just to steal backgrounds from the Duck Dodgers cartoon but the spoofing of Dragnet in a futuristic situation creates quite a few gags. Very enjoyable but now I want to see Daffy & Porky in a Dragnet spoof set in the 50's without the sci-fi twist.