The Ultimate Poll

[Marty26]

Well, I think it's finally time to get the general consensus: Is the Daffy/Speedy series as a whole a hit or a miss?

I think it's a "Hit." There were enough funny cartoons in the series to make me fairly glad I had the chance to discover it (since the Daffy/Speedy cartoons are actually fairly rare now). And the sheer peculiarity of Daffy becoming Speedy's nemesis was interesting. I even kind of liked the mean/bitter Daffy (some of his facial expressions in cartoons like The Astroduck were hilarious).

[nickramer]

Where's the in-between button? That's what I think of the cartoons.

[TheBlueHombre]

Compared to the theatrical Warner Brothers cartoons, I think the Daffy/Speedy cartoons pale in comparison. If I had not grown up with the original W-B cartoons, then I would probably think differently about it. However, I thought the series was very mediocre.

[ohmahaaha]

Compared to the theatrical Warner Brothers cartoons, I think the Daffy/Speedy cartoons pale in comparison. If I had not grown up with the original W-B cartoons, then I would probably think differently about it. However, I thought the series was very mediocre.
The Daffy/Speedy cartoons were ALSO theatrical, weren't they?? But by then the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies series had "Jumped the Shark."

I've always considered these poor re-hashings of the Road Runner series.

[Fibber Fox]

Well, I think it's finally time to get the general consensus: Is the Daffy/Speedy series as a whole a hit or a miss?

I think it's a "Hit."

Sorry, Marty, but I find them practically unwatchable. The worst is one when Speedy is turned into Witch Hazel. "What Makes Daffy Duck" it aint.

FF

[J. J. Hunsecker]

It was a bad idea to pair them up in the first place. Daffy was made into a humorless villian. I find them almost unwatchable. It was a long way from Daffy's heyday in the 40's.:daffy:

[Thad]

MISS.

[Mr. Semaj]

Definitely a miss.

[JPox]

I shall say "miss".
I enjoyed a few, but why was there so many?
Why was Daffy living in Mexico anyway?
I did however enjoy watching the Daffy & Speedy Show when it was on Saturday mornings back in the '80s. I was only a tyke then of course.

[ALK]

Unfortunately a miss, but I did like the Daffy/Speedy movie, FANTASTIC ISLAND.:daffy: :speedy:

[Sogturtle]

Compared to the theatrical Warner Brothers cartoons, I think the Daffy/Speedy cartoons pale in comparison. If I had not grown up with the original W-B cartoons, then I would probably think differently about it. However, I thought the series was very mediocre.


BlueHombre and all~

Welllll the Daffy/Speedy cartoons WERE solely theatrical Warner Brothers cartoons... They were just made by their former crew employed by DePatie-Freleng (plus 3 over at Format).

We're ALL guilty of tarring them with much too big a brush as being "rotten":eek: or "bad" or "horrible":eek: or even as all being good:eek:... There are good cartoons amongst them and their are bad ones as well.

Actually THIS poll would be far, far better if it broke them down according to STORYMEN... Thusly...

The handful of John Dunn ones are all directed by Friz (and all in all pretty-darn-good). :cool:

The McKimson directed ones written by Sid Marcus or Michael O'Connor are also quite good... :cool: There is actual wit present...:p

Like some others on the board I actually LIKE "A Haunting We Will Go"... It IS weird, but it is weird and funny! And it has NO WRITER credited...:D

It's the Dave Detiege ones that stink up the landscape!! (The two Daffys without Speedy ("Corn On The Cop" and "Tease For Two" also suffer from problems...) "Corn..." is not directed well (fine story), and "Tease..." has a fine concept but poor writing (thanks to Detiege) and NO Stan Freberg on voice:rolleyes:.

Then there's the three Format Daffy-Speedy toons...:daffy::speedy::slow: which work better than you think they would!
And then finally the Lovy ones which everybody abhors... (I'd love to hear what Alex Lovy thought of those!). But the Lovy ones really are the worst of the lot, looking like he was thinking "eh, it's a living"... :eek::rolleyes:

[oceansoul]

I can't decide. I agree that Daffy isn't a good villain, but I never irritated by the duck-mouse pairing itself, because it doesn't make less sense than a western villain (Sam) vs Bugs Bunny or more closely Donald Duck vs Chip'n'Dale.

I also think that the Speedy/Sylvester pairing wasn't much better either. Sylvester is not a natural foil to a mexican mouse in mexican layout, isn't he? And the problem is most of those cartoons are built around the same unfunny plot. The good Speedy cartoons are those when there are real mexican villains (Mexicali shmoes, Tortilla flaps, Tabasco road, Pancho's hideaway) or the plot is more original (Mexican boarders or Gonzales tamales).

Back to the topic, the series would have been a lot better if it doesn't last 25 cartoons but 8-10 only. First of all, I noticed that the ones written by Michael O'Connor are the best ones of the series (Daffy rents, Daffy's diner and Feather finger; Taste of catnip is rubbish). The first three ones that written by John Dunn are also decent (It's nice to have..., Moby duck and Assault and peppered). Probably another villain, like Pancho would fit more to Assault...
The ones that written by David Detiege and Sid Marcus are quite mediocre. I like Go go amigo, it's a bit politically incorrect cartoon, Astroduck is so-so, the others are forgettable. My main problem with Squeak in deep and Snow excuse is that the characters are totally out of place. Well worn Daffy and Chili corn corny use a totally unfunny and hardly understandable mean Daffy.

The not DFE cartoons are completely rubbish, with the exception of Quacker tracker which was a decent effort even with hunter Daffy. If those Larriva-Lovy shorts wouldn't be directed, the whole series would have got better critics really.

My personal rating of the cartoons in a 1-10 scale:

It's nice to have a mouse... 7
Moby duck 7
Assault and peppered 6
Well worn Daffy 4
Chili corn corny 3
Go go amigo 6
Astroduck 6
Mucho locos 2
Mexican mouse-piece 4
Daffy rents 8
Snow excuse 5
Haunting we will go 2
A squeak in the deep 5
Feather finger 8
Swing ding amigo 4
Taste of a catnip 3
Daffy's diner 7

Quacker tracker 7
Spy swatter 3
Music mice-tro 2

The Lovy shorts: 1 or 2, Fiesta fiasco reaches 4.

[Marty26]

I can't decide. I agree that Daffy isn't a good villain, but I never irritated by the duck-mouse pairing itself, because it doesn't make less sense than a western villain (Sam) vs Bugs Bunny or more closely Donald Duck vs Chip'n'Dale.

I also think that the Speedy/Sylvester pairing wasn't much better either. Sylvester is not a natural foil to a mexican mouse in mexican layout, isn't he? And the problem is most of those cartoons are built around the same unfunny plot. The good Speedy cartoons are those when there are real mexican villains (Mexicali shmoes, Tortilla flaps, Tabasco road, Pancho's hideaway) or the plot is more original (Mexican boarders or Gonzales tamales).


Amen! I also never thought Sylvester was much better than Daffy as a foil for Speedy. The whole "Mexican Town" environment just didn't suit him. And overall, he just didn't have the chemistry with Speedy that he had with Tweety and Sylvester Jr. At least Daffy as Speedy's nemesis was somewhat interesting (if just because the pairing is so unlikely).

[Thad]

The only reason they paired Daffy and Speedy so often was to get more of their cartoons to play on television. So if there's any lack of "chemistry", you know why!

[Bartman]

While there are some funny & clever entries in the Daffy/Speedy series ("Snow Excuse", "A Taste of Catnip", "Daffy's Diner"), I too have to rate it a MISS. A few funny films cannot save this awful mis-match (a duck chasing a mouse?? C'mon!!)

[Do-Do]

Miss!

http://www.worldofstock.com/thumbs/PRE1682.jpg

[oceansoul]

While there are some funny & clever entries in the Daffy/Speedy series ("Snow Excuse", "A Taste of Catnip", "Daffy's Diner"), I too have to rate it a MISS. A few funny films cannot save this awful mis-match (a duck chasing a mouse?? C'mon!!)

This is the point I never felt the problem. There are other flaws with the series, but the duck vs mouse itself is nothing special we haven't seen in other toons. You should add the question why a western villain like Yosemite Sam bothers his time with chasing a rabbit instead of killing him instantly? Because it's a cartoon.

Interestingly Taste of a catnip always irritated me for some reason. Many people says it's the maiden Daffy vs Speedy, where the duck has a legal reason to chase, but IMHO it's only a desperate try (in an unfunny way) to explain the pairing's existance to the audience.

[SatStorm]

IMO,those late 60s cartoons, shows how looney toons would look if there made them for Kids (or teens).
Compared to earlier WB cartoons, definately a miss. Compared what followed in the the 70s and 80s, a hit!
If I like something from DFE is:thinkpink

[J. B. Warner]

In general, it's a miss. Daffy is very poorly characterized in these cartoons, being evil for no real reason. You don't really notice it at first, but after a while, it begins to stand out as the major flaw with these cartoons. A few of them are okay, but even then, they're nowhere near as great as the classics. Heck, even Daffy at his most selfish in the Golden Age ("Ali Baba Bunny", for example) was a more likeable character than Daffy in the DePatie/Freleng era.

[lonesome-lenny]

These cartoons are the dregs of theatrical animation. They make me long for even the lamest late '50s WB cartoons. I vehemently dislike Speedy Gonzales to begin with, so these late incarnations aren't likely to win me over, anyhow. Just like all cartoons, some people like 'em, and some (myself included) don't.

[Sogturtle]

These cartoons are the dregs of theatrical animation. They make me long for even the lamest late '50s WB cartoons. I vehemently dislike Speedy Gonzales to begin with, so these late incarnations aren't likely to win me over, anyhow. Just like all cartoons, some people like 'em, and some (myself included) don't.

Nooooo Lonesome Lenny... Without a single doubt, the sheer dregs of theatrical animation are the Paul J. Smith Lantz cartoons! No two ways about it!!! I go blind for three days after watching any of those!! :D And after those for sheer horrible-ness would be many, many of the Paramount '50s toons. Then the worst of the Terrytoons.... Then the worst of Columbia, then the worst of Disney... Somewhere in there is UPA and I'm not going to try to place it...:p
[I left out the worst of TV cartoons as that's such HUGE area;)].

[Thad]

What?! No Van Beuren on your list of sheer dregs? I'll take "Flim Flam Fountain" or "For the Love of Pizza" over those films any day. Not to mention in spades just about any Lantz, Disney, or Famous cartoon...

For what it's worth, the worst director of theatrical cartoons in MY book is Charles Nichols. He only had his name on about one cartoon that I can think of is great ("Plutopia"), and the rest is vile boredom and just bastardizations of Mickey Mouse.

[Matthew Hunter]

I've said it many times. I'll say it again. I like these cartoons! Most of them are very funny to me. I think the characters work okay together, though in some cases Daffy is a little over the edge on the mean scale. The only real problem I see with them as a whole is that there were too MANY. I think "Daffy's Diner" would have been a good note to end on, but instead they took a series that was already getting tired (and what series wouldn't, after so many cartoons in only 2 years!), and made MORE under Alex Lovy. And as some of you mentioned above, THOSE are awful!

I haven't seen the Larriva/Format ones in a while, but "Quacker Tracker" and "Spy Swatter" (which I own a cel and drawing from) are pretty good, and "Music Mice-Tro" is horrible.

[Fastphilly]

It is definately a miss. I'm 34 years old and my favorite era of WB Cartoons are between 1947 to 1956 . I grew up watching The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show on CBS and watching them after school on an independent local station (playing the 1948-1955 era shorts) and they would barely play Speedy Gonzales. These latter Speedy cartoons have bland gags , poor animation , and lame plots. I'm disapointed that Volume 4 of the Golden Collection devoted an entire disc to these shorts.

[nickramer]

What?! No Van Beuren on your list of sheer dregs? I'll take "Flim Flam Fountain" or "For the Love of Pizza" over those films any day. Not to mention in spades just about any Lantz, Disney, or Famous cartoon...

For what it's worth, the worst director of theatrical cartoons in MY book is Charles Nichols. He only had his name on about one cartoon that I can think of is great ("Plutopia"), and the rest is vile boredom and just bastardizations of Mickey Mouse.
I strongly disagree about Nichols directing 1 good cartoon. I like his first cartoon and I thought he got better with the Pluto series by 1950 (though the series ended a year later). Heck, I even enjoy his Donald cartoons.
I do agree that he didn't do well with Mickey,(though his first two Mickeys are my personal favorite). He even directed my least favorite UPA-ish idea: a commercal with a badly drawn Mickey!:eek: I haven't actually seen this commercal, but I was shooked to a model sheet of this in Cartoon Modern.

[Sogturtle]

What?! No Van Beuren on your list of sheer dregs? I'll take "Flim Flam Fountain" or "For the Love of Pizza" over those films any day. Not to mention in spades just about any Lantz, Disney, or Famous cartoon...

For what it's worth, the worst director of theatrical cartoons in MY book is Charles Nichols. He only had his name on about one cartoon that I can think of is great ("Plutopia"), and the rest is vile boredom and just bastardizations of Mickey Mouse.

Thad~

I just view Van Beuren as soooo "fringy"... As they only operated a handful of years in the Sound Era, with a very small total output. Whereas most of the others operated a minimum of twice as long (or much longer) and their libraries are huge by comparison. And the Paul Smith films were gleefully thrust on us not only theatrically through the Sixties and Early Seventies but then were rammed down our throats on TV... The Van Beuren toons largely laid growing mold after the advent of color TV.:tweety:

[dandu]

Hey! I love Van Beuren cartoons!

I haven't seen much of Daffy and Speedy but I don't like Daffy's attitude in those.

[gilligan fanati]

I have probably seen all of them. They really aren't good, but it beats a lot of other crap. I put miss, but they aren't the worse thing in the world

[Marty26]

Out of curiosity, is the Daffy/Speedy series in the public domain now?