This is How Movies Should Be Made

Am I Missing Something?

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

. . . Looney Tunes animated short, an equally desperate Daffy Duck guzzles a gallon of gasoline, a bottle of nitroglycerin, a pint of gun powder, and (in a new wrinkle), some Uranium 238 to go out with a bang, and then laments (from the Other Side, of course) "I can only do it once." Earlier, after "magician" Bugs Bunny has literally sawed Daffy in half, the hapless duck mutters, "Good thing I have Blue Cross." I'm not so sure. I assume Daffy has a small-businessman's policy, like my self-employed next-door neighbor. Blue Cross bamboozled him into thinking that he was signing up for a policy which included the rest of his state's small business folks in a large insurance pool. It turned out that Blue Cross had subdivided his state into tiny geographic and demographic slices, so that my neighbor (and, presumably, the rest of my state's small business people) were "groups" unto themselves. Each year, Blue Cross raised its annual "group" premiums to double the total amount of medical care my neighbor's family had used the previous year--including all the deductibles he was forced to pay out of pocket himself! Due to an ill child, Blue Cross premiums were quadruple this guy's mortgage payments when he was finally priced out of health insurance. (This was BEFORE Obamacare, but it will likely worsen when Cruzcare kicks in.) Poor deluded Daffy!

It's the battle of egos and who is the real show business star: Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck. The marquee bills Bugs as the star but Daffy will have none of that. He confronts the manager, who says Bugs has "more drawing power." Daffy replies, "Oh, yeah? That rabbit couldn't draw flies if he was covered with syrup. Okay, this performance will show I am the star!"With that, the two go on stage with their vaudeville act, beginning with the tap dance duo number, complete with the top hat, tails and canes. By the way, the artwork in this cartoon is exceptional: great drawings and startling color.Daffy's solo tap dance is terrific and I also laughed at his trained "pigeon act." Mostly though, it's just the duck's comments that evoke the most laughter. I was amazed how straight Bugs played it in this cartoon. It's really not his but Daffy's cartoon. Bugs actually plays a low-key, nice guy. I think this would have been better had Bugs had a little more of his spark to him, although obviously it was smarter to just say little and let the egotist duck make a fool of himself.

Daffy Duck is in a vaudeville act with Bugs Bunny which he detests because of all the accolades that Bugs gets, and the lack of them that he gets. Which leads him to drastic measures to win the audience over. Some re-used famous gags cause this short to be less than what it could have been, but using the old saying that "any Looney Tunes is Good Looney Tunes", I can't really dislike this one either. This animated short can be seen on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 and also features an optional commentary by Greg Ford (as well as vintage sound clips and unused musical scores) My Grade: B-

And, this one shows that Bugs can even outsmart Daffy again, even if it's from different directors!This one is my favorite Bugs Vs. Daffy cartoon from Friz Freling!!!