Robert C. Bruce

This must-have animation collection "Looney Tunes Super Stars: Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl" (2010) is filled with shorts that have been released on disc before and will delight any Looney Tunes fans. Episodes include "Tick Tock Tuckered," "Nasty Quacks," Chuck Jones's "Daffy Dilly" (1948), "Wise Quackers," "The Prize Pest," "Design for Leaving," "Stork Naked," "This is a Life?" (1955), "Dime to Retire," "Ducking the Devil," "People Are Bunny" (1959), "Person to Bunny" (1960), "Daffy's Inn Trouble," "The Iceman Ducketh" and "Suppressed Duck" (1965).

Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl was released in conjunction with Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire None of these shorts have been released on disc before, and Chuck Jones's "Daffy Dilly" (1948) is a welcome addition to any cartoon library. Daffy sets out to win the money a gloomy millionaire is offering to anyone who can make him laugh--and succeeds in spite of himself. But many of these cartoons are, simply, duds. "This Is a Life?" (1955), "People Are Bunny" (1959), and "Person to Bunny" (1960) spoof largely forgotten TV shows. How many viewers under 65 will recognize caricatures of Art Linkletter and Edward R. Murrow? The films pitting Daffy against Bugs play like weak remakes of Jones's "Rabbit Fire" trilogy or Friz Freleng's "Show Biz Bugs"--"Person to Bunny" even repeats some of Daffy's tap dance to "Jeepers Creepers" in "Show Biz." The very late "Suppressed Duck" (1965) is painfully unfunny. Once again, some of the films have been inexplicably cropped to simulate a widescreen format.

Bugs fights with Blacque Jacque Shellacque over Klondike gold.

Man's best friend is the subject of a series of blackout gags, climaxing with the bogus heroism of a dog who travels across the country for an unexpected purpose.

A passing truck spills a variety of hats, causing Elmer and Bugs to change personalities in rapid succession to fit the headgear they wind up wearing.

A scientist invents the portable hole, only to have a thief steal his samples to go on a crime spree.

Bobo the Elephant is baseball team mascot for the lean and meek Sweetwater Shnooks, all of whom are rendered unconscious by their opponents, the husky and brutal Greenville Goons. The Shnooks' manager, rather than forfeit the game, decides to bring in Bobo to play every position - and he does rather well!

After Claude frames Marc Antony, making it look like the bulldog ate the kitty, Marc must try various methods of getting back at Claude from outside the yard.

A tiny elephant emerges from a banana boat and wanders about town, causing an uproar among the populace. Sightings are attributed variously to mass hysteria, insanity and dipsomania.

Migrating swallows are making their annual spring return to San Juan Capistrano, and a hungry cat awaits them.

In the Western town of Rising Gorge, Bugs faces off against Yosemite Sam, "the roughest, toughest, he-man stuffest hombre who's ever crossed the Rio Grande."

Henery Hawk hides in an egg to catch his first chicken, while Foghorn Leghorn tells him that Sylvester is the real chicken and the farm dog joins in the fun.

Little Bobo the Elephant decides to leave a jungle, where he is assigned to the thankless task of moving logs with his trunk, for a glamorous life in a circus in America. On the advice of a minah bird, Bobo paints himself pink to gain access to a ship bound for the U.S., because nobody on the ship will admit to seeing a pink elephant much less act to remove the presumed hallucination. After Bobo arrives in America, a steet-cleaner washes his pink color away, and people are now willing to acknowledge seeing the little elephant. Bobo is arrested by the police and chained for trial by judge, and the judge sentences him to life - in a circus, where he is bat "boy" for the big top baseball team, and laments that he's carrying logs (i.e. bats) yet again!

One long chase: worm chases apple; bird chases worm; cat chases bird; dog chases cat; dogcatcher chases dog; dogcatcher's wife chases dogcatcher; mouse chases dogcatcher's wife. With occasional interruptions by a skunk.

A (male?!) mosquito army prepares for the attack. We see basic training, which includes an obstacle course (slapping hands, fly swatters), target practice on stuffed dummy human forms, and training for taking off and landing on "flattops" (sardine cans).

Movie patrons watch and interact with a variety of short subjects and a spoof of the film "To Have and Have Not."

Porky Pig is hot on the trail of a vandal painting mustaches on signs everywhere (Daffy Duck).

Private Snafu (Situation Normal All Fucked Up) presents his brother Tarfu (Things Are Really Fucked Up) who was a carrier pigeon keeper and has joined the Navy

A doting father gives a cute little duckling to his little daughter. That duckling grows up to become Daffy Duck, who soon develops quite a night life, which he loudly explains at breakfast, in the process of eating everything in sight. When the exasperated father's attempts at violently removing Daffy fail, he tries one final measure to drive Daffy away...

Porky leads a wagon train into "Injun Joe Territory," and finally comes up against the fearsome Superchief. But Sloppy Moe, a survivor of a previous Injun Joe attack, knows something about him he won't tell... until the very end.

A haggard mosquito complains how tough life is with the military taking the proper precautions against malaria infection.

Private Snafu learns about fear

An armada of malaria-laden mosquitoes seeks human targets and finds Private Snafu, who fails to protect himself adequately against their onslaught.

Daffy Duck is a message courier bird delivering a military secret that a femme fatale Nazi spy is determined to get.

Red Hot Ryder is sent to catch the Masked Marauder (Bugs Bunny) who is terrorizing a small Western town.

Snafu has an object lesson on the value of complete and accurate regular reports when he discovers and reports evidence of the enemy's presence at his assigned area.

As Adolf Hitler personally flies a bomber on a mission to the Soviet Union, the gremlins from the Kremlin set about to stop him.

Using Snafu as an example, Techanical Fairy First Class teaches the methods of effective camouflage.

Pvt. Snafu thinks he's too smart to get caught by an enemy booby trap, but he soon finds that the traps are alluring and that he is every bit the booby.

At the Academy Awards ceremony, Bugs Bunny tries to convince the audience that he deserves the Oscar. Opens with live action scenes of Hollywood.

"As everyone knows," the narrator begins, "goldfish must have water... and cats hate water." And so it goes.

Animated documentary short film demonstrating the reasons and methods of the point system of wartime food rationing.

Hearing that silver foxes are all the rage in high society, a fox paints himself silver and gets himself trapped, finding out too late that it's only his fur anyone is interested in.

A collection of various gags in the form of a travelogue.

A wacky travelogue takes us to the zoo, where Porky Pig is the keeper and goofy animals provide the basis for a series of black-out gags.

Stranded on an island after his ship was wrecked by a hurricane, Porky meets a friendly African Native. They build a house, and Porky begins to explore the island. On his way we see various sight gags.

A spot gag cartoon presenting amusing facts about bugs.

Random gags around military life, set on an army base. A bugler uses a jukebox to play reveille. In formation, one private has a great deal of trouble remembering what comes after "3"; after he gets it, he decides not to go for the $32 question. In the mess hall, the machine gunners machine gun their food while the bombers catch falling biscuits. The infantry marches for miles - past a "next time, take the train" billboard.

Spot gags on an around-the-world trip by airplane. The plane takes off like a bird by hopping into the sky, then follows along the railroad tracks dodging obstacles and going through the tunnel. A modernized Mount Rushmore includes Franklin W. Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie, the Democratic and Republican Party nominees for president in 1940. In Ireland, a tenor sings until a hair gets stuck in the projector gate. The tenor yells, "Hey you up there, get that hair out of here!", and a silhouette hand plucks the hair away. In Africa, an ostrich can't find any of his friends, who all have their heads stuck in the sand.

Porky hosts a radio program, where animals tell their stories. The guest star is Kansas City Kitty, the best mouser in the country. She tells the story of her life, including her marriage to Tom Collins, the birth of Little Patrick (not necessarily in that order), and the turning point of her life. The mice have plotted out a major operation like gangsters. They sneak out and kidnap Patrick and hold him hostage...

A narrator tells how military recruits are trained on land and sea. Men get a physical, undergo basic training, do duties on board ship for gunnery practice, clean the decks, and prepare for battle.

Porky introduces a newsreel of wartime spot gags, including a spoof of the RKO Pictures logo, and caricatures of Jack Benny and Rochester.

A series of wacky vignettes involving farm animals.

Porky Pig narrates a very strange newsreel.

A series of typical Avery spot gags set around wild animals. A dainty deer drinks very loudly and rudely from a lake. A pack rat swaps an egg and an acorn, then back again ("monotonous, isn't it?"). A flock of ducks lands; a hunter fires; all fly away, except one with an American flag on its side. A termite fells a huge tree. A cowboy rides across the plains well, no; his horse is just slapping itself with the front hooves. A coyote calls to its mate: "Hey, Mabel, come on out!" A camel contradicts the narrator, saying he's really thirsty. A wild dog: because of the lumbermen.

A series of blackout gags parodying aviation and aviation films. Gags include a parchutist whose parachute reads "Good to the last drop", jokes about LA's expanding city limits, and a satire of test pilot and their bravery.

A bear hunter tells Porky the tale of a hunt 30 years ago: a bear got a taste of his chewing tobacco and chased him down to get it; the hunter took the bear on with his bare hands rather than lose the tobacco. Or at least, that's the way he told the story.

A series of gags based on Mother Goose stories.

In this version of "The Courtship of Miles Standish", Elmer Fudd is messanger John Alden, sent to give Miles' love letter to Pricilla. While delivering the message, however, her house is attacked by Indians, and John is the only one who can save her.

The Three Bears meets Little Red Riding Hood, told in the style of Tex Avery.

The Pilgrims, led by captain Porky Pig, set sail from Plymouth for America. We get a series of ocean sailing blackout gags, including a running bit between our narrator and the cook, looking for a fish suitable for dinner, a singing trio interrupted by seasickness, flying fish (in airplanes). Then, The Rains Came. A collision with an iceberg is narrowly averted. Land is sighted. The pilgrims are welcomed by Chief Sitting Bull.

Porky Pig goes on a safari in Africa, and runs into an assortment of crazy animals, wacky natives and Kay Kyser giving dance lessons in the middle of the jungle.

Porky Pig is on his way to the store to pick up some groceries for his mother when he walks by a sign saying that the local movie theater is having a "kids admitted free" day. The excited Porky rushes in and views a series of spoofs of newsreels, movie trailers, feature films, and even the Lone Ranger!

A tour of the waters near a South Sea island, introducing us to the various kinds of marine life, including the pickled herring, the hermit crab, the starfish, a seahorse race, and many other puns. Among the running gags, a two-headed fish who keeps asking for directions to Mr. Ripley and a professor in a diving sphere looking for a rare wim-wam whistling shark.

When there is a drought on an Indian reservation, everyone is in desperate need of water so that they can quench their thirst, their crops can grow, the animals will provide them food, etc. But rather than having to wait for the rain to come the old-fashioned way, a weather pill pertaining to that is used to bring instant showers.

An arctic saloon. The tiny dog, Dan McFoo, is playing a pinball-like marble game in the back. His girlfriend, Sue, sounding like Katharine Hepburn, stands by. A stranger comes in with eyes for Sue; he begins a boxing match with Dan. After Dan gets knocked down, he accuses the stranger of having something in the glove; the ref finds four horseshoes and a horse. After the fight goes on a while with no conclusion, the narrator tosses a couple of guns, the lights go out, and Dan is shot or is he?

A tour of the zoo, in typical Tex Avery style: a series of one-liners and sight gags, punctuated by Egghead teasing a lion at intervals, despite the admonishments of the narrator.

Porky reads a book of new dog tricks; unfortunately, his dog, Rover, is old. A puppy comes by and taunts him.