Having been pleasantly surprised by the three CGI Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons, also by Matthew O'Callaghan, seeing as the pairing of Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd is one of Looney Tunes' most iconic and one of my favourites 'Daffy's Rhapsody' immediately sparked interest.
'Daffy's Rhapsody' was enormously enjoyable, and despite being in CGI it really took me back to sitting in front of the television watching all the classic Looney Tunes (Tom and Jerry too) cartoons for many hours in complete content, and that was a great feeling.
Like the CGI Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons 'Coyote Falls', 'Fur of Flying' and 'Rabid Rider', there's not much wrong with 'Daffy's Rhapsody' at all, and actually it's my personal favourite of the O'Callaghan CGI Looney Tunes cartoons. The only obvious problem was that while a little longer than the Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons (being just over four minutes to their three) it's a bit too short, would have been even happier at having one minute or two more.
However, while the animation in the CGI Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons does slightly better at recreating the old classic Chuck Jones style, the animation in 'Daffy's Rhapsody' still doesn't make the mistake of making the cartoon too far removed from before. It is very detailed and filled with meticulous detail, imaginative visuals throughout Daffy's rendition of Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody 2" (especially when it gets increasingly manic) and vibrant colour. Very little stiffness can be detected in Daffy and Elmer.
The music in 'Daffy's Rhapsody' is simply brilliant. While the music in all O'Callaghan's CGI Looney Tunes cartoons do a great job in keeping close to the classic Looney Tunes scoring, rather than resorting to canned stock music repetitiveness or the music of today that would have not fitted at all in my opinion, it is in 'Daffy's Rhapsody' where the classic Looney Tunes felt the most strong. It's very lively and lushly orchestrated scoring, but the highlight (mainly because it takes up most of the cartoon, so it'd make sense if it did) is absolutely Daffy's rendition of Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody 2".
"Hungarian Rhapsody 2" is a wonderful piece in its own piece, and has appeared to iconic effect numerous times in animation. And 'Daffy's Rhapsody' provides an enormously entertaining, and very unique for that piece, rendition of it, with deft (though understandably abridged) arrangement, uproariously witty lyrics that embraces Daffy's personality to the hilt, very imaginative visuals and the immortal Mel Blanc's bravura vocals (heard through archive sound). 'Daffy's Rhapsody' is entertaining and often hilarious throughout its running time, with the very cleverly timed gags evoking fond memories of the best of Daffy and Elmer (and even closer than the CGI Roadrunner/Coyote cartoons to classic Looney Tunes in spirit), and has never a dull stretch. Plus there is the wildness and looniness that the CGI Roadrunner/Coyote cartoons just lacked.
Daffy and Elmer are both true to their classic characters, Daffy manic and zany while never mean-spirited or a jerk, and Elmer adorably dim-witted. They work so well too, reminding one of that there's a reason as to why their pairing is so well regarded and loved in Looney Tunes and animation history. It was such a pleasure hearing Blanc again, even if it was archive sound, while Billy West does a bang-up job voicing Elmer, one is reminded of Arthur Q. Bryan but it never feels like too much of an imitation.
Overall, another CGI Looney Tunes cartoon winner. 9/10 Bethany Cox
