Ain't That Ducky

As a big fan of Daffy Duck, I saw Ain't That Ducky realising it was one of the few cartoons I hadn't yet seen of his. I liked it, though I may be biased as I love a vast majority of the Looney Tunes shorts. But is it one of the best? Not for me. The story is very simple in concept and is rather routine in spots. And while the duckling's appearance is cute, he does very little other than cry and shout and while what is shouted is funny the delivery is unsubtle and can grate depending on who you are. However, the other two characters are great. The hunter character is amusing, almost like Elmer Fudd gone Rambo, and judging from his vocal performance you do wish that Victor Moore did more voice-overs. Daffy is as always spot on, I absolutely agree that a mix of his early manic and later greedy personas are here as well as a sympathetic side and I loved that. The animation is fine as well, there were more fluid character designs later on but the backgrounds are very detailed and the colours are shaded beautifully. The music is as energetic as you'd expect, while the writing is fresh and witty and the sight gags imaginatively timed and clever. Mel Blanc's voice work for Daffy is stellar, but rather overdone for the duckling(even his voice work in A Tale of Two Kitties was an unsubtle as this). The ending twist is just great. All in all, likable and fun but some may be annoyed by the duckling character. 8/10 Bethany Cox