| Director: | Greg Ford Terry Lennon |
| Cinematography: | Tim Whintall |
| Editing: | Treg Brown |
| Studio: | Warner Bros. Animation |
| Distributor: | Warner Bros. |
| Runtime: | 78 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters is a 1988 animated compilation film featuring classic Warner Bros. Cartoons shorts and animated bridging sequences, starring Daffy Duck.[1] The film was released to theaters by Warner Bros. on September 24, 1988. It was the final theatrical production in which Mel Blanc provided the voices of the various Looney Tunes characters before his death in July 1989.
Unlike previous compilation films, Quackbusters uses pre-existing music from older Looney Tunes shorts composed by Carl Stalling, Milt Franklyn and William Lava for both the new animation and classic footage. It was also one of the two compilation films of classic Warner Bros. cartoon shorts not composed by Robert J. Walsh (the other being 1979's The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, which was composed by Dean Elliott).
Similar to The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, which was preceded with the Oscar-winning Knighty Knight Bugs (1958), Quackbusters is preceded with the exclusive short The Night of the Living Duck (1988). This film is inspired by Ghostbusters. Most of the films included in the compilation have a comedy horror theme, with stories involving spirit possession, exorcism, Transylvanian vampires, magic words, and Yetis. This was the only Looney Tunes compilation film to be aired on HBO in the early 1990s. It later aired on Cartoon Network.
Salesman Daffy tries to make a pitch to reclusive millionaire and "ailing buzzsaw baron" J.P. Cubish – a dog who has offered wealth to anyone who can make him laugh before he passes on. Daffy becomes his jester, taking uncounted pies in the face while Cubish laughs. After Cubish "dies laughing", Daffy inherits his fortune. The money is locked in a safe, under the provision that it will be used to provide a beneficial public service and Daffy follow Cubish's creed to display honesty in business affairs. If the now-wealthy Daffy does not comply with the will's terms, the ghost of Cubish will reclaim the fortune. The irked Daffy vows to use the money to wipe out ghosts such as Cubish.
Setting himself up as a "Paranormalist at Large", Daffy persuades Bugs Bunny to appear in commercials and hires Porky Pig (accompanied by Sylvester) as an underling; Cubish makes money from the safe vanish whenever Daffy seems to do or say something dishonest. Meanwhile, Sylvester is continually chased by a monstrous version of Tweety and develops paranoia in front of Daffy and Porky. Daffy assigns Porky to investigate the resort town of Dry Gulch for any suspicious ghost activity. Porky is accompanied by Sylvester, who defends his owner from the hotel's killer mice.
Meanwhile, Daffy exorcises three ghosts possessing Melissa Duck. After being chased back to his office by them, Daffy discovers that Cubish has stripped his money down to his last million. Daffy reassigns Porky to the Superstition Mountains, much to Sylvester's chagrin. After receiving a call from Transylvania, Daffy assigns Bugs to investigate. Bugs encounters Count Blood Count and defeats him in a duel of magic words, but Daffy is displeased to hear from him about "getting two couples together". After receiving a call from the Himalayas, Daffy phones up Bugs again, and together they go up against Hugo the Abominable Snowman.
When the city is swept with reports of a tiny elephant, Daffy, presuming this to be mere hysteria, hopes to profit by soothing the public with his "expert" testimony. However, no sooner does he announce to the audience that there is no such thing as a tiny elephant when it turns up on Daffy's television interview, rendering him a public laughing stock. Daffy decides to blame someone else for the debacle and absent-mindedly remarks that there was "nothing wrong with a little dishonesty in business affairs." This proves to be Daffy's undoing however, as upon realizing of what he said, Daffy discovers that the safe is now completely empty except for a few cobwebs and a sign reminding Daffy “you lose, duck!”. Then Egghead appears with a singing telegram, announcing to Daffy that due to unpaid rent, he is being dispossessed. After the repo crew takes away his desks, the building is condemned and destroyed, with Daffy still inside.
In the epilogue, Bugs enjoys his vacation in Palm Springs and reads about Daffy's downfall, while Porky and Sylvester are stranded in the Superstition Mountains. Meanwhile, Daffy becomes a salesman again, this time selling paranormal-themed trinkets. However, when he earns a dollar bill, it instantly vanishes. Daffy angrily shakes his fist at the sky and screams "Cubish!".
Several cartoons are re-edited either for time, to connect with the plot, or have redubbed lines.
The film was released on VHS on July 19, 1989, and later on DVD in the United States on August 4, 2009, by Warner Home Video. Three bonus cartoons are included as extras in the DVD release: Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century, Superior Duck and Little Go Beep. It was later released in the UK on July 5, 2021, with the same bonus shorts. It is also available on iTunes.
The Duxorcist saw an individual release as part of the Looney Tunes Parodies Collection on February 4, 2020.