TheLittleSongbird Review of A-Haunting We Will Go

A-Haunting We Will Go (1966)

Very weak, one of the worst of the Daffy/Speedy cartoons

[4/10 · 20 October 2013]

Personally See Ya Later Gladiator is the worst of the Daffy/Speedy cartoons, but A-Haunting We Will Go is a very close second. The redeeming qualities are the opening with Daffy and his nephew, Speedy behaving like himself in his witch guise and Mel Blanc's vocal talents(though his Daffy voice was getting a little too abrasive at this point). The animation though lacks fluidity and is instead very flat- very washed-out- and blocky, especially in the character designs and movements of Hazel. Bill Lava's music doesn't enhance the action at all, it sounds very stock and canned and is also dull and repetitive. There have been times when it works but like cartoons like The Music Mice-Tro this is an instance when it doesn't. The writing often is a strong point with the Looney Tunes cartoons but falls completely flat here, it is often witless and the freshness and timing is nowhere to be heard, the dialogue is some of the most banal of the Daffy/Speedy series. Of the gags, two work but the main joke with Daffy turning into different creatures though with its moments is far too drawn out, gets tiresome and is actually rather predictable. Some of it looked as though it was lifted out of Duck Amuck, one of the best cartoons Looney Tunes ever made and an animated classic. The story has no originality or spark and disadvantaged by laboured pacing. And then we have the characters, Daffy's nephew did have potential but the writers practically ignored him after the opening so that was a waste. A-Haunting We Will Go is one of those cartoons among where Daffy is at his least funniest, that's criminal considering that he is one of Looney Tunes' best characters, here he's bland and at times like most of the cartoons with him and Speedy too mean-spirited. Speedy has one good gag, the rest of the time he serves little point to the story and gets under your skin. Witch Hazel is funny in her cartoons with Bugs Bunny, but here she is exceedingly annoying and the normally great June Foray voicing her is little better. Overall, a few moments but a disappointing mess on the most part. 4/10 Bethany Cox