Wise Quackers (1949) User Reviews

Not my favourite - but I like it!

[Mightyzebra · 8/10 · 3 March 2008]

This is not my very favourite Daffy Duck episode (partly due to the slightly annoying greediness of Daffy), but I really like it! I find it fun, amusing and enjoyable. Another flaw (that may bother some more than others) are slight references to American black slavery, as in the setting, which is a plantation - yet Daffy, the slave, pulls off the gags in reference to the theme of the episode in a lively and hilarious way.

Daffy, who is migrating, can fly no further and is exhausted. He falls out of the sky and lands in Elmer Fudd's plantation. As he always is, Elmer is prepared to shoot the duck, but he begs his life to be spared and even offers to be his slave instead. Elmer agrees (partly without realising it) and many clever gags and excitingly funny turns to the plot follow..!

Recommended for people who like Daffy Duck episodes that are in between old and a bit more modern and for people who will not mind slavery used for humour.

Enjoy "Wise Quackers"! :-)

P.S I have just read Tavm's sort of recent review for this episode and I TOTALLY agree with his last sentence! :-)

pretty funny (although most people probably wouldn't want to use slavery for humor)

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 2 April 2007]

No doubt the slavery stuff - specifically Daffy Duck acting like a Stepin Fetchit-style character - might make us cringe at "Wise Quackers" some. But as long as we understand what it's portraying, it's really funny, with filmdom's most famous member of the biological family Anatidae* falling onto Elmer Fudd's farm and begging to be his slave rather than get killed. Of course, this is an excuse for him to turn Elmer's lifestyle upside down. Probably the coolest scene is when Daffy warns Elmer that the food might be poisoned and so the slave should taste it first; although I guessed what Daffy was going to do, I didn't predict that they would play Franz Liszt's "2nd Hungarian Rhapsody" to accompany it! Of course, the Looney Tunes cartoons used that song quite often, so it's no surprise.

Anyway, a pretty funny cartoon, despite the slavery stuff.

*That's the family to which ducks belong.

Daffy's a slave

[ragpap93 · 6/10 · 16 November 2017]

Daffy's a slave. Was it because he's black. When captured by hunter Elmer as food Daffy offers to be his slave. There is some humor here though its about slavery. However Daffy disguises as Abe Lincoln in the end and a funny impersonation. Nothing special here episode wise that you would like so much as a kid to be sad and disappointed for you to feel like it may have ruined your childhood.

Worth a visit!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 15 March 2018]

Daffy Duck (voiced by Mel Blanc), Elmer Fudd (voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan).

Director: I. FRELENG. Story: Tedd Pierce. Animators: Manuel Perez, Pete Burness, Gerry Chiniquy, Ken Champin, Virgil Ross. Lay-outs: Hawley Pratt. Backgrounds: Paul Julian. Voice characterizations: Mel Blanc. Music director: Carl W. Stalling. Color by Technicolor. Producer: Edward Selzer.

Copyright 27 December 1948 by The Vitaphone Corp. A Warner Bros Merrie Melodies cartoon. U.S. release: 1 January 1949. 7 minutes.

COMMENT: This is the one where hunter Elmer waylays Daffy who bargains for his life by suggesting he become Fudd's "very own slave."

An abrupt conclusion, but several hilarious episodes, especially one where Daffy enacts the role of barber, a sketch that is cleverly built up with a whole series of amusing gags.

This brief cartoon is far too frightening for little ones . . .

[pixrox1 · 7/10 · 14 May 2021]

. . . involving as it does human face transplantation, a Real Life concern as the number of U. S. kids having their visages ripped off annually by pit bulls has increased more than 400% during the past decade. Midway through WISE QUACKERS Daffy plays barber to Elmer, swaddling the latter's mug with a moist towel so scalding that the latter's ugly countenance comes off STUCK TO THE TOWEL as Daffy swirls that Cloth of Doom away from Elmer's head. To rub in salt to injury, when Daffy haphazardly tries to quickly transfer the swiped off face back to its rightful position, mouth, nose and eyes get plastered UPSIDE DOWN upon poor Elmer's noggin, after which Daffy immediately mutters a crude joke! When the institutions of our USA Homeland are defaced in such a thoughtless fashion, is it any wonder that the kids viewing such outrages grow up to become active duty U. S. Marine Corps majors who double as violent U. S. Capitol mob insurrectionists?

Wise Quackers is one hilarious Daffy Duck cartoon

[tavm · 10/10 · 30 November 2008]

After watching a not-so-funny Daffy Duck in A Squeak at the Wheel, it's great to watch him in his prime in Friz Freleng's Wise Quackers. After Daffy crash lands in Elmer Fudd's field, the duck asks for his life spared in order to serve as his slave. With Elmer agreeing, Daffy ruins every attempt which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows him. Especially hilarious is his attempt to keep Fudd from being "poisoned" by eating all the food himself! As hilarious as this short is, some modern viewers might be a little disturbed by some of the stereotypical dialects Daffy uses especially of the Stepin Fetchit variety. To those viewers, the final gag should tell you which side of the slave issue this short is on...

Daffy is falling...onto a plantation?

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 14 July 2010]

Wise Quackers starring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd is an amusing cartoon, with a simple premise that does work very well. The animation is good enough, not outstanding, but it looks nice, and the music has energy. The dialogue is fresh and funny, the pace is fast and the sight gags are lively. Daffy is great here, perhaps a little too greedy, but he is funny and handles the material very well, while dim-witted yet lovable Elmer is a great foil and the voice work especially from Mel Blanc is top notch. The ending is amusing and while there is the theme of slavery there is nothing offensive about it. Overall, amusing and definitely worth seeing for fans of Daffy especially. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Very Funny

[agj8012 · 9/10 · 9 June 2010]

This cartoon has been banned from television for nearly twenty years, and for good reasons. But if you get past the fact that this cartoon is making light of slavery, it is absolutely hilarious.

The basic premise of this cartoon is that Daffy Duck, in a desperate attempt to keep from being cooked by Elmer Fudd, agrees to be his slave. This results in a lot of hilarious gags at Elmer's expense. The ending in particular is quite unexpected and very funny.

I can definitely understand why something like this would be banned. Slavery is not a very good subject for humor. However, as other reviewers have stated, this cartoon is far from racist. I think that the purpose of this cartoon was to make fun of the bigotry of many Southerners during this period. And the ending of the cartoon definitely states that the Termite Terrace crew were not in support of slavery at all.

Yikes!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 6 August 2013]

When I recently saw "Wise Quackers", I had a wonderful time. That's because I loved watching my wife and daughter's reaction to the racial insensitivity of this 1949 cartoon. Back then, making fun of slavery and having Daffy imitate an old black slave must have worked well with audiences. Today, it just seems pretty gross...and unfunny. But their reactions...hilarious! Now I am not condoning the film, but you should have seen their reactions! Before the film became offensive, I noticed something VERY unusual for a Looney Tunes cartoon of the era--the animation of the backgrounds was simply atrocious in the opening shots. It looked like someone let their 7 year-old animate this. Ugly, that's for sure.

Now if somehow the cartoon was funny despite all this, I could perhaps give it a semi-reasonable score. Apart from the face in the towel bit, however, it just wasn't very funny. Not a lot to recommend this one.

Daffy Duck, a.k.a., "Duck #347" . . .

[oscaralbert · 5/10 · 28 November 2015]

. . . falls from an alien flock (winging it to the Warner Bros. theme song for James Cagney's CAPTAINS OF THE CLOUDS) onto Elmer Fudd's farm. Daffy immediately volunteers to become Mr. Fudd's Black slave (presumably because Daffy is a mostly black-feathered duck). After impersonating "Uncle Tom" (novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe's title character)--complete with a fringe of fine-curled gray beard and bald pate border hair--Daffy alternates between being a stereotypical Black slave and an obsequious Indian servant from British Colonial Days. At one point, Daffy prepares a duck dinner for farmer Fudd (which smacks of Cannibalism by Proxy!). Daffy also appears to Elmer in the guise of Abe Lincoln at the very end of WISE QUACKERS, imploring Mr. Fudd NOT to whip his slave(s). This reflects America's national mood in the 1940s, when the recent release of GONE WITH THE WIND had emboldened many Southerners to envision a possible Return to Race-Based Slavery Days. Therefore, picturing a Lincoln who had not FREED the slaves, but simply eased their pain, was an example of Political Correctness, Forties Style.