It is going to be very difficult saying anything about 'Feud with a Dude' without re-iterating what was said about the previous cartoons 'Merlin the Magic Mouse' and 'Hocus Pocus Powwow', because all the flaws are the same.
'Feud with a Dude' is not as bad as 'Merlin the Magic Mouse', which only had the vocals of Daws Butler going for it, but 'Hocus Pocus Powwow' at least had two decent gags and an amusing supporting character which 'Feud with a Dude' regrettably does not have.
Like as said in my review for 'Hocus Pocus Powwow', when at their best, the Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies cartoons were some of the best and funniest cartoons ever made, being wonderfully animated and scored, hilarious with iconic characters and peerless voice work.
That is not the case with the poorly done Merlin the Magic Mouse cartoons, which were classic examples of Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies' decline and were even worse than the worst of more iconic characters like Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote.
What compensates is the voice work of Larry Storch, who does do a good enough job trying to do something with bad material and the use of the songs "I Like Mountain Music" and the "Chicken Reel". Everything else is a failure.
Animation clearly suffers from smaller budgets and tighter deadlines. Everything looks so flat, scrappy and rushed, none of the colour, liveliness and fluidity seen with Looney Tunes at its best. Have also rarely been a fan of the stock/canned music that Bill Lava adopted, and here it is cheap-sounding, annoying and ill-fitting.
The writing is incredibly lazy, nothing sticks out as remotely amusing let alone hilarious and there's nothing endearing or anything memorable about them. There is no tension in the feud that the story is shaped around, because none of the characters are strong enough in personality or comic timing to carry it. The story is tired and disjointed, Looney Tunes at their best are some of the zaniest, wildest, wittiest and liveliest cartoons ever. All the Merlin the Magic Mouse cartoons are an extremely pale shadow of all that, and actually don't feel like Looney Tunes, actually feeling a rejected and very low-budget Hanna-Barbera effort.
While one doesn't expect the iconic Looney Tunes to stick around forever, surely they could have come up with more memorable, interesting, likable and funnier characters than the characters here. Was especially irritated by the sidekick character Second Banana. Merlin lacks the charisma or comic timing to be a good lead character. The Hatfields and McCoys are not much better.
Overall, very weak and easily skip-able other than seeing how badly Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies declined in the mid-late-60s. 3/10 Bethany Cox
'Feud with a Dude' is not as bad as 'Merlin the Magic Mouse', which only had the vocals of Daws Butler going for it, but 'Hocus Pocus Powwow' at least had two decent gags and an amusing supporting character which 'Feud with a Dude' regrettably does not have.
Like as said in my review for 'Hocus Pocus Powwow', when at their best, the Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies cartoons were some of the best and funniest cartoons ever made, being wonderfully animated and scored, hilarious with iconic characters and peerless voice work.
That is not the case with the poorly done Merlin the Magic Mouse cartoons, which were classic examples of Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies' decline and were even worse than the worst of more iconic characters like Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote.
What compensates is the voice work of Larry Storch, who does do a good enough job trying to do something with bad material and the use of the songs "I Like Mountain Music" and the "Chicken Reel". Everything else is a failure.
Animation clearly suffers from smaller budgets and tighter deadlines. Everything looks so flat, scrappy and rushed, none of the colour, liveliness and fluidity seen with Looney Tunes at its best. Have also rarely been a fan of the stock/canned music that Bill Lava adopted, and here it is cheap-sounding, annoying and ill-fitting.
The writing is incredibly lazy, nothing sticks out as remotely amusing let alone hilarious and there's nothing endearing or anything memorable about them. There is no tension in the feud that the story is shaped around, because none of the characters are strong enough in personality or comic timing to carry it. The story is tired and disjointed, Looney Tunes at their best are some of the zaniest, wildest, wittiest and liveliest cartoons ever. All the Merlin the Magic Mouse cartoons are an extremely pale shadow of all that, and actually don't feel like Looney Tunes, actually feeling a rejected and very low-budget Hanna-Barbera effort.
While one doesn't expect the iconic Looney Tunes to stick around forever, surely they could have come up with more memorable, interesting, likable and funnier characters than the characters here. Was especially irritated by the sidekick character Second Banana. Merlin lacks the charisma or comic timing to be a good lead character. The Hatfields and McCoys are not much better.
Overall, very weak and easily skip-able other than seeing how badly Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies declined in the mid-late-60s. 3/10 Bethany Cox
