Moby Duck (1965) User Reviews

Okay, and far from the worst Daffy/Speedy cartoons but still doesn't work

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 17 January 2014]

Moby Duck is certainly better than Rodent to Stardom, Speedy Ghost to Town, A Haunting We Will Go and especially See Ya Later Gladiator but not much here changes my indifference- but not hate- towards the Daffy/Speedy series. Moby Duck falls under the category of not being terrible but never rising above okay. Mel Blanc still does a superb job with the vocal characterisations, he always has been consistent regardless of what is thrown at him and not only is he immense fun to hear but it is still remarkable at how he gives different personalities and voices to more than one character in one cartoon. The music is not as action-enhancing as Carl Stalling's or Milt Franklin's but it still has energy and character, there are some amusing lines even with the lack of freshness while the sound effects mesh well with the visuals and don't sound bizarre. There are some lovely colours in the animation too and Daffy is very well characterised here- not too badly animated either- if too abrasive at times(he's been worse though). The backgrounds are still rather sparse and look as though they were rendered in a rush while Speedy is a little more tolerable than he can be but is still not very appealing. That Moby Duck is very predictable hurts it too, the gags lack variety and could have been more crisply timed and the story is not much of a variation of what has been seen before and since with Daffy and Speedy, even with it not being set in Mexico. Daffy and Speedy are not exactly bland together, but I do have to agree that their pairing is a rather odd one that has never really gelled. All in all, doesn't work but never reaches terrible level, that said it's not more than okay either. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Odd...

[rusty0918 · 9 August 2002]

You know, I've never been exactly fond of the Daffy Duck/Speedy Gonzales cartoons. I've been always disturbed by them in some way, and one other reviewer here has it right, it's hard to put a duck and a mouse together. I mean, look at the previous rivals anyway: Sylvester and Tweety, Roadrunner and Coyote...they go together more than Daffy Duck would with Speedy Gonzales. This is one of the lesser-known, not to mention this was done AFTER the mainstream Looney Tunes were done (though I was 8 when this started and I never got the gist until a few years ago).

I still am agitated. I mean, Sylvester is a better character to go after Speedy. He's a cat and he would NATURALLY go after Speedy, unlike Daffy Duck. Ducks chasing mice, I don't think so!!!

AN EXTREMELY AWFUL AND HORRIBLE LOONEY TUNES SHORT!!

[fp-14927 · 1/10 · 4 February 2024]

This cartoon along with all the other ones where Speedy Gonzales is paired with Daffy Duck belongs in the trash! I never thought that Daffy would be incredibly mean, nasty, greedy, and selfish around a cute little mouse such as Speedy Gonzales. Speedy never did anything to him. Speedy is the cute and naive one. I felt very sorry for him in this short as well as all the other ones where he was paired with an extremely mean and nasty Daffy Duck. Daffy is nothing more than completely spoiled in this cartoon and very much all the others where he has been paired with Speedy. Extremely awful! Boo!! "F-"!

This cartoon is absolutely terrible!

[penagosfernando · 1/10 · 8 July 2022]

I have to say that pretty much all the cartoons where Speedy Gonzales is paired with Daffy Duck are absolutely horrible. Daffy is pictured as nothing but nasty, grouchy, selfish, ill-tempered, and above all completely greedy. I felt very sorry for Speedy in pretty much all the cartoons where he was paired with Daffy. Daffy has and still is shown to be nothing but absolutely greedy. He wouldn't share anything with anyone; not even Bugs Bunny. If I had known this cartoon was going to be this awful, I never would have watched it when I first saw it on "Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon." Daffy still not only got his comeuppance at the end of the cartoon but exactly what he deserved for not sharing any food with Speedy. Out of all the cartoons that have Daffy Duck in them, the only great one that I enjoyed him in was that very last one where Mel Blanc voiced one of his characters. This one I am talking about is "THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DUCK" where Daffy ended up in a night club where the audience members were all movie monsters and all that. Moreover, the way Daffy sang "MONSTERS LEAD SUCH INTERESTING LIVES" with Mel Torme's voice was fantastic and wonderful. Even though that was released less than a year before Mel Blanc's death, I absolutely loved that cartoon. Daffy did a great job singing with Mel Torme's voice even though all that was just a dream. Other than that, I couldn't stand any of the cartoons where Daffy was paired with Speedy Gonzales. Speedy was the naive and cute one while Daffy was pure evil as well as nothing but greedy and selfish. Anyway, that's why I have decided to give this cartoon only a 1 out of 10 rating. It's absolutely awful.

Odd But Not Hopeless Pairing.

[PretentiousCritic · 24 May 2014]

Moby Duck is a short produced during the closing years of Warner Bros' "Golden Age", under De Patie Freleng studios. At these points the team were struggling far more in terms of budget and production, reducing the amount of cartoons they could produce. As a result they chose to continue the series of their currently most popular character, and at times possible try to merge them together, resulting in some bizarre pair ups, most infamously Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales.

While the previous reviews here criticize the duo as having no chemistry, I feel there was potential. Since Daffy wasn't a natural enemy of Speedy, they needed actual personality traits to cause a rift between them rather than just relying on the standard cat and mouse formula. The only problem was that the usual solution to this was to just make Daffy one dimensionally villainous (though there were some clever exceptions). For what it's worth a less suspecting bully did well displaying Speedy's naively kind natured personality. Considering how bland I usually considered Speedy compared to his foes in his 50s run, he comes off as thoroughly endearing character in this short, which must be worth something in terms of De Patie Freleng's quality.

The short is something of a remake of "Canned Feud", with a character coming into possession of canned food, but a mouse keeping away the required can opener. Compared to the previous short however, where the mouse was starving Sylvester solely for sadistic laughs, Speedy is clearly the good guy here, attempting to use it as negotiation bait against the selfish Daffy who is refusing to share a crumb of food they fished up on their desert island. When Daffy's stubborn zeal puts him through hell in constant attempts to find his own means, Speedy eventually feels too sorry for him and gives him the can opener anyway. It ends up a karmic victory for the rodent however, invited to a banquet while Daffy's goods are swept away.

The result is a pretty poor Daffy cartoon, but a rather decent Speedy cartoon. Don't expect anything on par with Termite Terrance's gems, but the series has more enjoyment than some will let on.