Design for Leaving (1954) User Reviews (9)

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[griffin84 · 8/10 · 1 March 2008]

In what could easily become the next wave of reality 'home repair' shows, Daffy shows up unexpected at Elmer Fudd's home and gives it the 'modern' touch. In other words, he installs an endless number of automatic time-saving devices throughout the house. And, as we can already predict, none of these mechanisms seem to work for everyone's favorite hunter.

Over 50 years later, we have a number of time-saving mechanisms throughout our own home (one of which I'm using to write this very review), but thankfully we've skipped the 'Dirty Window Cleaner', the 'Alcatrez Ascot Tie Machine', and the 'Upstairs-Downstairs Elevator'. Still, with the way humanity races to keep up with technology, I wonder how long it will be before we see stuff like this in our own homes! Still, this is a classic cartoon and a laugh riot, especially for people who became fond of watching Elmer paired with another cartoon character besides Bugs Bunny.

Enjoy, and remember, no matter what you do... DON'T EVER PUSH THE RED BUTTON!!

Robert McKimson predicts "The Jetsons"

[lee_eisenberg · 9/10 · 2 July 2008]

Occasionally, I read a review by someone who considers Robert McKimson one of the lousiest cartoon directors. By all accounts, "Design for Leaving" should completely disprove that. When fast-talking salesman Daffy Duck appears at Elmer Fudd's door, the lisping mallard pushes the dimwitted hunter out of the house and installs a series of push-button gadgets...which of course end up working against Elmer! Why must he suffer so?! I figure that the people behind this cartoon saw Americans trying to automate their homes in every possible way, and so they decided to come up with a parody. And a hilarious parody at that. This actually came out several years before "The Jetsons" predicted people having robot servants. But overall, every time that we come up with an innovation, it shortens our attention span just a little.

Anyway, a really funny cartoon.

The WED button. All of New Orleans could have really used that on August 29, 2005.

Modern gadgets with Looney Tunes, Daffy, Elmer and McKimson

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 30 July 2015]

While not quite one of my favourites, Design for Leaving is a great cartoon and is proof that Robert McKimson deserves more praise than he gets.

The animation, as is the case most of the case with Looney Tunes and always with McKimson, is very good, bright and colourful in colour, detailed and imaginative in backgrounds and smooth and crisp in character design and drawing. The most prolific and most consistently good of the Looney Tunes cartoons' composers, Carl Stalling provides a wholly energetic, beautifully orchestrated and vibrantly characterful music score, that fits so well and makes the material even better.

Design for Leaving's story is not all that special, but is still made incredibly entertaining thanks to the clever dialogue ('DON'T EVER PUSH THE WED BUTTON!'), the even funnier sight gags of which the classic climactic red button gag is particularly funny, incredibly cool and imaginative gadgets and sprightly pacing. Daffy is in his more manic and less greedy version in this cartoon, and he is intentionally annoying but also a laugh-out-loud riot, while Elmer is likeably dim-witted, similarly amusing and easy to sympathise with. It is unusual to see these two together, when you often see Daffy paired with Porky and Elmer with Bugs, but they do work well and there is a great dynamic conflict between them, as you feel sorry for Elmer and positively hate (but love at the same time) Daffy. Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan does wonderfully with the voice work.

Overall, a great and under-appreciated cartoon that works even better than the premise made it out to. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Delightfully screwy

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 19 October 2008]

This is a wonderful cartoon starring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. Daffy is an obnoxious salesman for a pushbutton company that can modernize your home. He tries to sell Porky on this, but Porky just wants him to go away and leave him alone. Well, while Porky sleeps, Daffy sneaks in and modernizes the home anyways. When Porky awakens, he's greeted by Daffy who shows him how much better his home now it. Unfortunately, in each and every case, when they push the buttons, terrible things happen to Porky--such as a robot dog biting his leg and a fire detector sending a robot to throw water on Porky each time he gets angry. It's a lot of fun. Ultimately, Porky throws Daffy out the cartoon is about finished. Porky then, out of curiosity, pushes the red button Daffy told him NEVER to push--at which point the house is hydraulically lifted hundreds of feet into the air. Daffy then flies by in a helicopter and says the red button was in case of floods and he will sell Porky a NEW button that will lower the home! The animation and laughs are tops in this highly creative toon.

Surprisingly good for a Daffy Duck episode where Daffy is annoyingly cruel.

[Mightyzebra · 8/10 · 9 July 2008]

In this Daffy Duck episode, Daffy Duck, a house designer, annoys Elmer Fudd by renovating his house with tens of modern gadgets. The reason this is annoying Elmer is because each of the gadgets hurts Elmer, physically and mentally. The reason this episode is worth watching is because of all the gadgets. When this episode was made, in 1954, all the gadgets would have hardly been conceived of and some of them would be almost impossible to invent. Nowadays, however, we could make all the gadgets featured. It is interesting how the makers of this episode conceived of all these modern gadgets, fifty years ago. This episode is also quite funny some of the time, which also makes it bearable. Apart from humour and the modern gadgets, there is nothing else particularly worth noting in this episode (except possibly the animation, it would soon become a lot less special in the 60's for Looney Tunes).

I recommend this to people who like old episodes with modern references, episodes where Daffy is being cruel to Elmer and episodes with quite surprising endings. Enjoy "Design for Leaving"! :-)

DESIGN FOR LEAVING takes place near Duluth, MN . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 28 November 2015]

. . . just a hop, skip, jump from FARGO, where some guy got wood-chipped in the movie version. Most likely the FARGO writers got many of their ideas from DESIGN FOR LEAVING, in which a dead-pan Daffy Duck wreaks havoc upon the Elmer Fudd household. Whether it's De-plastering Elmer's walls or crushing his piano, Fudd's home looks worse than FARGO's victim post-Woodchipper after Daffy is through with Hour One of Elmer's "10-Day Free Trial" for Acme Futurastic Push-Button Household Appliances. Just as it's hard to read Shakespeare nowadays without margin notes being included on a three-to-one ratio with original text, Warner Bros. needs to think up some way to annotate or explain the many out-of-date references included in the vintage Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes they insist upon circulating this far into the 21st Century. For instance, Daffy refers to Elmer's inadvertent noose as an "Alcatraz Ascot" (even though no hangings were conducted at the long-defunct San Francisco Bay penitentiary). "ALADDIN Ascot" might be a more understandable reference for Today's Youngsters.

It's getting so that a law-abiding American cannot have any peace from . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 8/10 · 14 May 2021]

. . . tricky, obnoxious, aggressive, over-bearing sales people practicing the "art" of the up-sell. DESIGN FOR LEAVING features one such malingering miscreant, in the form of a malignant duck who destroys the house of brick built by the wise pig. After the aforesaid pork chop pushes the red button to escape the ruinous onslaught of the foul fowl, the hog finds himself stranded high in the sky. At this sad juncture the too-persistent sales quack motors up in a helicopter, offering to prolong the carnage by up-selling the beleaguered pig a blue button! No doubt the former has an entire rainbow coalition of multi-colored push buttons up his sleeve.

When he was between jobs in a fairly specialized line . . .

[pixrox1 · 7/10 · 30 September 2020]

. . . my Better Half once wasted a week and a half being trained to sell $1,700 vacuum cleaners (or about $12,000, adjusted to Today's values). From what he described (and rehearsed with me) of this crime outfit's training practices and canned sales spiels, their entire sales pitch was based upon Daffy Duck's DESIGN FOR LEAVING. While the hapless homeowner victimized by Daffy here is left with a domicile in shambles, this is also comparable to my family's experience, during which some of the faulty demonstration devices exploded, leaving glass sprayed across the sales prospect's carpet. As Elmer Fudd always says, "What goes around comes around."

"Ooh am I eva fuwious!"

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 29 December 2014]

Fast-talking door-to-door salesman Daffy Duck pushes homeowner Elmer Fudd onto a bus headed out of town. While Elmer's away, Daffy remodels his house with futuristic Acme gadgetry. Naturally, all the gizmos backfire and prove to be catastrophic for poor Elmer's house. It's a funny short with some great sight gags. One of my favorites was when the wall cleaner stripped the clothes off the guy in the painting. Love all the gadgets and robots. The animation and music are good. Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan are perfect, as always. The subject matter appeals to me as I've always been fascinated by the way people in those times thought we would be living by now. Of course, pigs acting as garbage disposals in our kitchens is just crazy sci-fi that we can only dream about.