Quackodile Tears is fun and amusing. While more reliant on slapstick humour than other entries in the Looney Tunes canon, it is fast paced and the gags visually and audibly are well delivered. Though I will say, while it looked nice, the animation was on the basic side. What I mean by that is that in terms of colour it needed more variety, and the character movements were somewhat restricted. That said though, due to the alligators who provided fun support, the manic antics of Daffy, the solid scripting and the excellent voice characterisations of Mel Blanc and June Foray, it is a lot of fun. While I liked June Foray as Honeybunch, her character isn't exactly the easiest character to warm to. All in all, amusing but is it the best? Personally no, but I would definitely watch it again. 8/10 Bethany Cox
Add a Review
-
JohnHowardReid10 June 2008This "Merrie Melodies" entry features a mildly diverting later Daffy in which our hero is forced by his "Honey Bunch" to hatch out an alligator egg.
Although this cartoon seems obviously designed to cater to the mental acuity of very young children, it has sufficient zing to rope in Daffy's adult fans too. Although it packs its storyline with lots of slapstick gags, it's also both fast-paced and reasonably appealing.
Of course, it can't compare with Daffy's best efforts, like "Robin Hood Daffy" (1958) or the cult favorite, "Duck Dodgers of the 24th and a Half Century" (1953), but even a Daffy slightly below form is better than no Daffy at all. -
Horst_In_Translation24 July 2016"Quackodile Tears" is a Warner Bros. cartoon from 1962, so this one is also almost 55 years old, even if it far from the earliest days of these cartoons. The star here is Daffy and cast and crew include many known names such as Blanc, Foray (soon turns 99) and Art Davis. Daffy's wife puts him in charge of sitting on an egg until it hatches, but it wouldn't be Daffy if he (after some masculine talk) did not mess up this fairly easy task. the egg rolls away and gets mixed up with s bunch of crocodile eggs. And the crocodile parents are not really willing to let Daffy take one of theirs. But still it shows that the characters are mostly human here as a real crocodile would have instantly killed a duck like Daffy. The only real violence that ensues is the one by Daffy's wife towards her man when she finds out what is going on. Yes you heard correctly: He has a wife and in the end he even has a child, even if it's not exactly what they expected. Too bad these characters don't appear in (many) other of these cartoons. I think it was an okay watch. Worth checking out for people who like the Golden Age of Animation. And maybe they have not even seen this one it's not so easy to find and one of the lesser known WB/Daffy films
-
bob the moo7 March 2004When Daffy is forced by his wife to sit on their egg for a while, he makes the mistake of ruffling the nest and causing the egg to run away down the hill. When the egg runs into the middle of an alligator's nest, Daffy has to take his best guess as to which one is his. However the alligator sees him take one of `her' eggs and sets out to get it back.
I'm a really big fan of Daffy Duck and always feel that he is at his best when he is in his early persona of being manic and wacky. Even when he becomes more cynical and greedy he still manages to be one of my favourite Warner Brothers characters. Here though he is put upon and hen pecked and not really himself for much of the time. The cartoon (and Daffy) only really improves in the brief chases over the egg, although these are still a little lacklustre at times.
Part of the problem is that the cartoon doesn't look like a lot of effort was put into it. The backgrounds are generally two or three colours and the characters are very basic. This feeling fed into the rest of it for me and it did feel like the routines had just been thrown together. Daffy being a fairly characterless beast here was also an issue as I never saw it as him. The alligators make for good support and are quite funny but I just didn't like Daffy's wife at all.
Overall this has amusing moments but it is quite lifeless and just feels like they were treading water rather than putting a lot of care and attention into the process of making this film. Also, Daffy fans will likely be put off by just how lacking in character he is here. -
oscaralbert28 August 2018. . . or is there MORE to the story of QUACKODILE TEARS? Anyone who watches QUACKODILE TEARS in this, our enlightened 21st Century, will not be able to help noticing that it is full of misogynistic hen-pecked husband "jokes" constituting cheap shots of the reverse Ralph "To-the-Moon" Cramden variety. (On the other hand, "Daffy Duck" always is such a despicable character that nearly all viewers will feel that NO ill fate is bad enough for him.) However, is it possible to argue that Warner Bros.' always eponymous crack team of Animated Shorts Seers (aka, The Looney Tuners) ALWAYS prognosticated in a totally altruistic fashion, and NEVER entertained what might be viewed as corporate one-up-man-ship during their clairvoyant forays into Our Future? Such an assumption might prove to be naïve. Who was always Warner's chief (and grossly over-rated) cartoon rival? The "Disney" bunch, of course. What is the main theme of QUACKODILE TEARS? Alligator baby snatching. Which corporation in America's (Then) Far Future infamously allowed a Real Life Case of Fatal Alligator Baby Snatching to occur in one of its "Magic Kingdoms? You guess.
-
In the waning days of Warner Bros. cartoons, the directors kept putting the cartoon stars through various scenarios. In Arthur Davis's "Quackodile Tears", Daffy's wife orders him to sit on an egg* until it hatches. But when Daffy's egg gets mixed with some alligator eggs and Daffy can't tell which egg is which, he and the father alligator begin an egg-stealing battle. What a life!
What I mean by Dolores Claiborne is that in a scene in the movie**, Dolores threatens to kick someone's butt up so high that he'll look like a hunchback. Such is Daffy's fate in one scene here. But I'm probably the only one who noticed that. It's far from the best cartoon, but certainly fun to watch. Definitely not a "croc" of...well, you know what I mean.
*At one point, Honey Bunch says "Sit on it." Daffy's wife is Fonzie!
**I've only seen the movie, never read the book, so I don't know whether or not the book has the line. -
carl1708 November 2007Daffy, has to be one of the best cartoon characters ever written. He is so sneaky, or he likes to think he is when he matches up against Buggs Bunny.
But he always seems to lose!
In this I just love his wife. Bossy, domineering and in charge. I just love her voice of Daffy wife in this cartoon flick. Who is she? Does anyone know who provides the voice of the wife of Daffy Duck in this cartoon? It is brilliant. They should have made this character take more part/s in more films with Daffy. She just makes me laugh when she warns Daffy, that if he doesn't sit on that egg that she will slap his face right off.
Just listen to her say that. Its just excellent
I also love the interplay between the two fathers as they chase each other for the egg they both believe to be their's... Wonderful, slapstick comedy....
Then end shot of both of the dads being disappointed with their new addition to the family is excellent as well..
A really good cartoon this is. I Liked it....
Please watch it if it comes on, or you have it... -
Mightyzebra27 July 2007Genre: Cartoon episode of Daffy Duck, mainly slapstick humour, cartoon.
Main characters: The one and only Daffy Duck, Daffy's wife, the crocodile dad and the crocodile mum.
Actors: Mel Blanc (Daffy Duck) and June Foray (His wife I think).
What happens: It is Daffy's turn to egg-sit his new baby son or daughter. As he unruffles the nest, the egg tumbles away and falls into a crocodile nest! :O
My thoughts: Not my favourite Daffy Duck, but not my least favourite either, this Daffy Duck episode is fun and amusing. It is quite simple for a Daffy Duck episode, having a simple and easy-to-understand storyline. I like this episode because it is funny, well-animated for a Daffy Duck episode and it's very crafty. What I like about this (and ALL Daffy Duck episodes) is that it isn't JUST slapstick, it's also witty humour. I'm not really into slapstick personally. I also like Daffy Duck in general, even though most of his episodes aren't VERY good for me.
Recommended to: People who like Daffy Duck, alligators, cartoons and slapstick + witty humour. Enjoy! :-)
7 and a half out of ten. -
lukeneedssand21 June 2021I can't really give this cartoon a bad grade, because I was laughing quite a bit throughout the short's runtime. It's highly amusing, even if a little basic in the animation, (but thankfully not reused very often). Honeybunch is a fine character, not perfect, but serves a purpose, and the crocodile designs are quite Fun to look at. The gags and voice acting are also superbly done. I have another soft spot for the backgrounds in this cartoon, There quite strange but the neon-like swamp is surprisingly attractive to the eyes.
So yeah, a strange cartoon, but I quite enjoy it. -
utgard1428 February 2016Bizarre later Daffy short that doesn't really feel like a Looney Tunes cartoon. The premise has Daffy and his wife (!) living in a swamp near some crocodiles. Daffy's bullying wife tells him to sit on their egg but he winds up getting it switched with a crocodile egg. Pretty dumb 'kiddy' stuff but worth a few minor chuckles. Old pros Mel Blanc and June Foray provide the voices, which are the best part of this. The animation, the music, everything is so...cheap. It looks and feels like something made for television at the time, not a theatrically-released Looney Tunes short. Still, taking a step back and judging it without comparison, I can say it's a watchable effort. Not even on the same planet as the better Daffy cartoons from earlier, though.
-
KalloFox3414 May 2021It's far from his worst, but it's still pretty subpar by both Daffy's standards and by Art Davis's standards. It's not unwatchable, though.
The animation is pretty poor, though that can be excused because of lower budgets in 1962 compared to the studio's heyday. Oddly though, Daffy lacks the white ring around his neck here. Of course, animation quality isn't indicative of overall quality.
Speaking of overall quality, the cartoon has its moments but isn't as funny as Daffy's other cartoons of this year (or Art Davis's other Daffy cartoons; "The Stupor Salesman" is much funnier).
The general plot also reminds me of "The Up-Standing Sitter" (where Daffy has to retrieve a baby chick who hatches and runs away from him while egg-sitting and has to contend with an angry bulldog instead of a crocodile) and "An Egg Scramble" (where an elderly hen runs across town trying to get "her" egg back and Porky tries to stop her). In my personal opinion, both of those cartoons are better.
I also found Daffy's wife to be a pretty aggravating character.