Good Noose

Abysmal Daffy short directed by Bob McKimson. In this one Daffy stows away on a ship captained by a fat guy clearly modeled on Charles Laughton. The captain's parrot sidekick finds Daffy and, for a moment, it appears they're going to hang him. But Daffy manages to convince the stupid captain that he's a magician and so the rest of the short is Daffy trying and failing at various magic tricks. This is really the pits. A prime example of the severe drop in quality for WB animation in the 1960s. There's not a single funny gag in the whole cartoon. Why combine a failed magician bit with a sea story? I don't get the connection. The animation is crappy subpar TV quality. The music, courtesy of Bill Lava, will make the mute button on your remote your best friend. I can't imagine a reason you will want to sit through this unless you're a Looney Tunes completist who wants to watch them all, even the stinkers.

A good script by David Detlige and a brisk pace of dialogue manages to overcome the barebones artwork in this late Looney Tunes.

I am not a fan of Robert McKimson, a competent cartoon director who was, I feel, the least of Termite Terrace's assorted geniuses. Instead of moving to subjects that were suitable to an increasingly restricted budget, he continued to knock out works whose poverty demonstrated that Warner Brothers' animation department did not have the money to make the cartoons it had in the 1930s and 1940s. But this story of Daffy trying to con his passage by doing magic tricks is pretty good. Mel Blanc's voice work is as good as ever and his imitation of Charles Laughton's voice -- straight out of the 1934 version of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY -- is perfect.

It is agreed that 'Good Noose' is only really worth seeing if a Looney Tunes completest. Also saw it as a huge fan of Daffy Duck and who has enjoyed a lot of Robert McKimson's stuff. 'Good Noose' is among the worst for both of them.

Just about the only thing that just about keeping it afloat and from being a complete ship-wreck is the voice acting of Mel Blanc. He always gave his all, regardless of how good or bad his material was (mostly it was good and often outstanding, here it's pretty embarrassing) and that's the case with 'Good Noose'.

He really does try to inject some energy into Daffy, and his Charles Laughton Captain Bligh impression is spot on and easily the highlight of the entire cartoon. The pacing is not quite as limp as feared either.

On the other hand, 'Good Noose' is a cartoon on par with the likes of 'Pre-Hysterical Hare', the worst of Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote and the Merlin the Magic Mouse cartoon. The animation is very sub-par here, while not quite as much as in later efforts such as the Daffy/Speedy, worst of Roadrunner/Coyote and Merlin the Magic Mouse cartoons the smaller budgets and tighter deadlines are very obvious in very scrappy drawing, sparse and very limited backgrounds and flat colours.

Bill Lava's music is a discordant ill-fit, lacking any kind of energy, witty rhythms or beautiful orchestration, everything sounds cheap and dull and gives the cartoon a limp dreariness. The writing is lacking sharpness or wit, and instead sounds tired, while the story and its idea not only don't make sense, making even less sense than the chemistry between Daffy and Speedy in their cartoons, but also feeling like a complete mismatch, at least the Daffy and Speedy cartoons occasionally provided explanations for Daffy's pursuit of Speedy but the connection and ideas explored in 'Good Noose' baffles the viewer and continues to baffle the viewer when short-changed of an explanation.

Daffy is one of Looney Tunes', and animation's, best, funniest and most iconic characters, but, despite Blanc's efforts, flounders with uninspired material and feeling out of character.

In summary, Blanc saves it from being unwatchable but this cartoon sinks more than it floats. 3/10 Bethany Cox

The Looney Tunes cartoons had passed their prime by 1962. Robert McKimson's "Good Noose" has some fun gags as Daffy stalls his potential execution for stowing away on a ship. The story itself isn't much to brag about, though. McKimson made much better use of Daffy in earlier cartoons.