Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island

The Looney Tunes cartoons were always some of the most smartly written animated shorts ever. Long before robots and explosions dominated kids afternoons, the Looney Tunes staff depended on something harder: writing. Bugs Bunny being one of the more relatable cartoon characters for adults and kids. Adults laughed at his hidden references, kids laughed when he got Elmer Fudd to shoot himself. That magic of the old days is halfway featured here, in an obvious Fantasy Island spoof. It begins with perennial cartoon loser Daffy Duck stuck on a remote island with Speedy Gonazales (how the to got there is unknown). Following a fire-fight with Bugs Bunny on a ship, Yosemite Sam seeks sanctuary on the shores of said island. Daffy has discovered a map in a treasure chest that was sent airborne in the ship explosion, and it leads him to a magic wishing well. Instead of wishing to get off the island and become rich, he asks that the sand-glob be turned into a resort. Wherein he will charge tourists five-hundred bucks to wish in the well. Daffy Trump is born, and several notable Looney Tunes characters fly in to make requests of the well. The odd thing is, the well is not always forthcoming, instead screwing over the payee at the end. But, anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. What we're treated to are Tunes shorts from years ago, which are melded into people's wishes. Kids don't care if they've already seen it on Saturday morning, and just go with it. Others might be bored at stuff they saw 20 years ago. But if you have a vague memory of the shorts used, you'll enjoy it. Some clever ones like Sylvester the Cat battling a dog in a hospital room, and Yosemite Sam trying to go "good" in the presence of Bugs Bunny, who is the bearer of riches. The old material still comes off fun, but the new bits are definite filler. Daffy going through his manic motions, and Sam spending most of the film trying to match an errant feather to whomever stole his map. But if you can slog through that, you'll end up with some positive results in the "flashback" vain.

Daffy Duck and Speedy are on a deserted island where they come across a treasure map which they hoped for treasure but instead they found a magic well that can talk. And it has the ability to grant anyone a fantasy of their own.

Daffy after experience a fantasy that didn't went too well. He demanded to be owner of the island or well keeper I think.

So the well changes the deserted island into a more tropical like island. Daffy and Speedy automatically got their own white suits to make them look like the owners of Fantasy Island.

A plane comes by with other Looney Tune characters who want to experience their own fantasies with the power of the well.

Meanwhile after a ship battle with Bugs Bunny, Sam and Taz got shipwrecked and ended up being on the same isle with the magic well. Sam notices his map is gone and is determine to know who took.

This movie is similar to the other early Looney Tune TV movies. About 50% of it is new footage while the rest is reused Looney Tune shorts done by Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng.

If you like Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, you'll like this movie.

The biggest problem with this film is a common one in all these compilations: you can see (and probably have seen) most of this material elsewhere (mostly in Saturday-morning kiddie shows on TV). However, anyone looking for the trademark anarchic, sometimes surrealistic humor of the WB cartoons, surely won't be disappointed with "Fantastic Island". Of course, some episodes are more enjoyable than others; there is one dud (Porky Pig as a producer searching for talents), but there is also at least one short, starring a jive-talking rooster ("Crazy, man. C-razy!") that can perhaps be fully appreciated only by adults. (**1/2)

This is certainly not the best of the Looney Tunes' work but it is still a lot of fun which really gives Daffy Duck the chance to shine as he takes the center stage alongside Speedy Gonzales who plays his faithful sidekick. There are some great lines and some hilarious gags, but this film is mostly a compilation of some of the best episodes. Everyone is in it, even Spike the bull-dog and his little friend, and surprisingly, Bugs Bunny doesn't have much more of a part than any of his other looney tune buddies (though there is a memorable scene where he has a cannon battle with Yuletide Sam). This film is well worth seeing, especially if you have children (well you don't want your kids to turn into little pokemon-loving bratts do you?). Enjoy! 8/10

I personally enjoy these Looney Tunes compilation films, they aren't a patch on the original cartoons but they're are very entertaining, at least to me even with the cutting and shortening of some of the cartoons.

Daffy Duck's Movie:Fantastic Island is a good compilation film. I prefer QuackBusters and Bugs Bunny/Road-runner Movie, but Fantastic Island is better than in my opinion 1001 Rabbit Tales and Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, which I also liked.

The cartoons featured are very entertaining, especially Captain Hareblower, though I don't consider either of them masterpieces, while the Yosemite Sam trying to do good and Sylvester battling a dog in the hospital episodes are very entertaining too. However one doesn't entirely work and that is the one with Porky Pig looking for talents I agree, Porky is more a support character and the cartoon wasn't as funny as it could have been, and I can understand if Foghorn Leghorn's goes over the heads over some, I get it now, as a kid I didn't.

The story surrounding the cartoons is a good idea, and kept afloat by the characters and witty dialogue, but it didn't make me feel any different about the rather short length and the fact the story feels rather thin and often feels like filler.

The Looney Tunes characters are delightful. Daffy is the star of the show, and I liked it that Speedy was less loud and abrasive as he can be in the hit-and-miss series he was in- the ones with Sylvester I liked, not so much excepting a few the ones with Daffy(ie. See ya Later Gladiator is one of the weakest Looney Tunes cartoons in my opinion)- while Yosemite Sam is still as cantankerous and amusing as ever before.

The animation is excellent, not just in the cartoons featured but also in the links. I admired also how much effort was done into making the characters and animation style as true to the original cartoons as much as possible. The music is also rousing and energetic, the dialogue witty and funny and the sight gags fresh and inventive. The voice work is top notch, June Foray is great as Granny but once again Mel Blanc gives a bravura performance.

Overall, a good compilation film. 8/10 Bethany Cox