Quacker Tracker is a 1967 Looney Tunes short directed by Rudy Larriva.
Plot[]
The Tooth and Nail Hunting Society is experiencing a crisis: the one trophy that it does not have in its clubhouse is Speedy Gonzales, and all of their members are injured from previous, failed attempts at catching Speedy. The chairman offers a lifetime membership to anyone who catches Speedy, but one of the injured hunters tells him that "anybody who goes after Speedy Gonzales would have to be a stupid, idiotic, foolhardy ignoramus." At that moment, the clubhouse's janitor, Daffy, offers his services as a hunter and, despite not knowing who or what Speedy is, goes off to Mexico to catch him.
Daffy quickly finds Speedy, who is entertaining his friends with some guitar-playing, and promptly tries to shoot him. Thanks to Daffy's abysmal aim however, Speedy and his friends escape without harm and flee to the safety of Speedy's mouse hole. Daffy invites Speedy to come out and look at a beautiful señorita through his "telescope", actually a shotgun, and Speedy plays along with Daffy by pretending to see something up the shotgun's barrel. Daffy in turn decides to take a look himself, and Speedy causes the shotgun to fire and blast Daffy, angering the duck.
For his next trap, Daffy sets up a hunter's snare tied to a metal post, and sets a lure with cheese and Tabasco Sauce. Speedy takes the bait, but the trap fails to function and Speedy escapes. Daffy checks it out, but then the trap decides to function and ensnares Daffy, hitting him against the ground several times. When Daffy recovers, Speedy runs up behind him and shouts out loud, causing Daffy to run away and in turn causing the snare to catapult him back into the ground.
After this, Daffy uses a wind-up doll mouse filled with explosives to try and blow up Speedy. Unfortunately the doll decides that it prefers Daffy to Speedy, resulting in Daffy being blown up instead. Daffy's next strategy is "Plan X" - disguising himself a giant enchilada and delivering himself to Speedy's mouse hole. The mice become suspicious when they see Daffy's tail feathers sticking out of the enchilada however, and decide to fill it with Tabasco sauce. The sauce is so powerful that it sets fire to Daffy's hunting hat and sends him rocketing into the village fountain - which Speedy promptly drains, giving Daffy a very hard landing.
Finally, Daffy creates a device from a cannon and a jet engine, and chases Speedy into a systems of pipes with it. When Daffy exits the pipes, however, the device fires him into an approaching train, and the force of the collision sends him rebounding all the way back into the United States, and back into the hunters' lodge via its roof. Daffy admits to the chairman that he's giving up on the idea of catching Speedy, since "with Speedy Gonzales around, life would be too short to enjoy it anyway."
Availability[]
Notes[]
- Having been released on VHS as part of The Looney Tunes Video Show in 1983, this marks the first time a Format Films-era cartoon has been officially released on home video, and the only Format Films-era cartoon to be officially released on VHS, at least in the United States.
- This short is the first of three "buffer cartoons" produced by Format Films in between Warner Bros. ending its contract with previous Looney Tunes producers DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and re-establishing its own cartoon studio.
- The short slightly updates the closing titles to have the words wipe without a fade effect at the end. Alongside, it noticeably includes an error after the end of the opening title theme where there is an additional sound effect that is heard before being cut off for the title card theme. These changes would persist until the titles were overhauled for the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts merger in "Cool Cat".
- The gag with Speedy pretending to see a beautiful woman inside Daffy's gun is taken from "Duck Soup to Nuts" (1944)
- This is the only short to have its music scored by Frank Perkins.
- When shown on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, this short plays in PAL audio.
- The working title was "A Hunting We Will Go-Go".[1]
Gallery[]
TV Title Cards[]
References[]
Speedy Gonzales Cartoons | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
1953 | Cat-Tails for Two | |||
1955 | Speedy Gonzales | |||
1957 | Tabasco Road • Gonzales' Tamales | |||
1958 | Tortilla Flaps | |||
1959 | Mexicali Shmoes • Here Today, Gone Tamale | |||
1960 | West of the Pesos | |||
1961 | Cannery Woe • The Pied Piper of Guadalupe | |||
1962 | Mexican Boarders | |||
1963 | Mexican Cat Dance • Chili Weather | |||
1964 | A Message to Gracias • Nuts and Volts • Pancho's Hideaway • Road to Andalay | |||
1965 | It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House • Cats and Bruises • The Wild Chase • Moby Duck • Assault and Peppered • Well Worn Daffy • Chili Corn Corny • Go Go Amigo | |||
1966 | The Astroduck • Mucho Locos • Mexican Mousepiece • Daffy Rents • A-Haunting We Will Go • Snow Excuse • A Squeak in the Deep • Feather Finger • Swing Ding Amigo • A Taste of Catnip | |||
1967 | Daffy's Diner • Quacker Tracker • The Music Mice-Tro • The Spy Swatter • Speedy Ghost to Town • Rodent to Stardom • Go Away Stowaway • Fiesta Fiasco | |||
1968 | Skyscraper Caper • See Ya Later Gladiator | |||
1979 | Fright Before Christmas | |||
1980 | The Chocolate Chase |