Speedy Ghost to Town (Merrie Melodies)

Speedy Ghost to Town (episode 978)
"Sure it's a cheesy short, you Daffy Duck. What do you think we make in there, gold?"
Directed by: Alex Lovy Written by: Cal Howard Release date: July 29, 1967 Franchise: Looney Tunes Prequel: "The Spy Swatter" (previous short) Sequel: "Rodent to Stardom" (next short)

Speedy Ghost to Town is a 1967 Merrie Melodies short directed by Alex Lovy. In this short, Speedy Gonzales and his friend Miguel, search a ghost town to find a cheese mine, which Daffy Duck thinks is gold. It is the first short to be produced from the reopened Warner Bros.-Seven Arts cartoon studio.

Why There Was No Gold, but Cheese

1. The animation, starting from this short and forward, is an extreme downgrade compared to the DePatie-Freleng era shorts and even the Format Films shorts. It relies way too much on limited animation, and in the end makes the short look like a Hanna-Barbera attempt on Looney Tunes rather than an actual theatrical short, which wouldn't be out of place on television.
2. The music orchestra has decreased significantly compared to the previous shorts, causing the music in the short from William Lava to unfortunately suffer even more, sounding more lighter, "tame", and stock-like.
3. Ridiculous slow pacing, which would become a major issue with the Seven Arts shorts to come.
4. Flat background designs and washed-out colors plague the cartoon, even when restored.
5. Daffy's characterization has quickly reverted back to his old mean-spirited character from the early DePatie-Freleng era instead of his sympathetic character later in that era. Not helping is that unlike the DePatie-Freleng shorts, Daffy is completely aware of Speedy's presence and only commits evil and selfish acts towards Speedy and his mouse friends out of pure malice.
6. Miguel is a rather useless character for this short, and could be replaced with another iconic mouse character in the series like Slowpoke Rodriguez with almost no difference.
7. The gags are tired and have been done repetitively in the past, making the short way too predictable, even for Seven Arts standards.
8. The sound effects are now reduced to those of the Hanna-Barbera library, and they will get on your last nerve starting from this short due to how overused they are.
9. A ton of animation errors, with a notable error where when Speedy activates the bomb/phone trap with Daffy on it and it explodes, but the phone and bomb set disappears from the shot rather than being destroyed, and Daffy appears to be unharmed from said explosion!

Redeeming Qualities

1. Speedy Gonzales and his friend Miguel (despite the latter being useless) are the only likable characters in this short.
2. Mel Blanc does an amazing job voicing the characters, as with any other short.
3. Compared to the other Seven Arts shorts, the plot of having the characters search a ghost town is rather interesting, but the poor execution makes the short fall flat.
4. The one scene where Speedy Gonzales bullfights Daffy Duck after the latter has a bull's head fall on his own, while still not amusing due to it being used in previous shorts beforehand, was mildly hilarious to watch.
5. Daffy Duck, as with his other pairings as a miscast villain with Speedy Gonzales, still gets his punishment for his malicious actions in the short. Him going insane in the end is also worth a laugh or so.

Trivia

• The short was originally released in theaters alongside Up the Down Staircase.
• The MeTV restoration incorrectly alters the ending card -- the original ending card had the byline "A VITAPHONE RELEASE", but on the restoration, it was changed to "A VITAGRAPH RELEASE". This exact error also occurs with "Daffy's Diner"'s restoration as well.

Comments

Loading comments...