Looney Tunes: October 1996
Cover
In an ancient stone chamber a frightened Daffy, wearing Indiana Jones attire, is on a small raised platform surrounded by a veritable sea of scraggly grey rabbits. The duck exclaims, "AAAHH! Rabbits! I hate rabbits!" Above are the words Looney Tunes in a style similar to the title for the 1981 film Indiana Jones and the Raiders of Lost Ark. Amongst the background hieroglyphics are the letters WB.
Credits
Synopsis
The story opens with a map showing Speedy Gonzales' roundabout route to his tribe in Mousu Picchu and his narration explains he was summoned to protect a treasure from a greedy archeologist. The treasure is under a curse, it is said, and only the speedy will survive. Arriving, the mouse encounters Daffy in the form of Indiana "Itz" Mine. Itz doesn't quite understand the glyphs he is looking at, which provide warning. The glyphs include a picture showing mice tying up Sylvester.
The mouse and the duck quickly strike a deal that seems to be in the duck's favor and set off into an ancient ruin. Itz ignores Speedy's warning about a tripline and gets his beak knocked off by the first trap. Next, he refuses to believe a caution about a light beam and gets clobbered again.
Itz gets it again as walls close in on him, but Speedy's size permits the mouse a ready escape. Using his whip to swing over a pit doesn't work as planned, but triggers another trap. What appears to be the final obstacle is an oddly colored floor, which must be crossed in by careful placement of each hand and foot on certain colors. When Itz makes a mistake, he gets clobbered.
Itz finally manages to take hold of the idol he sought and makes a staggering discovery: it is made of cheese, not gold. The duck makes a comment about the legend of gold and gives the boulder that clobbered him a solid kick, hurting his foot. Speedy closes with the same punning line as he opened with and we see what Itz has just missed. Itz's kick knocked off some of the outer covering and shows the boulder to be made of gold inside.
Did You Notice...
Page 1: Mousu Picchu refers to Machu Picchu, a place were there are many Incan ruins.- Page 10: The colored spots on which hands and feet must be carefully placed is a reference to the game Twister.
- Page 12: Daffy's line about mice is similar to Indiana Jones' line about snakes.
- The light beam, dropping-door, use of a whip to swing over a pit, the taking of an idol triggering a trap, and the boulder are all elements used in the first several minutes of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Technical Nits
Page 12: If that boulder is supposed to be a "ton in gold" as Daffy says in the third panel, it would be much smaller. Gold is very dense and therefore heavy and even a ton of solid iron (much less dense than gold) is actually surprisingly small. Of course, Daffy might not have been speaking of a literal single ton.
Credits
Synopsis
Sylvester is just about to eat Tweety when Granny stops him by forceful application of a broom. Granny has had enough and takes the two to The Natural Reorder where Noah Sark promises to teach them to get along. The place is filled with natural enemies getting along very friendly with one another.
Noah starts with a group counseling session, in which Sylvester's predatory tendencies show up repeatedly despite various attempts at changing them. He can't talk when passed a 'talking stick' as his mouth is full. After he falls backwards and is caught, he catches Tweety, but in a frying pan. A padded fight doesn't have the desired effect when some padding is lost.
It is time for deeper investigation. Noah gets Sylvester to talk of his kittenhood and what his dreams were. Tweety hears a line about sharing and switches on the PA system so when the cat admits to just wanting to be a ballerina the entire place hears it, with predictable results. One last thing, considered more extreme, is tried. Sylvester and Tweety (along with many others) reverse roles and speak out what they think of the other. This seems to work out.
Noah returns the cat and bird to a pleasantly surprised Granny. The next day, however, reveals a problem. The role reversal worked rather too well.
Did You Notice...
- The title refers to the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility based on the Jane Austin novel of the same title.
- Page 16: Sylvester's comment about monkeys flying out his tail refers to Mike Myers' character Wayne Campbell in Wayne's World who would answer wildly improbable statements with the line "...and monkeys might fly outta my butt!"
- The 'talking stick' and trust building by falling backwards and being caught are, or at least were, elements common to various somewhat New Age help groups in the mid 1990s.
- Page 22: That vulture looks like he may be Beaky Buzzard.
- Page 23: Bugs Bunny is role reversing twice over. He speaks of being Daffy, but carries a rifle like Elmer. Also, Daffy speaks of being Bugs and Elmer is eating a carrot.
Technical Nits
- Page 21: Just where does Tweety get that mallet? The foam was around Sylvester's head and Tweety had a bat before.
- Page 24: The base of Tweety's cage is now red around the outside, while it was grey on page 15.
Credits
Synopsis
Daffinia Duckfired, really Daffy Duck in costume, is at the door introducing herself with some impressive credentials. The introduction falls flat on the gorilla who has answered the door, however. With a rather rough entrance behind her, Daffinia impresses the lady of the house and is hired as nanny.
The gorillas leave for work, leaving Daffinia with amazing instructions to look after Junior, who she has yet to see. Daffinia relaxes, eating and watching TV and enjoying the idea of getting paid for doing that. Then Junior wakes up with a loud wail and Daffinia discovers that Junior is rather large, gigantic, in fact.
Junior isn't satisfied with a rattle, or with Daffinia. The duck finally gets the message that he's hungry and so prepares the large meal mentioned in the instructions and Junior is fed, though not without incident. Afterwards they play a game and just as Daffinia thinks she's in the clear, Junior falls on her.
When the two gorillas return from work all appears well, almost. While Junior is fine and fast asleep Daffinia is in bandages and quits on the spot. Looking for another job, Daffinia, or rather Daffy, is attracted to an opening in Acme infomercials.
Did You Notice...
- The title refer to the 1993 film Mrs. Doubtfire in which a divorced father seeking to be close to his children dresses as an older lady and manages to get hired as housekeeper by his ex-wife.
- Page 25: Daffy's comment about women's clothing and a rabbit refers to Bugs Bunny's oft-used trick of dressing as a woman to foil his adversary.
- Page 26: Daffy is honest, sort of. Every word of that resume was fabricated.
- Page 26: Oprah is Oprah Winfrey's talk show, a staple of weekday television for many.
- Page 29: The Son of Kong was a 1933 sequel to King Kong.
- Page 30: Junior's bib has the message "Do not feed the animals" with the word 'not' in the international not or no symbol.
- Page 32: Daffy was more than once a purveyor of gadgets in the classic animated cartoons.
Technical Nits
- The color of Daffinia's necklace changes through the story and is not colored at all on page 25.
- The fourth toe, or thumb as it looks like, is in different places on Junior's feet. In some panels it is near the toes and in other it seems to be growing out the side of the heel.
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Last update 10 January 2000