The Iceman Ducketh (1964) Poster

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6/10
Great title, disappointing cartoon
TheLittleSongbird21 June 2010
The Iceman Ducketh is not awful, but it isn't great either. It does have a great title, excellent voice work and a decent score. And while none of them are particularly original, the gags and dialogue are amusing, and the story was a good one. However, the animation looked rushed and lacked a sense of vibrancy, and it certainly didn't help that the pacing throughout The Iceman Ducketh was too fast unfortunately. But I was more disappointed in the treatment of Daffy, I agree he was too bitter an unlikeable here. That was disappointing as I love Daffy. Bugs fared better, but he lacked that arrogance and craftiness that sets him as different from the other Looney Tunes cartoons. Overall, disappointing but watchable. 6/10 Bethany Cox
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7/10
When putting this cartoon into a historical context . . .
oscaralbert20 September 2015
Warning: Spoilers
. . . it's hard not to think initially of beloved American President Jack Kennedy's assassination, since Daffy Duck spends most of THE ICEMAN DUCKETH threatening beloved American Rabbit Bugs Bunny with a rifle. However, the parallel falls apart at this point, since Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot JFK twice, while Daffy only manages to shoot HIMSELF a couple of times. A slightly more apt confluence is the scene in which Daffy fires multiple rounds at Bugs as the former glides down a mountain on skis. This set-up will be familiar to anyone who's viewed the early James Bond Agent 007 flicks, which feature the Bad Guys following in Daffy's ski tracks here. While Kennedy did not survive long enough to enjoy these films, he did famously include Ian Fleming's early novels on his "must-read" list. What is a matter of record is that DUCKETH was copyrighted the year that JFK was cut down (1963), and that Daffy does his best to pose as a poster boy for the National Rifle Association.
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8/10
Good, but derivative, later cartoon
llltdesq12 June 2002
This short shows Daffy in all of his obnoxious glory. While entertaining enough, the gags are old-hat and much of what happens is predictable and almost telegraphed. By no means a bad cartoon, but not terribly exciting either. Worth watching, it shows fairly often on Cartoon Network. Recommended.
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Shows a real lack of pride in production
bob the moo23 November 2003
Daffy Duck is hunting Bugs Bunny in the height of winter time. However Bugs has no intention of being killed so that Daffy can have a warm winter fur and uses the conditions to his advantages, including a group of bears trying to hibernate.

Despite a clever little reference in the title, this cartoon is actually not up to a great deal. The animation is average at best and it gives the characters a real cheap feel to see them so basically drawn. It gave me the impression that the cartoon was rushed together and maybe not given as much care and attention as it should have had. Both Daffy and Bugs look very basic, like they have no touches to them but have just been traced from a more complex drawing!

The plot is average, personally I wasn't really feeling the whole Daffy as a hunter thing and it didn't really work for me. It isn't used to nay great effect and Bugs wasn't really as slippery and funny as he can be. A big problem for me was the characters of the two leads – they didn't seem to actually have any. Certainly neither was really used well and they could easily have been any old character for all the uniqueness either brought to the piece.

Overall the quality of animation should ring bells – it shows a lack of care which can also be seen in the plot, the characters and the comedy. Funny title, not much else.
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7/10
I have not really seen very much discussion as to whether . . .
tadpole-596-9182564 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
. . . there is a connection between the three bears who trap Daffy Duck in a tree to conclude THE ICEMAN DUCKETH and the trio of bruins who endanger Goldilocks. True, Daffy's furry triumvirate seem to be fairly similar in size. However, if this story is taking place a few years AFTER Goldie's close encounter of the bare kind, baby bear could well be similar in size to his parents. (Even if these two incidents happened the SAME season, all the bruins could be "shirt tail" relatives.)
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8/10
It would be fascinating to know which brand of toothpaste . . .
pixrox121 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
. . . is responsible for Bugs Bunny's funniest bit during THE ICEMAN DUCKETH. As murderous but total loser would-be rabbit pelt trapper Daffy Duck is hurtling down a snowy mountainside bringing doom to America's favorite hare, Bugs makes an aside to viewers that he's going to try a defensive maneuver that he's somehow picked up from a television oral health care commercial. Bugs then proceeds to throw a bucket of (strangely not frozen) water into the swiftly diminishing space standing between himself and the onrushing water fowl, which (of course) instantly freezes, creating a rock solid but translucent ice shield into which Daffy instantly collides. I do not think the ad Bugs saw was for the Pepsodent Toothpaste brand, since they relied on a rhyming couplet jingle during this era that started out something like "You'll wonder where your teeth all went, when you brush them good with . . . "
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4/10
"I think I'm going to cry."
utgard1425 December 2014
When Daffy finds out that a Klondike trading post is paying for rabbit fur, he sets out to trap Bugs. Naturally Bugs runs circles around Daffy and throws everything the duck tries back on him. This is the last Bugs & Daffy theatrical short until 1990. It's also one of the worst I've ever seen. The animation is really cheap-looking and sketchy with boring backgrounds. The gags are all predictable and not at all funny. Other reviewers have said that Daffy seems a little more mean-spirited and ugly this time around. I think they may just be projecting somewhat due to the "killing Bugs for his fur" angle. Really, nothing Daffy does here is worse than what we've seen from him before and certainly no worse than your average Wile E. Coyote plot to kill the Road Runner. Shooting guns and using dynamite is the worst of it and that's all handled with typical cartoonishness, nothing approaching real violence. So, while I didn't care for the cartoon, my problem with it wasn't one of characterization or violence. It just wasn't funny or pleasing to look at.
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2/10
Poor continuity of character
Tina-4526 May 2000
Warning: Spoilers
(Warning some spoilers)

I did not like "The Iceman Ducketh". In this cartoon Daffy is far too bitter and it is totally out of character. It is true that Daffy has always been jealous of Bugs, but the duck always kept his spirit. Is this short, instead of being crazy with jealousy, he is embittered and not likeable. Sure Daffy wanted to get rid of Bugs but he never wanted to KILL him. In the earlier hunting trilogy, it's true that he wanted Elmer Fudd to shoot Bugs, but you get the feeling he wasn't trying to finish him off, just trying to get Elmer to go away. He knew that Bugs could take care of Elmer better than he could. This probably marks the beginning of the bitter Daffy Duck we saw later in the Speedy Gonzales series. I cannot connect with Daffy in any way in this film. Where was Chuck Jones when we needed him?
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Classic Warner Bros.
Op_Prime15 January 2000
This was a hilarious cartoon. The jokes and gags by now were not new but characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck can keep them funny for years. And they certainly did that in this one. Those two together in a cartoon always assures a laugh riot. This one of the best Looney Tunes cartoons ever made.
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4/10
Bugs and Daffy are Awesome, but this Short is Certainly Not
jaredkjacoby26 January 2020
Daffy Duck attempts to hunt down the wisecracking rabbit for his fur. That's all there is too this plot.

This short is just not very good at all. In fact, it is a contender for the worst Bugs Bunny short of the original series. The animation is just so stiff and lifeless. You could tell that they had budget problems and the visuals look bland at best. Bugs and Daffy just look too basic and robotic. The human designs are just flat out ugly to look at. There just isn't a lot of that energy most Looney Tunes shorts have. Bugs and Daffy are both unlikable. Bugs is just too cocky here and borderline mean-spirited in this short for me to root for him. Daffy on the other hand wants to kill Bugs over his fur. Really? One, he could have shot one of the bears that would give him more fur. Two, Daffy hunting is just completely out of character for him and not in a good way. He is just as mean-spirited as Bugs and feels like this short was made by someone who hated Daffy. It's really bad when you end up rooting for the bear to maul both of them. As far as the jokes go, some of them gave me a chuckle, but there was nothing funny in this short that you wouldn't have seen in better Bugs vs hunter shorts. The gags are very repetitive and predictable. Also, it is a bit shorter than the other shorts, but that might be a good thing. Mel Blanc's voice work is the one thing that this short has going for it. He did a great job as he always does with the characters.

The Iceman Ducketh is such a weak short. It just reeks of mediocrity, especially when you compare it with other shorts. Bugs and Daffy both deserve better than this. It's not that it's unwatchable, which it's not, but it is just not worth it. Anything this short does, nearly every other Bugs Bunny and/or Daffy Duck short does a million times better. There no real reason to watch this, unless you really want to see why the 60's was not the best decade for Looney Tunes.
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I agree, not the Daffy we know
PeachHamBeach8 September 2003
Daffy and Bugs have always been friendly rivals, good humored, and the humor was for harmless laughs. I agree with the poster that the Daffy depicted in this later WB cartoon is totally out of character. He NEVER intends to kill Bugs for his fur.

This and many of the other mid to late 60s WB cartoons reflects the end of the Golden Age of Cartoon Shorts. I suppose changing tastes and sense of humor were emerging, although I at age 33 consider most of the old '40s and '50s toons very ageless and appealing, clever, political at times, aimed at an adult audience, wrought with violence of the very playful kind and therefore harmless to any child who has common sense.

But these later '60s cartoons aren't nearly as appealing. Gone are the classic musical quilts of Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn, replaced by Bill Lava's less inspiring "'60s beach" music. Gone is the good humor and wit that carried audiences through tough times like WWII. This violent, hateful Daffy, with not a bit of humor about him, probably did little to comfort those upset with the crisis in Southeast Asia.

Getting too political for my own good, I will stop here. All I can say is, I'm sure glad those old classic cartoons of early WB glory are still on the Cartoon Network!!!
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