First Coyote vs. Acme, now Eric Bauza's final Daffy Duck: Warner keeps burying Looney Tunes
The first theatrical Looney Tunes short in 14 years carries the last Daffy Duck performance of Eric Bauza, who died October 25. Warner attached it to a film trackers are already writing off.
Eric Bauza, the Emmy-winning voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, and Porky Pig, died on October 25 at 46, of hypertensive cardiovascular disease, according to Los Angeles County medical examiner records. His family announced it with a statement saying he died "suddenly"; nine days earlier he had attended The Hollywood Reporter's animation power breakfast.
One of his last performances is still on the way to theaters. Daffy Season, a seven-minute short that Bauza worked on, opens in front of Warner Bros.' The Cat in the Hat on November 6 — the first theatrical Looney Tunes short since Daffy's Rhapsody in 2012.
On r/television, a fan flagged what that means:
"Eric's final work IS NOT YET OUT. There's a Daffy Duck short that is supposed to be coming with the Cat in the Hat reboot next week. Hopefully they won't change course with these events."
— a commenter on r/television
The vehicle Warner picked
The course, for now, runs through a film nobody seems to want. Box Office Theory's four-week tracking has The Cat in the Hat opening at $25 million to $35 million, and the latest presale update on r/boxoffice, four days out, is titled "looks dire." Under it, one commenter summed up the studio's year:
"And the bombs keep on coming for WB this year. Dune really is their Messiah."
— a commenter on r/boxoffice
So the send-off for the voice of Looney Tunes is scheduled for half-empty rooms. Warner will include an in-loving-memory card for Bauza on Academy screeners of Daffy Season; regular audiences get the short only if they buy a ticket to a Dr. Seuss reboot.
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A pattern, not an accident
Warner's handling of Looney Tunes has been its own genre of story for three years:
- 2023: The finished Coyote vs. Acme — with Bauza voicing Tweety, Porky, Elmer Fudd, and Foghorn Leghorn — is shelved for a tax write-off. A fan and filmmaker revolt follows.
- 2025: Warner sells the film to the much smaller Ketchup Entertainment instead of releasing it. The Day the Earth Blew Up, the Looney Tunes feature Bauza led, goes to Ketchup too. Bill Damaschke, president of Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, says the decision was made "out of my purview."
- 2026: The characters' theatrical comeback — and Bauza's final theatrical Daffy — rides on The Cat in the Hat's presales.
Damaschke, to be fair, made Daffy Season for the right reason. "I wanted them to be the stars of their own thing again," he told TheWrap about putting Looney Tunes back on the big screen.
Warner sold two finished Looney Tunes movies rather than put them in theaters itself. The Looney Tunes it is putting in theaters run seven minutes.
Bauza has one more posthumous role coming: two characters on The Simpsons on November 15. And Bye Bye Bunny, the Looney Tunes musical that was in pre-production with him, now has no voice attached — the next test of what Warner does with these characters when no one is watching.
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