With the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies now focusing on nothing but Daffy and Speedy, the year might seem like an uneventful one for the series (even if the quality has improved lately). But no, a lot will happen!

Daffy's Diner
Directed by Robert McKimson
Daffy runs a diner in the desert, trying to sell mouseburgers to cats for 19 cents. He finally gets a customer, but it's the bandit El Supremo. The cat isn't impressed with Daffy using a rubber mouse for the burger and makes him get a real one, or he'll get shot! Speedy happens to show up at that very moment, offering to wash dishes for some scraps, leading to a chase. One of the more entertaining Daffy and Speedy cartoons, with a good concept, nice portrayals of the characters and appealing gags... the ending is a bit weird, but still humorous. This was the last WB short produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, who would now focus on their own series distributed by United Artists. This was also the last classic short to involve producer Friz Freleng who had worked on the Looney Tunes in various roles from the very start with just a couple of years of absence in the late 30s, though he would return for some later projects with the characters. Even if they had better ones over the years, they could have done a lot worse for the last one.
8

Warner Bros. had now ended their collaboration with DePatie-Freleng after a failed attempt to take over the studio, but something significant was about to happen... In the meantime, WB hired Format Films to produce the next three shorts, having been impressed with their subcontracted work on the Road Runner cartoons. This time, their cartoons starred (surprise!) Daffy and Speedy.

Quacker Tracker
Directed by Rudy Larriva
The Tooth & Nail Hunting Society is missing just one trophy in their collection: Speedy Gonzales. If someone catches him, they'll get a lifetime membership. "Stupid idiotic foolhardy ignoramus" Daffy takes up the task, but every attempt goes wrong, despite him trying to take advantage of Speedy's love of women and food. Gagwise, there have been much worse WB cartoons – I think most of the antics here are amusing, with Speedy's trickster side showing well. But the animation leaves a lot to be desired (more so than in the studio's Road Runners): while the animators do a good job with Daffy, the mice and the human characters fare much worse, with Speedy looking downright off-model at times. It looks better than the Tom Palmer disgraces from the 30s, for example, but I can't help but feel this would have been more enjoyable with DePatie-Freleng still at the helm.
7.5

The Music Mice-tro
Directed by Rudy Larriva
Movie star Daffy Duck goes to the Restful Haven Motel in Balmy Springs for a relaxing vacation. But Speedy and his friends, who have a band, are also there and audition for him in hopes of getting a movie role. The mice prove to be a huge nuisance for the duck who tries his best to escape them and their music. An entertaining entry – unlike most of the recent shorts, Daffy isn't in the villain role here for the most part, with the mice being responsible for most of the conflict. The gags are amusing (especially an "instant replay" one), the music is very catchy... The animation isn't the best we've seen in these shorts, but even then, it's a definite improvement over "Quacker Tracker" (we saw the same with Larriva's Road Runner shorts where the first one looked significantly worse than the following entries).
8

The Spy Swatter
Directed by Rudy Larriva
A mouse scientist has come up with a high-potency cheese that will give mice the strength to defeat any cat. Speedy is to deliver the secret formula to the cheese factory. But a cat called Mr. Brain is aware of this and assigns secret agent Daffy Duck to catch Speedy. Decently entertaining but a bit forgettable at the same time – there are some funny gags, but others are predictable, and Speedy's punchline at the end is particularly weak. On the other hand, there are some callbacks to the earlier days, with the reappearance of Sam the cat (called Mr. Brain here) who had appeared in a couple of Sylvester cartoons and "42nd Street" being heard on the soundtrack. The last WB cartoon with the involvement of Larriva and Format Films – their 14 cartoons may not have been the best in the series, but I definitely think they're better than their reputation despite the animation quality being their weakness.
7

As the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies continued to enjoy success, WB decided to reopen their own cartoon studio instead of outsourcing the shorts. Veteran animator Alex Lovy, with decades of experience working for Walter Lantz and Hanna-Barbera, was hired as the director for the new cartoons. Despite Daffy and Speedy remaining the main characters, the series would now also feature shorts with all-new characters. The reopened studio's two most famous new characters would both make their debut this year...

Speedy Ghost to Town
Directed by Alex Lovy
Speedy and his friend Miguel head to a ghost town, and Daffy is spying on them. The duck soon finds out Speedy has a map to a gold mine. Seeing an opportunity to get rich, he tries to steal it with no success. The start of the new era is sadly a weak one. On a positive note, the animation is better-looking than in the Larriva trio, but with the gags, it's a different story. Most of it is either predictable or otherwise weak. Daffy gets blown up repeatedly – in the earlier WB cartoons, it was always fun to see the results of this, but Daffy barely looks different after the explosions here. There's a nice twist ending and we see a brief moment with Daffy acting wacky like he used to, but those aren't enough to save this short from mediocrity.
6.5

The changes continue... At this point, Warner Bros. went through a merger with fellow production company Seven Arts, creating the new company Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. While this didn't have much of an effect on the production of new cartoons, their cartoon library grew. Seven Arts had bought the cartoons earlier sold to Guild Films, so thanks to the merger, the TV rights to most of the black and white Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were reunited with the post-1948 library. The W7 company had new plans in mind for those too... But as for the rest of 1967:

Rodent to Stardom
Directed by Alex Lovy
Daffy is in Hollywood when Harvey Hasenpfeffer, director for Colossal Pictures, spots him and decides to make him a star. But to Daffy's disappointment, he's just a stand-in for Speedy Gonzales, doing all the dangerous scenes for him. He decides to get rid of the mouse in order to be the star himself. I had low expectations after the first Lovy short but actually ended up enjoying this one! The plot is largely recycled from 1956's "A Star Is Bored", with Speedy replacing Bugs, but the gags are different enough for this to be enjoyable in its own right, and Daffy feels more in character than in many other shorts at this time. Funny and cute ending too!
8

Go Away Stowaway
Directed by Alex Lovy
Daffy heads south for a vacation, but Speedy sneaks along in the suitcase. On the ship, the duck realizes the annoying mouse is there too and tries his best to get rid of the pest. Entertaining cartoon, even if it's rather average by Daffy and Speedy standards. Nothing particularly surprising as far as gags go, but what's there is quite well done. Speedy singing "La Cucaracha" is the most memorable thing here.
7.5

Cool Cat
Directed by Alex Lovy
Colonel Rimfire is in a jungle, hunting big game with the help of his four-wheel drive elephant. After failing to find any prey, he sees a tiger – the titular character. But things don't go well, as Cool Cat manages to snatch away the elephant, thinking it's a real one that's being hunted, and tries to teach the robot how to survive in the jungle. Cool Cat was the new studio's first attempt to introduce a new character, and he would have the longest run of them, often co-starring with Rimfire. While he's far from the most popular character in the series, I think his debut is a successful one. The tiger and the hunter are both amusing characters (and Cool Cat's "hipness" isn't utilized here too much, preventing the cartoon from becoming too dated), I especially like how the tiger foils the hunter while seemingly being unaware of what's going on. The voices were performed by Larry Storch, who would be responsible for most of the new characters' voices from this point on. While the animation resembles a Hanna-Barbera cartoon more than anything you'd expect from WB, that works well for the characters. The most positive surprise in a while! This cartoon was also the first one to feature a redesigned variant of the opening and closing titles reflecting the new company, complete with yet another rearrangement of the opening theme.
8.5

Merlin the Magic Mouse
Directed by Alex Lovy
Merlin the Magic Mouse performs his magic act in a theater. There's just one audience member: Sam the cat! Merlin wears a fake mustache to hide the fact that he's a mouse, inviting the cat to take part in the act. Eventually the truth comes out, and Merlin and his sidekick Second Banana have to escape from the cat. Merlin and Second Banana were another pair of characters that would make several appearances in the W7 era. Their debut is a good one, with Daws Butler doing a great job voicing all three characters and adding a lot of appeal. The characters are also fun – Merlin with his obviously fake tricks and Second Banana being helpful but not particularly smart. While this may not be an all-time highlight, we've seen much worse – I feel the crew is at its best with the new characters, without the inevitable comparisons to earlier shorts. Sam made his last appearance here, but him being brought back after Sylvester's retirement was a surprise in the first place!
8

Fiesta Fiasco
Directed by Alex Lovy
Speedy and the rest of the mice are throwing a party. When Daffy finds out they're doing this behind his back, he's angry at not being invited and decides to spoil the party. But his attempts to use a rainmaking machine to rain on the party backfire massively. An unusual Daffy and Speedy cartoon in that the two are friends... until Daffy finds out about the party, of course. Daffy's portrayal is one of the most appealing we've had in these cartoons, and his design also looks nicer than in most of the recent entries. His fights with the raincloud are fun, and the story actually gets quite a sweet conclusion.
8

So it was a year with just ten cartoons – the fewest since 1930, which was the first year of the Looney Tunes. The remaining years will have a similarly shrunken schedule, though the new W7 studio will also have some side projects. Though their cartoons were by no means the best we've seen in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series, Lovy and his crew fared surprisingly well, especially with the new characters. We head on to the last couple of years of the series...