The Crackpot Quail (1941)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Tex Avery

Writer:

Rich Hogan (writer)

Release Date:

15 February 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Animation | Short | Comedy

Plot:

A dog chases a quail through the forest; the quail keeps outsmarting the dog (and keeps referring to the dog as "doc")...

Plot Keywords:

Merrie Melodies | Cartoon | William Tell Overture | Kids And Family

Cast

Tex Avery	...	Willoughby (voice) (uncredited)
Mel Blanc	...	Quail (voice) (uncredited)

Runtime:

8 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Leon Schlesinger Studios

Soundtrack:

In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree

OK, but no Bugs Bunny

A dog is out in the countryside when he starts to get hungry. He decides to try and catch himself a nice plump quail but, even after he finds one, she turns out to a much trickier prey than he had originally thought.

Every now and again with WB cartoons, I'll come across some with totally new characters - they are usually pretty anonymous dogs, cats or mice. Generally they go through the material that the more established characters will do in their shorts. That is the case here - the quail basically plays Bugs Bunny, right up to the fact that she calls the dog `doc'! The dog just plays the foil character and he is actually OK.

The material is quite amusing, the quail tricks and fools the dog in the time honoured fashion of Bugs Bunny and the dog has a few good lines in his running joke. However it is very hard to shake the feeling that we've seen this done better somewhere else, and the feeling that the characters are pretty pale imitations of better characters. I'm at a loss as to why anyone would even have the quail use `doc' in her dialogue - why make it so obvious that she's just a bird version of Bugs?

Overall this is still reasonably enjoyable, but you'll not be able to stop thinking about how much fun Bugs Bunny can be, long after the quail has gone from your memory.