The Crackpot Quail

1941
6.2| 0h8m| en| More Info
Released: 15 February 1941 Released
Producted By: Leon Schlesinger Productions
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

A dog chasing a quail keeps getting outsmarted.

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Leon Schlesinger Productions

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Reviews

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
ejumean "The Crackpot Quail", a 1941 Merrie Melodies short, featuring Willoughby the dog (who had previously tussled with Bugs Bunny in "The Heckling Hare" in the same year) faces up against a cagey quail, whose main attributes are a top-knot that keeps falling in his face, and a loud whistle (which was supposedly changed from a raspberry noise in its original theatrical airing.) The quail sounds similar to Bugs, and adopts some of the same language (calling Willoughby "doc" for instance).The cartoon is of the standard predator-chases-prey variety, so it's not like it hasn't been done before (or since for that matter). A running gag throughout shows Willoughby unwittingly slamming into trees ("'Nother tree!") which leads up to the cartoon's conclusion. The cartoon reaches its climax with Willoughby chasing the quail at supersonic speed -- the animation is just his head with streaks indicating high speed, with the sounds of "The William Tell Overture" getting faster and faster as he ramps up his running speed. The quail ducks behind a tree, Willoughby rushes by, and we're led into I think the cartoon's centrepiece, a 25-second crash, quite possibly the longest in any animated cartoon. We don't see the dog, the camera pans behind him, as we view the destruction in his wake: A broken stone wall, small trees downed, a wrecked log cabin (though in my foggy memory of seeing this as a kid, I had thought it was a greenhouse that we panned by), a broken stove, a ruined outhouse and a whole heap of uprooted trees.We finally stop the pan at a huge pile of logs, where Willoughby appears from underneath, giving the final payoff: "Huh huh, lotsa trees!" and mimics the quail's whistle and the cartoon ends.Overall, it's a decent cartoon, with some good gags and a pretty decent payoff.
TheLittleSongbird Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.With animation by Robert McKimson, it being directed by Tex Avery, Carl Stalling scoring and having voice acting from Mel Blanc and Avery himself, 'The Crackpot Quail' could have been great. That it is only pretty good, when all involved contributed towards cartoons that ranged from very good to masterpieces, is slightly disappointing but nonetheless it's fun and well-made, so well worth watching. A lot of people also, as has been said quite a few times, could only dream of producing something as good as either of these talented people when not at their best.'The Crackpot Quail' does agreed have a familiar, seen it all before vibe, imagine Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd except on comparatively subdued form and Elmer as an animal and you have the dynamic between the two lead characters here. The story also has this feeling, while both Avery and McKimson have done cartoons that are funnier and more imaginative.However, However, the animation is excellent. Beautifully drawn, very detailed and the colours are vibrant, complete with some great expressions for the cat.Carl Stalling's music score is typically lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms, it's also beautifully synchronised with the action and gestures/expressions and even enhances the impact.While 'The Crackpot Quail' is not hilarious, it's still very amusing, well-timed and easy to be engaged by. The quail does, again agreed, try too hard to be like Bugs Bunny but is quite fun. The more interesting and funnier character though is the dog, complete with some very clever expressions. Blanc and Avery do a great job with the voice acting.Overall, good but not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox
Edgar Allan Pooh . . . (aka, those Animated Shorts Seers frequently referred to as the "Looney Tuners") did NOT need multiple brief cartoons to warn Americans of the (Then) Far Future of one of their upcoming Calamities, Catastrophes, Cataclysms, or Apocalypti. Take the case of the 44th U.S. Veep, or the dude known as James Danforth "Danny" Quayle. This typical specimen of the Deplorable Red State Confederate Repug Rich People's Party hailed from Paradise Valley, AZ, as pictured throughout THE CRACKPOT QUAIL. When he wasn't busy teaching America's school kids to misspell various words (such as his infamous Idaho "Potatoe"), Quayle spent most of his time as America's most vacuous Veep ever making annoying whistling sounds, as heard during THE CRACKPOT QUAIL. Danny Quayle was in line to become President of Trump University just before the FBI cracked down upon that fraudulent institution of Fake Learning. (This well-document bust is forecast for America about 75 years in advance, as Willoughby the hound trashes the Trump\Quayle gang's bogus brainwashing shack at the end of THE CRACKPOT QUAIL).
bob the moo 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.