Takes itself way too seriously

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

A different way of telling a story

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"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.

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

. . . (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).

Okay, so Tex Avery's "The Crackpot Quail" was released the same year as "The Wild Hare" and featured an animal protagonist facing a less-than-brilliant antagonist, addressed by the animal protagonist throughout as "Doc." So the plot features not a great deal more than a dog in pursuit of the quail in hopes of achieving his dream as a Pointer. So neither the dog nor the quail really achieved the status throughout pop history as the likes of Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny.All of this can easily be forgiven, and is saved, by two key elements: the brilliant animation of Bob McKimson (easily one of Warner Brothers' best animators of all time, yielding stronger work as an animator than as a director imo) and the terrific-as-always score by Carl Stalling. Both of these two elements blend into a great marriage of expression: we are well aware of the emotions at all times of protagonist and antagonist alike.McKimson manages to achieve a great deal of this for Avery's title character through his decidedly unwieldy black top; we are introduced to the character as we see the top fly up several times in time to its soon-to-be familiar whistle before a pan down shows that the obscured bird has been attempting to blow it out of its eyes. The black top soon shows us a great deal of emotion: at one point, when the bird is submerged in water and encounters the dog, we see the top transform from a submarine telescope to the shape of a question mark! A bit later, in a moment of particular distress, when the quail is trapped, the top suddenly sprouts into a series of spikes that would make a porcupine proud.The dog also has a fine moment of emotional expression, highlighted in no small way by Stalling's score. When he comes to the realization that his prey has duped him into a game of fetch, a series of short piano crescendos reveal his realization, and McKimson shows the pro he is at the expression of sheer fury through two major facial features: the eyes and the teeth, the latter of which clench so tightly that the stick inevitably breaks. Though he does point out the obvious, true to his character, the dog need not inform us that he's "getting' plenty sore!"; McKimson has helped us to understand that well enough."The Crackpot Quail" might not have been a candidate for the Oscar. It might not have spawned any great recurring protagonists or series per se, though plenty of "dumb dogs" cropped up in Warner Brothers animation since the release of this cartoon. But it definitely deserves a bit of recognition, and is well worth a look. Not for anything particularly great, but for the smaller elements that are often overlooked.