Quentin Quail is a 1946 Merrie Melodies short directed by Charles M. Jones.
Title[]
The title is a play on "San Quentin quail."
Plot[]
Quentin Quail is searching for a worm to feed his daughter Toots for dinner. Toots think it'll be an early worm, but Quentin states that he'll catch one and make it a "late worm". A worm crawls out of their log home, and Toots tries to tell Quentin to catch it, but Quentin doesn't want to be distracted, so the worm crawls in a hole, causing Toots to cry. The worm dig its way to a junkyard nearby as Quentin pursues after it, and the worm hides in a glove. The first time Quentin tries to approach the glove, it punches him in the head, so he goes after the moving glove. Toots has a club and tries to smash the worm, but the worm escapes in the hole as Quentin is trying to catch it, causing Quentin's hand to fit in the glove and get thrashed by Toots.
Quentin uses pepper and sprays it onto a hole in hopes to get the worm to sneeze out of it. However, while the pepper is being sprayed, Toots cries that she wants to have a shot at the club. However, Quentin has sprayed the incorrect hole, as the worm comes out of another and uses a bellow to blow pepper at Quentin as he peeps in the hole, and Toots is quick to whip her father. Quentin uses a plunger to fish out the worm, and the worm counters by attaching a rubber band to the other end held by a tree, causing Quentin to smash into several tree branches as he tries to retrieve the worm. The worm almost nails Quentin with a nail when he falls, but moves it aside, holding a sign stating "I'd have hated myself".
Exhausted, Quentin suggests that Toots should just try to catch the worm herself. She easily does, but when Quentin complains behind her back that he isn't helpful, Toots cries again and throws the worm towards a crow, who now claims it as his. Quentin steals the worm from the crow, but is nearly given a beating when he returns the worm back to the crow. However, Toots manage to sneakily steal the worm from the crow, and gives it to Quentin. However, the crow now hears this and punches Quentin. Helping her father out, Toots uses a rubber band between two trees to propel a fist from Quentin back to the crow, finally having the worm without interference.
Toots is still crying now that she doesn't want to eat the worm, as the worm looks like Frank Sinatra. "Oh, Toots..."
Caricatures[]
Availability[]
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 4, Side 5
Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 3 (restored)
Streaming[]
Bob Clampett's unused quail design from 1942.
Notes[]
- Bob Clampett initially came up with the idea of a "Quentin Quail" character sometime in 1942. The design is a precursor to Clampett's more famous creation, Tweety.[3]
- Quentin Quail and Toots are a take-off on Fanny Brice and Hanley Stafford's characters Baby Snooks and her Daddy from The Baby Snooks Show.
- Quentin Quail and Toots would later appear in the DC Comics Looney Tunes story "Behind the Slapstick" as mounted trophies on Elmer Fudd's wall.
- According to the production number, this cartoon was produced in the Looney Tunes series but released in the Merrie Melodies series. The lobby cards still use the Looney Tunes moniker.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/catalogofc19733271213libr/page/51/mode/1up?view=theater
- ↑ https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/radio-round-up-baby-snooks/
- ↑ (1991) I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety. Henry Holt and Co, page 35. ISBN 0-8050-1644-9.