How do you screw up a Tex Avery inspired film reel gag this poorly? If you're not gonna have the actual reel flicker and move, why even bother replicating the gag in the first place?
In all seriousness, it genuinely saddens me that animation legend Vladimir Peter "Bill" Tytla sunk to making cartoons this insipidly subpar, especially when he was not only a top tier aster animator, but also made some subjectively decent works at Famous Studios. On top of creating Little Audrey and working well within more dramatically emotional works like The Bored Cuckoo and Leprechaun's Gold, his Little Lulu and Popeye were serviceable in terms of fantasy surrealism and slapstick timing. Unfortunately, none of that charm can be found in this dreadful short.
As much as I usually hate comparing works to each other, the entire runtime feels like I'm being reminded of better cartoons from directors who actually liked making slapstick oriented shorts (the aforementioned Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Bill Hanna & Joe Barbera). Even better cartoons about birds surviving behind hunted for Thanksgiving (Holiday for Drumsticks and Jerky Turkey) came to mind because they at least had funnier set ups and wackier timing. The basic premise of a farmer running around his farm to catch a turkey he initially spoiled isn't necessarily bland in concept, but the filmmakers do nothing other than typical chase gags and tired slapstick. Lastly, the ending doesn't work as a darkly humorous payoff because it implies that the farmer is stupid enough to have attempted eating the turkey every year (even by cartoon logic, that's far fetched).
The only slight positive I can give this train wreck is Arnold Stang's wise guy performance as the turkey itself, at least for no other reason then it reminds me of Herman the mouse. The same can't be said for Sid Raymond whose dope like performance doesn't fit the farmer's design, but I'd rather at least acknowledge solid voice work when I hear it. Otherwise, there's nothing worthwhile about this short other than you're better off just devouring turkey today.
