Cross Country Detours Review

Cross Country Detours is a 1940 animated short film from the Merry Melodies series. It is a very long entry.

Yes, this film clocks at over nine minutes. This is easily the longest animated short from Warner Bros. so far. It is in fact so long that it could also be the length of two shorts. In my opinion, its length definitely led to it being slow and dull. I do respect this film for its ambitiousness in narration and documentary approach and the animation is also very strong, but it just bored me honestly.

The first gag is literally taken from ‘A Day at the Zoo’ which is a much better film. This one is rehashed and the original stuff that was added is not as strong and is even odd such as that “lady lizard thing”. That was distractingly weird. The film doesn’t have enough strong gags to justify its long runtime.

Cross Country Detours definitely has good animation, but unimpressive humor and storyline.