The Foghorn Leghorn

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = The Foghorn Leghorn
series = Merrie Melodies / Foghorn Leghorn


caption = Title card of The Foghorn Leghorn.
director = Robert McKimson
story_artist = Warren Foster
animator = Pete Burness
John Carey
Phil DeLara
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
musician = Carl Stalling
producer = Eddie Selzer
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = October 9, 1948
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 min (one reel)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0040361

"The Foghorn Leghorn" is a Henery Hawk/Foghorn Leghorn animated short film from Warner Bros. released in 1948 and directed by Robert McKimson. Foghorn has to convince an unbelieving Henery Hawk that he really is a "chicken. "Rooster", that is."

This was only one of five post-1948 WB cartoons to get a Blue Ribbon reissue prior to 1956 - with the original credits cut. The others were "Daffy Dilly", "Kit for Cat", "Scaredy Cat", and "You Were Never Duckier".

Plot

Henery Hawk is talking with his father about wanting to get a chicken, but Henery's father dissuades him, as he'd get in the way. Notably, Henery's father lies about what a chicken looks like, leaving Henery in the dark as to what a chicken really is.

Henery's father raids a chicken coop and walks out with a couple of chickens, but is stopped by Foghorn, who doesn't let Henery's father get a word in edgewise before kicking him out. (Foghorn uses this technique against a cat several times, two years later in A Fractured Leghorn, because the cat wants the same worm as Foghorn.) When Henery asks his father if that was a chicken, his father claims Foghorn isn't a chicken but a "loud-mouthed schnook" (walking away with a yellow stripe down his back). Henery goes over to Banyard Dawg's house, and knocks the dog out with a hammer. Foghorn stops them and asks Henery what he thinks he is — to which Henery replies that Foghorn is a "loud-mouthed schnook." Foghorn isn't helped when the dog wakes up and kicks him, calling him a schnook.

Foghorn continues to try and convince Henery that "I'm a chicken. Rooster, that is." He tries to crow at "sun-up" (pulling up a cardboard cutout of the sun and crowing), but that doesn't work. As Henery exits before Foghorn can even finish his demonstration, leaving only two signs in his absence. The first reading; "Shnook!" and the second saying; "Loud Mouth'd That Is!". When Henery pushes along a trunk, Foghorn again tries to straighten Henery out, but his emphasising by hitting the trunk winds up hitting the Barnyard Dawg, who chases Foghorn up a ladder and into a watermelon.

When Henery throws a stick of dynamite into Barnyard Dawg's house, the dog finally calls Foghorn a "good-for-nothing chicken", which is enough for Henery — he knocks Foghorn down with a shovel and starts dragging him away. Although Foghorn now calls himself a "loudmouthed schnook", Henery says, "Chicken or schnook, in our oven he'll look good!"

Foghorn's Quotes

* That Rhode Island Red turned white. Then blue. Rhode Island Red, White and blue! That's a joke son! A flag waver!
* You got a hole in your glove. I keep pitching them, and you keep missing them.
* You gotta keep your eye on the ball. Eye! Ball! Eyeball! I almost had a gag, son. Joke, that is.

Censorship

*On ABC, the part where Barnyard Dawg climbs out of the trunk and gets whacked on the head and face as Foghorn is wildly gesticulating while telling Henery Hawk that he got a trunk instead of a chicken was drastically shortened. Also cut short was the part after the doghouse blows up and Barnyard Dawg throws Foghorn to the ground and kicks him, calling him a "good-for-nothing chicken" (which finally convinces Henery Hawk that Foghorn is a chicken).
*The CBS version leaves in the trunk sequence, but cuts out the climatic scene where Henery throws a stick of lit dynamite into the barnyard dog's house. Foghorn, fearing blame, attempts to retrieve the dynamite, but fails and gets slammed several times to the ground by Barnyard Dawg. When Henery hears this, he realizes that Foghorn really is a chicken (and not a "schnook") and bashes Foghorn over the face with a shovel after Foghorn says, "That's what, ah say, that's what I was trying to tell ya, boy: I "am" a chicken!" As a result of the edits, it was suggested that Foghorn had simply "talked [Henery] into it."

Availability

*This cartoon is on volume one of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set (disc four), with original title card and credits (as opposed to the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies title card used when this cartoon was released on the Looney Tunes Golden Jubilee VHS set and shown on television).

External links

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