El Terrible Zorro

A sly fox manipulates Foghorn Leghorn into getting Barnyard Dog away from the hen house but his schemes backfire. I love me some Foghorn Leghorn but here the real star is the fox. He's a fun character. Love the racetrack tout routine. Wish I had a yellow plaid suit like that. The tout seems to be modeled after Sheldon Leonard's character from the Jack Benny radio and TV shows. Foghorn is fun but almost seems like a supporting character in his own short. Barnyard Dog is good, as is the little rooster who keeps pulling the alarm at the hen house. This is a pretty funny short but not one of Foghorn's best. The animation's nice and the voicework from Mel Blanc and Daws Butler is great.

When measuring Foghorn Leghorn shorts by their co-stars, ‘Fox-Terror' comes out a winner, as it features two inspired new characters. First up is the terror of the title, who got his paws on the most incredible plaid suit that shows the same pattern which ever way he turns. The second new character is a tiny panic stricken rooster in charge of pulling the Fox Alarm cord.

For once Foghorn and the Barnyard Dog (or ‘Mule' as Foggy affectionately calls him) are not interested in hurting each other at all. The rooster only wants to go fish (figure that) while the dog is very adamant about guarding the chickens for a change (shame he misunderstands that tiny rooster all the time). It is that foxy master of disguise who continually tricks them into hurting each other.

This Foghorn feature has a lot more surreal gags than usual. For instance characters change their outfits simply by spinning round (years before Lynda Carter made it hip). This leads to nearly everybody wearing one of those plaid suits and a surprising ending (compared to some other Leghorn shorts I could mention).

8 out of 10

"Fox-Terror" has something that I never expected to see: Foghorn Leghorn and Barnyard Dog as friends. In this case, a fox is doing everything possible to keep BD out of the way while he attempts to snatch the chickens, so he gets FL to inadvertently harm BD. Meanwhile, a tiny rooster sounds an alarm but BD never sees the fox and ends up thinking that the little guy is just playing pranks. Until someone takes everything a little too far. Overwhelming? Well, with some of the gags that they pull - namely the suit-changing - you'll never find it bad.

OK, so this cartoon was probably a place-holder between the really great cartoons (1957 also saw the release of "What's Opera, Doc?" and "Birds Anonymous"). But it's always a pleasure to see Foggy do his folksy stuff. Worth seeing.

. . . FOX TERRIER, as all the characters are decked out in English Terrier suits at one juncture or another. English terriers were first discovered by a doc named John, while he was out poaching leeches from Sherwood Forest in 1527. Back in John's day, all of these canines were black and tan in color. However, in 1790 Col. Tom Thornton's wayward female terrier had a fling with a greyhound, giving birth to "Pitch,' the first ever English terrier with white markings. Naturally, folks from all around soon were demanding pictures of Pitch on their door mats, milk pitchers, post cards, Valentines and whatnot. Soon, the prolific pitch sired Old Jacques, Trap and Tartar, the initial trio displaying the markings of Today's Fox Terriers.

I personally wouldn't count Fox-Terror as a classic, like say What's Opera Doc? or Duck Amuck, but it is great fun nonetheless. With a surprise of an ending and some inspired surreal gags it is just fun, despite its rather hectic pacing and somewhat predictable story. The animation is fluid and colourful like a vast majority of the Looney Tunes cartoons, and the music is rousing enough. Also prevalent are some good scripting and stellar vocal performances from Mel Blanc. The characters are their engaging selves, Foghorn is a delight to see, the hound dog is funny, the little rooster is cute and most significantly the fox is a worthy adversary.

Overall, not classic status but an entertaining and recommendable watch. 8/10 Bethany Cox