Fine Feathered Friend

'Fine Feathered Friend (1942)' is evocative of a simpler time in 'Tom and Jerry' history, one in which a fantastically animated cat chasing a fantastically animated mouse was enough to carry an entire short. While the premise is basic, the execution is far from it. By simply adding a protective hen into the mix, the piece elevates itself to extremely entertaining heights. It's chock-full of sight gags, beautifully bouncy animation and inventive set-pieces. It feels rather substantial considering its eight minute run-time, cramming more stuff into its slim frame than you'd think possible. It's always fun and often funny. It's very charming, too. 7/10

Tom and Jerry are on a farm, more specifically in a hen house, where Tom chases Jerry, Jerry fights back, Tom gets in trouble with a big hen, hen pecks Tom a few times, Tom runs away, Jerry hides in the eggs, Tom comes back, feels under the hen where the eggs are, Hen wakes up and pecks him more, on and on. You get the picture.

I liked how the hen arranged her eggs with a billiards' triangle and a few other sight gags but, to be honest, I didn't think the humor was anything noteworthy.

At least the Tom and Jerry cartoons are branching out from their beginning ones which all took place in a home with "Mammy Two Shoes," a big black maid whom we never saw except for her feet and calves.

The artwork is here is the standout feature of this, I thought. There are really nice drawings of the inside of this barn, beautiful brown colors.

Fine Feathered Friend (1942)

*** (out of 4)

Another fast and fun short has Tom and Jerry once again battling one another and this time a third party is brought into the mix. As Tom chases the beloved mouse, Jerry ends up finding shelter under a mother chicken who is constantly beating the cat to a pulp. As Jerry once again initiates Tom, the poor cat ends up crossing up with the chicken who makes him regret it. FINE FEATHERED FRIEND once again gets us out of the house as the cat and mouse fight outdoors and this leads to a lot of fun scenes. The highlight has to be the sequence where Tom grabs what he thinks is Jerry when in fact it's a baby chicken and of course its mother isn't going to be happy. There's a lot of fast action in this short and some very good laughs from the loud action.

It was BEFORE Avery had any real influence on HB's product, but it's scarcely the worse for it. A bit more leisurely paced than some may like (and the hen looks like a relative of "Tom Turkey's Harmonica Humdingers"); but a solidly-crafted effort, with flawless timing of the ofttimes-painful sight gags. Also, Bill Hanna's early mastery of the ANATOMY of film-making is really evident here. Some say there was no such thing as "MGM cartoon humor" before Tex Avery stepped in, which is so much poppycock. Films like this, or "Innertube Antics" (directed by George Gordan), prove it was well within the MGM staffers' capacity to do great, distinctive comedy.

A Brilliant cartoon, Tom and Jerry (and the hen) at their best in this fun filled farm frolic bashing! Tom tries to get to Jerry who is hiding in a barn with a not so friendly hen! Tom fails to get hold of Jerry in the end and instead accidentally cuts the feathers off the hostile hen! The hen retaliates and Tom gets what he deserves at the end by being slaughtered with the scissors by the hen!