Fine Feathered Friend

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.

One consistent plot type throughout this series is Jerry meeting an animal, and then that animals helps with Tom. Now, some of those shorts are very good. Fine Feathered Friend is not one of them. The short is not very interesting. It drags in every sense of the word. The short feels slow, dragged out, and like one gag could've been repurposed into a barnyard shirt focusing on multiple animals. The chicken is also not likable. It's not like most other cartoons, where Jerry's friend has a motive. The chicken hates Tom for basically no reason. The gag with Jerry accidentally going with the ducks is given a very long and boring setup. I just feel bad for Tom in this short. He did nothing. The only thing I enjoyed was Jerry's little chick peeps. It was adorable. Other than that, this cartoon is terrible, and I recommend never watching this.

Fine Feathered Friend was a very solid Tom and Jerry cartoon, yes with a very simple story and a little leisurely in the pacing, but it is beautifully crafted and definitely worth seeing. The animation is of true beauty, really beautiful colours and every character and building is well drawn. The music is rousing and playful as pretty much always, and the sight gags are clever, well timed and look very painful. Tom is quite cunning yet as always he gets the worst of the violence, while Jerry is sweet and funny. Even the female chicken was a delightful supporting character. Overall, beautifully done and well timed in the gags. 8/10 Bethany Cox

'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

Barring the fairly funny sight of Tom being repetitively pecked by an angry chicken, and the hilarious scene in which the poor cat gets attacked with shears after accidentally chopping the tail feathers off the same bird, Fine Feathered Friend proves to be one of the poorest T&J episodes so far.

Whilst I admit that it is nice to see the cat and mouse outside of the 1940s house setting in which most of their early adventures take place, I feel that a lot more could have been done with the potentially interesting farmyard environment. The quality of the animation is up to scratch; there just isn't enough in the way of genuine laughs.