Walky Talky Hawky

This Foghorn Leghorn short offers a twist on the usual Tom and Jerry/Sylvester and Tweety/Roadrunner and Wil E. Coyote model. Like those classics, we are offered a conflict between scavenger and prey. Unlike them, the scavenger is a sweet little cutie, while his victim is a bloated, blustery sneak. The film begins with lachrymose melodrama, as the hero's father tragically tells toddler Henery Hawk that he is a chicken hawk, that he must hunt chickens. With innocent bravado, he sets out to fulfil his duty, but his ominous first act is to fail to fly, falling and thudding from a great height.

Meanwhile Foghorn Leghorn is having his usual self-imposed troubles with Barnyard Dog, taunting the latter because safe in the knowledge of his being tied up. Foghorn is lovably unsympathetic, a windy, Burl Ives-type, full of cod-military guff; he'll turn any trick to save his own hide. This mixture of malice and cowardice makes him a true cousin of Bugs.

He sees in the chickenhawk an opportunity to further exasperate Barnyard, and, persuading the little fellow that he is a horse, and Barnyard a chicken, urges Henery to root out his meal. Much sadistic lunacy ensues, wonderfully brutal, with the scheming Foghorn not always coming out best.

This energetic short plays havoc with sentimental ideals of the pastoral, especially prominent just after the war - its celebration of metamorphosis, duplicity and cunning is heartening in that oppressive All American social atmosphere. There is also some bracing philosophy about the struggle between free-will and genetic destiny. A Tex Avery would have made this a classic, but a funny script and peerlessly protean Mel Blanc voicing make this a rare treat.

Listen when I'm talking to you boy! This is Foghorn Leghorn's first short. And he got an Oscar-Nomination! WOW! I SAY, I SAY OSCAR NOMINATION! HAHA! You're a good reader but you ain't paying attention to a thing I say!

3(***)out of 4(****)stars

This cartoon, nominated for an Oscar, was actually a Henery Hawk cartoon. But Foghorn Leghorn-a takeoff on a radio character of the 1930s-1940s-steals the show and launched himself to fame and fortune, while Henery saw his career fizzle. The Foggy in this is the Foggy everyone knows today. Very little change from the first appearance to the familiar figure, unlike Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Elmer or most of the others. Well worth watching.

Foghorn Leghorn is not my favourite of the Looney Tunes characters. He is however a very funny one and one of their most distinctive(Pepe LePew probably gets the top spot on that front. Walky Talky Hawky was Foghorn and Henery Hawke's first cartoon, and while it's their first it's also one of their better ones. The animation is beautifully done, Foghorn is a little overweight here as he was in his early cartoons but the colours are vibrant with a good amount of depth and the backgrounds are fluid and detailed. The music has always been one of the main reasons why Foghorn's and Looney Tunes' (in general) cartoons score so well with me. It is lushly orchestrated, it is hugely energetic and very catchy and jazzy, it enhances the action so well and keeps you in a good mood throughout and afterwards. The writing would get wittier later on- as you'd expect for a first time there is the sense that it's trying to find its feet still, perfectly natural- but it is still very funny and fresh with the Foghorn series' writing style(ie. Foghorn's repetition and crazy similes) evident. The gags are clever and well timed. The two characters come off against each other very well, they're not at their best, their personalities got stronger as the series evolved, but they are still like the characters that we know. Mel Blanc does a great job, spot on as Foghorn as always and while he's fine as Henery there are times where he sounds as though he's experimenting with which voice he used before settling with a hybrid of Bugs Bunny, Speedy Gonzales and Tweety. In conclusion, a great promising start in introducing a character that is funny and sticks out from the crowd. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Robert McKimson's 'Walky Talky Hawky' introduced Foghorn Leghorn, a character with whom McKimson did much of his best work. This short was originally intended as a star vehicle for Henerey Hawk but Foggy obviously steals the show, so much so that Henerey became the supporting player. Foghorn is close to fully realised already in this debut outing, as is his regular rival, the barnyard dog. When Henerey comes to the farm looking for a chicken to eat, Foggy convinces him that the dog is a chicken, thereby exposing him to the little hawk's persistent kidnapping attempts. It's a funny set-up and makes for a very good cartoon, although a couple of cartoons down the line McKimson flipped the premise and had Foggy trying to convince Henerey that he was a chicken. That cartoon, 'The Foghorn Leghorn', was a classic and it also christened the character. In comparison, 'Walky Talky Hawky' still holds up well, setting up the premise for McKimson to later subvert. I always think McKimson seems most at ease when directing the Foghorn Leghorn series and 'Walky Talky Hawky' benefits greatly from that assurance. It's a lovely cartoon with a great ending and it also proved to be a great beginning, giving birth to yet another classic Warner Bros. star