A Broken Leghorn

Poor Foghorn Leghorn. That blustery yokel of a rooster always tries to be the most important character on the farm, but someone always outsmarts him. Usually, Henery Hawk and Barnyard Dog enjoy this luxury, but "A Broken Leghorn" features neither of them. Instead, there's a newborn rooster who Foghorn thinks is going to replace him. Sure enough, every attempt to eliminate the little guy results in Foghorn getting maimed somehow.

OK, so we can probably predict what sorts of things are going to happen to FL, but it's neat seeing how for some reason he always finds a reason to keep going (sort of like Wile E. Coyote). A pretty funny cartoon.

Roostery. Foghorn makes up neater words than Stephen Colbert does.

This "Looney Tunes" short from 1959 called "A Broken Leghorn" is one that was well done and fun to watch as it's like a new baby roster is waiting in the wings on the farm to replace the top bird! Set on "Old Macdonald's Farm" where eggs are being hatched however the elder Miss Prissy hen is having trouble hatching however a clever plan from Foghorn shows an egg that hatches a baby roster.

And the little guy has in his mind he's going to take over the farm and do jobs being done by Leghorn, so Foghorn trains the little guy on basic things like road crossings and searches only nothing goes as planned as the training is a rough go for Foghorn proving the title really lives up to it's name! Overall well done memorable cartoon.

This cartoon finally proves that Foghorn Leghorn does live on Old Macdonald's farm, where the egg business is booming. Except for Prissy, of course. Foghorn takes pity on ‘old square bridges' and sticks another hens' egg under her. As luck would have it, this egg hatches a cute little baby rooster ready to take over Foghorn's job. In fact, this chick's head is so large, it's a wonder it ever fitted into such a tiny egg.

Foghorn senior tries out several tricks (disguised as instructions in the ancient art of roostery) to get rid of the young clucker. Lesions include eating corn, searching for worms, how to learn patience and most important of all: why the chicken crossed the road. But the little one instinctively sees through every dirty trick and knows how to counter them.

The young rooster turns out to be so much trouble for Foghorn that he has no time for the Barnyard dog at all. There is another variation on the old blown off beak bit (usually reserved for Daffy), and that always works. I guess in the end the Leghorn did get broken after all.

6 out of 10

Broken Leghorn, A (1959)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Old McDonald's Farm is the setting for this Merrie Melodies short, which features the ugly Prissy delivering a baby rooster who wants to steal Foghorn Leghorn's job. This is a pretty good short with some jokes that work extremely well and others that fall flat on their face. To me the best sequence in the film is the "why the chicken crossed the road" because of the rather violent thing that happens to Foghorn. I won't spoil what happens to him but when it does you can't help but feel his pain. Other jokes like the shotgun don't work but overall this is a mildly entertaining film.

The last Foghorn Leghorn short of the 1950s is this middling effort from Robert McKimson. This one's about Foghorn being jealous of a baby rooster he's afraid will take his place. So Foghorn tries one thing after another to get rid of him but everything predictably backfires. Not much fun. The little rooster is no Henery Hawk or Egghead, Jr. He's kind of annoying actually. Miss Prissy is wasted after an opening that made it look like she would be a bigger part of the cartoon. The music and voice work are solid. The animation is nice. Not terribly impressive, mind you, but not bad either. There are a couple of amusing lines but it's not a very funny cartoon. The biggest problem is that you see the outcome of every gag and situation coming from a mile away. Maybe if the little rooster had been more interesting it would've made up for the predictability, but he isn't.