"The Foghorn Leghorn"(1948)(Merrie Melodies)
Despite the title, this great cartoon from Robert McKimson was not the first Foghorn Leghorn short. It is actually the third. But it is the first cartoon to give the character a name. Originally, Henery Hawk was intended to be the star vehicle for this series, but beginning with this short, the focus began to shift to Foghorn, and soon the loud Southern rooster was starring in a long-running series of cartoons with and without the scrappy young chicken hawk.
In this cartoon, Henery is told by his father that he cannot hunt chickens with him because he's too little, and chickens are big, dangerous monsters. Foghorn, the protector of the chickenhouse, intercepts the big hawk's raid on it and kicks him out. Henery, witnessing his father's defeat, is told that Foghorn is not a chicken but a "loud mouthed schnook". For the remainder of the film, Henery tries to figure out what a chicken is, and Foghorn tries time and again to explain that he is a chicken, not a schnook. Henery gets his mind set that the Barnyard Dawg is a chicken, and keeps trying to haul him away. Of course, the dog blames it all on Foggy, and when the dog finally snaps and beats him up, calling him a "good for nothing chicken", Foggy regrets that he ever tried to prove his species in the first place.
This Robert McKimson classic has taken a lot of physical abuse over time, as it has often been shown on television and video minus its original title cards, from worn out film elements, and is often time compressed on television to shorten its length, making the voices and animation sound and look awkward. It is now available fully restored on the Looney Tunes: Golden Collection DVD set.
