A Broken Leghorn

I do like Foghorn Leghorn a lot, but A Broken Leghorn while decent in its own way is not one of his best. The cartoon is too short, the story is formulaic(like a lot of Foghorn's cartoons) and the landslide gag I agree was very predictable. Also, while the little rooster is amusing, his character design does have a tendency to be a tad unattractive, and some of the pace could have done with a kick. That said, the animation mostly is not bad, I did like the colours, how Foghorn Leghorn was drawn and the background art had its fluidity. The music gives the cartoon some energy, and the dialogue with Foghorn's faring best is witty and funny. There are some gags that do work, especially the why the chicken crossed the road one. Mel Blanc excels with the vocals too. So overall, it was decent, but something was missing. 6/10 Bethany Cox

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.

Foghorn Leghorn has to help the self confidence of an unattractive hen, but when the egg hatches it's a rooster, whom Foghorn fears will take him job one day. So he sets out to get rid of it. I'm a fan of Foghorn Leghorn, but this is one of his lesser outings and feels more like a Bugs Bunny/ Elmer Fudd short, which is fine for those characters, but doesn't really jibe well with this one. Oh well, they can't all be clear cut winners. This animated short can be found on disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 and also has an optional music only track.

My Grade: C+

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

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.