Raw! Raw! Rooster!

Sometimes a new character arrives on Old Macdonald's Farm that takes up so much of Foghorn's time that he just plain forgets to kick the Barnyard Dog around. Of course this is a good thing, as the unexplained hatred between rooster and dog was starting to get rather tiresome anyway. And why should he bother with that dog in the first place when he has a whole harem of good looking chicks craving for his attention?

After receiving the news that his old college chum Road Island Red is coming to visit, Foghorn panics and takes some amusing measures to detour him. The Jimmy Durante like Red turns out to be an even bigger practical joker than Foghorn and the Barnyard Dog combined. What's more, he plays the ukulele, which the chicks really dig. So for once Foggy has a legitimate enemy and turns into a Wile E. Coyote clone trying to get rid of Red with the use of Acme products.

The two fighting cocks try to out do each other while recounting their old football days and playing some golf. Apart from the Acme products, there seems to be a useful crate of explosives behind every other tree on this farm. Unfortunately you can see all the punchlines coming a mile off, resulting in every explosion being a letdown. This leaves the end result rather a sloppy mess, as Red would say.

5 out of 10

The Foghorn Leghorn cartoons always have given me much pleasure, they are routine but also very funny and witty with one of Looney Tunes' most distinctive characters. Raw! Raw! Rooster! is immensely enjoyable stuff in all areas. The animation is crisp and filled with vibrant colour, and the music has much character and is sumptuously orchestrated. The story is told efficiently and never feels bogged down in any way. The beginning is very funny, and the ending is effective in how different it is compared to usual. The writing is full of the sharp wit that we associate with Foghorn's cartoons, the similes and repetitions continue to be quite endearing, and while the gags don't present much of a surprise in terms of outcome they are still hilarious. I was especially taken by Red's ukulele rendition of Freddie the Freshman, priceless is definitely the right way of summing it up. Foghorn is charismatic and never annoying, and Red- part Jimmy Durante, part- Jackie Gleason- is one of his best foils(making you wish he was used again). The vocals of Mel Blanc and Daws Butler are impeccable, their voices are ones you can recognise anywhere and you can never get enough of their energy. Overall, enormously enjoyable, one of Foghorn's best and one of my favourites of his certainly. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Foghorn Leghorn's old college chum Rhode Island Red drops in for a visit, much to Foghorn's dismay. Poor Foggy, Red's as obnoxious as they come! The animation is terrific and the colors are wonderful. Such a great use of color in these old cartoons; it never ceases to amaze me. This isn't even one of the best examples of it yet it's still so lovely to look at. The reds and greens are sublime. The voicework from legends Mel Blanc and Daws Butler is first-rate. The characters and situations are relatable, despite this being about a couple of roosters. I bet most of us have an old friend from high school or college we dread seeing that annoys us to no end. It's a good Foghorn Leghorn cartoon with some funny gags and lines.

Honestly, what college would have accepted a guy whose entire life is apparently based on practical jokes? Maybe Foghorn Leghorn was a member of the Deltas in "Animal House"! No matter, it should come as no surprise that Foggy's college buddy Rhode Island Red (sort of a New York version of Foggy) was also a trickster. But what I really can't figure out is why the hens were so attracted to Red. True, they'd been with Foggy so long that his immature lifestyle was probably getting old, but this new guy wasn't much better.

I should say that every time that FL set up a trap for RIR, it was pretty obvious what was going to happen. But even so, "Raw! Raw! Rooster!" is still worth seeing. As it was, the end, I say the ending was a little different from most of FL's outings. A surprise, that is.