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

Robert McKimson's 'Broken Leghorn' is a late entry into the Foghorn Leghorn series and it shows. A lumpy, ugly and largely unfunny cartoon, 'Broken Leghorn' is one of the rooster's lesser films. Beginning with Foghorn making a gallant gesture to stop the other chickens taunting the austere Miss Prissy, 'Broken Leghorn' pulls a u-turn when a newly hatched rooster drives Foghorn to repeatedly attempt infanticide. It's a nice (if slightly harsh) little idea but there's so much wrong with the execution. For one, the baby rooster is obviously a feeble recreation of Henery Hawk but unattractively designed and nowhere near as amusing. The gags are often painfully predictable (the landmine gag in particular) and even Mel Blanc's voice characterization seems a little off as if even he could tell the cartoon was a dead loss just by reading the script. With none of the energy of the best Foghorn cartoons, 'Broken Leghorn' is a disappointingly lifeless entry in the series.

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

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.

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.