Fine Feathered Friend

Barring the fairly funny sight of Tom being repetitively pecked by an angry chicken, and the hilarious scene in which the poor cat gets attacked with shears after accidentally chopping the tail feathers off the same bird, Fine Feathered Friend proves to be one of the poorest T&J episodes so far.

Whilst I admit that it is nice to see the cat and mouse outside of the 1940s house setting in which most of their early adventures take place, I feel that a lot more could have been done with the potentially interesting farmyard environment. The quality of the animation is up to scratch; there just isn't enough in the way of genuine laughs.

Fine Feathered Friend (1942)

*** (out of 4)

Another fast and fun short has Tom and Jerry once again battling one another and this time a third party is brought into the mix. As Tom chases the beloved mouse, Jerry ends up finding shelter under a mother chicken who is constantly beating the cat to a pulp. As Jerry once again initiates Tom, the poor cat ends up crossing up with the chicken who makes him regret it. FINE FEATHERED FRIEND once again gets us out of the house as the cat and mouse fight outdoors and this leads to a lot of fun scenes. The highlight has to be the sequence where Tom grabs what he thinks is Jerry when in fact it's a baby chicken and of course its mother isn't going to be happy. There's a lot of fast action in this short and some very good laughs from the loud action.

It was BEFORE Avery had any real influence on HB's product, but it's scarcely the worse for it. A bit more leisurely paced than some may like (and the hen looks like a relative of "Tom Turkey's Harmonica Humdingers"); but a solidly-crafted effort, with flawless timing of the ofttimes-painful sight gags. Also, Bill Hanna's early mastery of the ANATOMY of film-making is really evident here. Some say there was no such thing as "MGM cartoon humor" before Tex Avery stepped in, which is so much poppycock. Films like this, or "Innertube Antics" (directed by George Gordan), prove it was well within the MGM staffers' capacity to do great, distinctive comedy.

Tom and Jerry are on a farm, more specifically in a hen house, where Tom chases Jerry, Jerry fights back, Tom gets in trouble with a big hen, hen pecks Tom a few times, Tom runs away, Jerry hides in the eggs, Tom comes back, feels under the hen where the eggs are, Hen wakes up and pecks him more, on and on. You get the picture.

I liked how the hen arranged her eggs with a billiards' triangle and a few other sight gags but, to be honest, I didn't think the humor was anything noteworthy.

At least the Tom and Jerry cartoons are branching out from their beginning ones which all took place in a home with "Mammy Two Shoes," a big black maid whom we never saw except for her feet and calves.

The artwork is here is the standout feature of this, I thought. There are really nice drawings of the inside of this barn, beautiful brown colors.

Fine Feathered Friend was a very solid Tom and Jerry cartoon, yes with a very simple story and a little leisurely in the pacing, but it is beautifully crafted and definitely worth seeing. The animation is of true beauty, really beautiful colours and every character and building is well drawn. The music is rousing and playful as pretty much always, and the sight gags are clever, well timed and look very painful. Tom is quite cunning yet as always he gets the worst of the violence, while Jerry is sweet and funny. Even the female chicken was a delightful supporting character. Overall, beautifully done and well timed in the gags. 8/10 Bethany Cox