Fine Feathered Friend

A Brilliant cartoon, Tom and Jerry (and the hen) at their best in this fun filled farm frolic bashing! Tom tries to get to Jerry who is hiding in a barn with a not so friendly hen! Tom fails to get hold of Jerry in the end and instead accidentally cuts the feathers off the hostile hen! The hen retaliates and Tom gets what he deserves at the end by being slaughtered with the scissors by the hen!

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)' is evocative of a simpler time in 'Tom and Jerry' history, one in which a fantastically animated cat chasing a fantastically animated mouse was enough to carry an entire short. While the premise is basic, the execution is far from it. By simply adding a protective hen into the mix, the piece elevates itself to extremely entertaining heights. It's chock-full of sight gags, beautifully bouncy animation and inventive set-pieces. It feels rather substantial considering its eight minute run-time, cramming more stuff into its slim frame than you'd think possible. It's always fun and often funny. It's very charming, too. 7/10

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.

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.