Fine Feathered Friend

One consistent plot type throughout this series is Jerry meeting an animal, and then that animals helps with Tom. Now, some of those shorts are very good. Fine Feathered Friend is not one of them. The short is not very interesting. It drags in every sense of the word. The short feels slow, dragged out, and like one gag could've been repurposed into a barnyard shirt focusing on multiple animals. The chicken is also not likable. It's not like most other cartoons, where Jerry's friend has a motive. The chicken hates Tom for basically no reason. The gag with Jerry accidentally going with the ducks is given a very long and boring setup. I just feel bad for Tom in this short. He did nothing. The only thing I enjoyed was Jerry's little chick peeps. It was adorable. Other than that, this cartoon is terrible, and I recommend never watching this.

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.

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)' 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

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.