Crowing Pains

Once again, Henery Hawk is out to get a chicken and has his sights set on Foghorn Leghorn. Once again, Foghorn points him at another victim. In this case it's Sylvester the cat who, at the start of the cartoon, is about to murder Barnyard Dog (!) before Foghorn saves him. This may be the only time in all their cartoons together that Foghorn does Barnyard Dog a favor. Usually the two are at each other's throats. But I guess this time they have a mutual enemy in Sylvester. Solid voice work from the always-dependable Mel Blanc, who seemed to still be perfecting his Foghorn voice at this time. It would be a little deeper as time goes on. Energetic music from Carl Stalling. The animation is good with well-drawn characters and backgrounds. The Technicolor is always a plus. The short is funny, if not particularly hilarious. It's nice to see Sylvester interacting with characters he doesn't normally share the screen with.

As far as I know, "Crowing Pains" is the only cartoon in which Sylvester appears alongside Foghorn Leghorn. As is the case in many of Foggy's cartoons, the blustery rooster tells Henery Hawk - a self-proclaimed chicken-hawk (which in this case is not a warmonger who refused to serve in the armed forces) - that another character is a chicken. Believing that Sylvester (who earlier had teased Barnyard Dog) is the chicken, Henery goes after him. Following a series of goof-ups in every direction, Henery decides to wait until dawn to see who crows: Foghorn, Sylvester or Barnyard.

It was certainly an interesting trick to cast the screen's most famous slobbery cat with the most famous rooster. Any combination of characters is bound to create a cool situation (Robert McKimson later cast Foggy with Daffy Duck in "The High and the Flighty"). But its probably best that FL and Sly only co-starred this one time; I can't see them as repeated co-stars. Worth seeing.

At the start of `Crowing Pains' the Barnyard Dog is clobbered by somebody disguised as a bush. Surprisingly, the attacker is not a rooster, but Sylvester the cat! It's his voice that gives him away, not his looks, as life was obviously good to him when this picture was made. Foghorn Leghorn is also a bit overweight, while Barnyard's voice had not quite reached the right pitch. Another big surprise is that Foghorn turns out to be the smartest of the three, while Sylvester is the most violent.

Having often wondered exactly why there is so much animosity between the rooster and the dog, one might think that the addition of a cat on this farm would make a lot of sense. It would be quite natural to see a cat chasing a rooster, and in turn being chased by a dog. But there is nothing rational about the way these animals try to hurt each other at all. The humour is all over the place, resulting in one of the most manic and violent entries in this farm based series (Barnyard actually seems to be in pain most of the time).

Let us not forget the star of this cartoon, Henery Hawk, who is convinced by Foghorn to disguise himself as an egg (to get that big chicken, Sylvester). The depiction of lunacy (as presented by Sylvester when he thinks he just laid an egg) would also be frowned upon in this day and age.

`Crowing pains' feels a lot like the first series of Blackadder in which the characters had not quite come into their own. If only the old Sufferin' Sukkatasher had spent more time on this farm in later years, the relationships might have gotten more finely tuned and the reasons for using the farm as a battleground a bit clearer. Perhaps, like so many warring nations before them, the animals had long forgotten the original reason for fighting each other.

5 out of 10

This Looney Tunes cartoon is very entertaining from start to finish. Whilst some of the animation isn't always that great as Foghorn is a little overweight here, the music is good, the gags come by thick and fast and the short essentially is funny.

The characters are still their fun and likable selves. While Sylvester is suitably slobbery and Foghorn witty, it is Henery who steals the show, and their partnership is perfect. Barnyard Dog also gives an entertaining performance. The marvellous vocals of Mel Blanc really made Crowing Pains so fun to watch especially, and the story was cool. I admit there is a fair amount of violence and poor Sylvester gets the most of it.

All in all, it is fun, helped by the perfect performances from the Looney Tunes characters and most importantly from Blanc. 9/10 Bethany Cox