| Mother was a Rooster | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Robert McKimson |
| Story by | Dave Detiege |
| Starring | Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Milt Franklyn |
| Animation by | Ted Bonnicksen Warren Batchelder Keith Darling George Grandpre |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
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Running time | 7 mins |
| Language | English |
Mother Was a Rooster is a 1962Warner Bros.Merrie Melodies animated short directed byRobert McKimson.[1] The cartoon was released on October 20, 1962, and featuresFoghorn Leghorn and theBarnyard Dawg.[2] The voices are performed byMel Blanc. It is the last-released cartoon scored byMilt Franklyn;Bill Lava would take over as composer forLooney Tunes cartoons starting withGood Noose until the cartoon department's closure in 1969.
Late one night,Barnyard Dawg sneaks into anostrich hatchery to steal an egg, to place it underFoghorn Leghorn and then get him to believe thathe laid the egg as a prank. Foghorn awakens and falls for it. When the egg doesn't immediately hatch,Barnyard Dawg decides to speed up the process by bonking Foghorn on the head with a mallet. The egg hatches an ostrich chick, to which Foghorn immediately warms up to as his own son, oblivious to the fact that the chick is an ostrich and even going as far as calling himself a mother. Foghorn proudly shows off his "son" to Barnyard Dawg as a gesture of goodwill, but Barnyard Dawg insults the ostrich. The ostrich buries his head in the ground in shame.
After an attempt to get back at Barnyard Dawg fails, which involves an anvil hanging from a tree while tied to a rope, the plot shifts to Foghorn's attempts to bond with his son, showing him how to play various sporting activities such as baseball and football. Despite these efforts to build the bird's self-esteem and forget Barnyard Dawg's maliciousness, the dog continually and unmercifully mocks the ostrich. The ostrich buries his head with each insult, agitating Foghorn even more. Finally, Foghorn has enough of the bullying and decides to defend his son's honor in a boxing match.
The bout takes place in a makeshift ring, contained beneath the farm's wooden water tower. When Barnyard Dawg decides to cheat, Foghorn decides to forget the rules and — using a loose floor plank as a catapult — hurls his foe into the bottom of the water tank. Barnyard Dawg returns the favor, and the process repeats several times until the tank becomes dislodged and crashes on top of the ring, leaving both Foghorn and Barnyard Dawg with their own heads buried in the ground. The ostrich who had been watching the match remarks: "They've left me all alone. Where did everybody go?"
This cartoon was incorporated intoThe Bugs Bunny Mother's Day Special (1979).[3] In the bridging animation, Foghorn Leghorn appeared with his now-grown ostrich son.[4]
| Preceded by | Foghorn Leghorn cartoons 1962 | Succeeded by |