Mother was a Rooster is a Merrie Melodies cartoon animated short starring Foghorn Leghorn and the Barnyard Dawg. Released October 20, 1962, the cartoon is directed by Robert McKimson. The voices were performed by Mel Blanc. It is the last-released cartoon scored by Milt Franklyn; Bill Lava would take over as composer for Looney Tunes cartoons starting with Good Noose until the cartoon department's closure in 1969.
Unlike most cartoons casting the Barnyard Dawg as Foghorn Leghorn's co-star, the canine is cast in a very negative light. Instead of being the hapless target of Foggy's antics, Barnyard Dawg is depicted as a malevolent character who delights in bullying someone smaller, weaker and different than he is, all for self-amusement and — in part — to attempt to gain one-upmanship against his long-standing nemesis.
Late one night, Barnyard Dawg breaks into an ostrich hatchery to steal an egg, the intent being to place it under Foghorn Leghorn and then get him (Foghorn) to believe that he laid the egg as a prank. Barnyard Dawg justifies this by explaining, "It's been kind of dull round the farm lately," referring to his four-year peace between him and Foghorn between Weasel While You Work and this short.
Foghorn awakens and taking the bait, discovers the egg underneath him. When the egg doesn't immediately hatch, Barnyard Dawg decides to speed up the process by whacking Foggy over the head with a mallet. The egg hatches an ostrich chick, to which Foggy immediately warms up to as his own son. Foggy proudly shows off his "son" to the Barnyard Dawg as a gesture of goodwill, but the Barnyard Dawg insults the ostrich, making fun of his appearance and voice. The ostrich buries his head in the ground in shame.
After an attempt to get back at Barnyard Dawg fails (a booby-trapped bone), the plot shifts to Foggy'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 Foggy even more. Eventually, Foggy 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 (including walking over to Foghorn's corner to throw a cheap-shot sucker punch at him before the match starts), Foggy decides to forget the rules and — using a loose floor plank as a catapult — hurls his canine 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 Foggy and Barnyard Dawg with their heads buried in the ground. The ostrich, who had been watching the match, remarks, "They've left me all alone. Where did everybody go?"
Gallery[]
Lobby Cards[]
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Trivia[]
The ostrich from Plenty of Money and You and The Lyin' Mouse appears once again, but he is shorter, has three hairs on the top of his head, has a light brown head as opposed to a gray one, has smaller pupils, has less eyelashes, has a smaller brown body as opposed to a gray one, has light brown legs as opposed to yellow ones, and has smaller tail feathers.
Censorship[]
On CBS, the part where Barnyard Dawg cheap-shots Foghorn Leghorn as he says, "Okay, son, ring the bell" during the first part of the boxing match, was cut.[1]
