Walky Talky Hawky

Henery Hawk discusses his cravings with his father, who then tells him, "Your mother and I are outcasts, hated and hunted because of what we are: Chicken hawks." Ashamed, he explains that Henery is also a chicken hawk and as such must feed on chickens. More enthusiastic than his father, Henery Hawk sets out to find a chicken, however, as he tries to fly, he falls from the tree and tells the audience, "Someday I gotta learn to fly." Meanwhile, in a barnyard, the Barnyard Dawg deliberately throws a watermelon on an unsuspecting Foghorn Leghorn, who is done filing his nails, muttering to himself while thinking of the Dawg, "EVERYDAY IS THE SAME THING!" Just as the Dawg goes to sleep, Foghorn deliberately spanks the Dawg with a paddle, angering the Dawg into chasing Foghorn, only the Dawg gets choked by the leash and falls. The Dawg now angrily barks at Foghorn, who deliberately slaps the Dawg, yelling "Ah, SHUT UP!" and walks away.

Henery meets Foghorn, who, seeing the hawk as a potential pawn against the Dawg, tells Henery he is a horse and that the Dawg is a chicken, and Henery Hawk goes up to the Dawg and deliberately bites the Dawg in the tail, causing the Dawg to wake up from his nap in pain and Henery warns the Dawg, "Are you coming quietly or do I have to muss ya up?!", but the Dawg chases Henery, but gets choked on the leash again and falls again while Foghorn whacks the Dawg in the head like he's playing croquet with a croquet mallet and runs with the Dawg angrily barking again, only with a headache. Henery is still running, but Foghorn tells Henery not to give up and Henery literally carries the dog house with the Dawg in it like a train while the Dawg investigates with a mirror, sees Henery and lifts up his house and gives chase but is choked and falls again and Foghorn deliberately puts a knight's helmet on the Dawg and whacks the Dawg in the side of the head many times causing the Dawg's head to literally shake inside.

Foghorn tells Henery that the Dawg is a "foxy chicken" and they have to "outsmart him" and Foghorn whispers the plan into Henery's ear. Henery lures the Dawg out of his house by drawing a doorbell and presses it and plays a piano while the Dawg dances to the music and the Dawg gets whacked and trips over a banana peel and a spring while walking clumsily and landing on a roller skate. When the Dawg surrenders and asks Henery what he is looking for, Henery tells the Dawg, "You're a chicken, I'm a chicken hawk, and I'm gonna eat chicken!" The Dawg realizes he's been the victim of Foghorn's prank and points out, "I'm NO chicken! THAT'S a chicken!" and Foghorn accuses the Dawg, "Don't you call, I say don't you call ME a chicken, YOU chicken!"

Henery realizes he's been tricked and he releases the Dawg on Foghorn which starts a brawl between the two of them, only this time, Foghorn is now running while the angry Dawg is now on the warpath against Foghorn. When the brawl takes them into a barn, an ACTUAL horse forcibly ejects them, clunking their heads together in the process. The two foes, shaking hands to prove solidarity, re-enter to double-team the horse. Finally, Henery captures Foghorn, the Dawg, and the horse, and mimics Foghorn, "One of these things, I SAY, ONE OF THESE THINGS, has GOT to be a chicken!"

Caricatures[]

Kenny Delmar's character Senator Claghorn
Jack Clifford's character The Sheriff^[2]

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Production[]

The concept of "Walky Talky Hawky" was originally pitched by Warren Foster to newly promoted director Robert McKimson in late-1944. Foster thought up the idea of a cartoon that would have put the previously established character Henery Hawk in the middle of a feud between a giant rooster, and a barnyard dog. The dialogue was recorded 13 January 1945.^[2] Mel Blanc supplies all the voices in this cartoon, and replaced Kent Rogers as the voice of Henery after his death a year prior. McKimson initially considered using a different voice actor for Foghorn, but later settled for Blanc when that did not work out.^[3]

Since the time the dialogue was recorded before the debut of Senator Claghorn on Fred Allen's New York-based radio show, Foghorn's voice in this cartoon is barely like the character's familiar voice in later cartoons. Here he sounded more like Yosemite Sam - loud and very gruff, and incorporating mannerisms of "The Sheriff" (A character from the 30s radio show "Blue Monday Jamboree")^[3] of starting a sentence and then re-starting with "I say..." Foghorn's next cartoon, "Crowing Pains", would re-establish his voice to be similar to that of Senator Claghorn, and incorporating some of his mannerisms as well, such as his phrase "that's a joke, son."

Although the cartoon is produced as a Henery Hawk cartoon, Foghorn (who served more as a secondary character or a plot device) would out-stage Henery in popularity, and would appear in subsequent films without the character later on.

Notes[]

This cartoon is Foghorn Leghorn and Barnyard Dawg's first appearance.
This cartoon was used in the documentary Bugs Bunny: Superstar.
This short subject was an Academy Award nominee for Animated Short Film. It lost to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Tom & Jerry cartoon "The Cat Concerto", the fourth Oscar for the cat and mouse team.^[4]
Leghorn's imitation of a whinnying horse, effected by pressing a finger against the side of his nose and creating the nasal sound, mimics the technique Mel Blanc actually used to make the sound.
This is the only Foghorn Leghorn short to not survive with its original titles.
According to the animator draft sheet, this cartoon was produced in the Looney Tunes series but released in the Merrie Melodies series. The lobby cards still use the Looney Tunes moniker.
This cartoon has played in front of The Big Sleep.^[5]

Music-Cues^[6][]

“Buzz Buzz Buzz (Will You Be My Honey?)” (by Jimmy Lunceford and Alice Simms and Al Trace)
- Plays during the opening credits^[7]^[8]
Blues in the Night (by Harold Arlen)
- Played when George K. Chicken Hawk is talking to Henery
Chicken Reel (traditional)
- Plays when Henery is calling for a chicken.
- Plays again when Foghorn walks to the Barnyard Dawg's doghouse
The Old Grey Mare (traditional)
- Plays briefly when Foghorn says, "Well, I'm a horse -- I say, I'm a horse myself."
Light Cavalry Overture (by Franz von Suppé)
- Plays when Foghorn galops like a horse.
Chicken Reel (traditional)
- Plays again when Foghorn says "Go on over -- I say, go on over and taste him, kid. You'll like him."
Huckleberry Duck (by Raymond Scott)
- Plays when Henery walks back to the doghouse.
California, Here I Come (by Joseph Meyer)
- Plays while Henery carries the doghouse.
Gotta Be This or That (by Sunny Skylar)
- Plays when Henery, Barnyard Dawg and Forghorn argue over who is a chicken.
- Plays again when Henery drags a Horse, Barnyard Dawg and Forghorn with a rope.

Gallery[]

References[]

Foghorn Leghorn Cartoons
1946	Walky Talky Hawky
1947	Crowing Pains
1948	The Foghorn Leghorn
1949	Henhouse Henery
1950	The Leghorn Blows at Midnight • A Fractured Leghorn
1951	Leghorn Swoggled • Lovelorn Leghorn
1952	Sock a Doodle Do • The EGGcited Rooster
1953	Plop Goes the Weasel! • Of Rice and Hen
1954	Little Boy Boo
1955	Feather Dusted • All Fowled Up
1956	Weasel Stop • The High and the Flighty • Raw! Raw! Rooster!
1957	Fox-Terror
1958	Feather Bluster • Weasel While You Work
1959	A Broken Leghorn
1960	Crockett-Doodle-Do • The Dixie Fryer
1961	Strangled Eggs
1962	The Slick Chick • Mother Was a Rooster
1963	Banty Raids
1964	False Hare
1980	The Yolks on You
1996	Superior Duck
1997	Pullet Surprise
2004	Cock-a-Doodle Duel

Henery Hawk Cartoons
1942	The Squawkin' Hawk
1946	Walky Talky Hawky
1947	Crowing Pains
1948	You Were Never Duckier • The Foghorn Leghorn
1949	Henhouse Henery
1950	The Scarlet Pumpernickel • The Leghorn Blows at Midnight
1951	Leghorn Swoggled
1952	The EGGcited Rooster
1955	All Fowled Up
1961	Strangled Eggs

[1] ttps://archive.org/details/catalogofc19733271213libr/page/110/mode/1up?view=theater

[cartoonresearch-2] 2.0 ^2.1 https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/robert-mckimsons-walky-talky-hawky-1946/

[:0-3] 3.0 ^3.1 https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-origin-of-foghorn-leghorn/

[4] ttps://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1947

[5] ttps://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24697

[6] ttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039093/soundtrack/

[7] ttps://www.patreon.com/posts/whats-score-81644429

[8] ttps://books.google.com/books/about/Tunes_for_Toons.html?id=Rz2WJ_-NxsAC

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