I'll admit it right now, I have a weakness for cartoons. Now I'm talking about the crappy ones that our children are watching nowadays. I mean really, have you seen this crap our kids are watching. The animation is horrible, looks like a 4 year old with a computer did it. The story lines and characters are mediocre at best and most of them are pointless. What I love are the cartoons I grew up with, whether they were made in the 80s or before, the older cartoons where done by those who obviously loved what they were doing. The animation was brilliant and well done, no sloppiness to them, and the characters entranced you., This month I'm going to be revisiting some of my favorite cartoon characters, the character that I could never imagine my life without them in it. Even better I'm going to narrow it down to some of my favorite Looney Tunes gems. You won't see Bugs, Daffy, or Porky mentioned during the month. As much as I love those three, I want to focus on some others that don't get all the attention. Starting us off is my favorite rooster, Foghorn Leghorn.
Now I know what you may be thinking, why would anyone like the obnoxious, loud Foghorn Leghorn. It's because of that behavior that made him a favorite since the first time I laid eyes on him. He seems to go through life with one goal in mind, to have fun. He doesn't really care, at least at first glance, what others may think of him and his behavior. He just wants to live life and enjoy it.
I guess some of you would even be able to call him a bully, at least as far as The Barnyard Dog is concerned. I will have to admit that more often than not, Foghorn was the instigator in their little squabbles. But he wasn't totally to blame, I can remember many times that Barnyard Dog was ready to pick a fight of his own. Now because Foghorn was the source of their troubles, his tricks normally backfired on him. More often than not, he was the loser of the two. I can still see Foghorn losing his feathers, pretty much every time the two mixed things up.
Beyond his dysfunctional relationship with Barnyard Dog, my favorite interaction for Foghorn is with Henery Hawk, the young chicken hawk. Despite Henery always trying to eat him, Foghorn seems to take a more paternal, if slight amused, interest in the boy. It's one of the most fascinating relationships in all the Looney Tunes universe to watch, can't get enough of it.
Foghorn never seemed to move beyond the barnyard though. He is one of those characters that seems to have his own little universe that none of the other major characters seemed to crossover into. But his barnyard antics are more than enough for my enjoyment. I love how he tried to woo Miss Prissy, though normally for the wrong reasons. Because of that he also took a paternal interest in Egghead, Jr., Miss Prissy's young son. Where his relationship with Henery was born out of amusement, his relationship with Egghead was, at first, born out of self interest. I do think, and I can be way off base on this, that he ended up caring for the young chicken on his own merits.
Foghorn, Barnyard Dob, Henery Hawk, Miss Prissy, and Egghead, Jr. are the types of characters that I wish were still be creating now. I have gotten Aidan to watch old episodes of Looney Tunes and he seems to enjoy them. How much of his enjoyment is real and how much is humoring me, I'm not really sure. Hopefully I will be able to teach him what true cartoons are, even if it's one character at a time.
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