“You’re probably going to hate me for what I’m going to do, but after all I am a chicken hawk.” Biological determinism! This whole cartoon does interesting things with protagonism, what with one main character candidate passing the torch to the next, and that next one’s antagonist being so vivid and overbearing that he takes over the entire thing. (Chicken undies!) Leghorn is introduced as the defender of the vulnerable, which he is, with the complicating fact that he is unutterably obnoxious.
“You’re built too low. The fast ones go over your head. I keep pitchin’ ‘em and you keep missin’ ‘em.” The dialogue is so good in some of these pictures! The dog gets dinged—great sound effect, and the violence being enacted off stage. That’s artful, funny, and a bit of Attic/Greek theatrical morality too.
“Nice boy but he doesn’t listen to a thing you say.” We’ve touched upon this, and we’ll probably come back. This is the first principle of child realism, and of real children’s lives—the big people won’t listen to what you’re actually saying. Then, to the film’s great credit, it presents to us the second principle. “Nice boy but he’s a little dumb.” The big people fundamentally disrespect and dismiss the child’s mostly deeply held convictions, aspirations, even fears.
The melon joke isn’t that funny. The TNT gag is. Excellent conclusion, with the defeated rooster allowing himself to be dragged away. Southern chivalry? The rules of the game!