Poster.
Fine Feathered Friend is a 1942 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 8th Tom and Jerry short.
Characters[]
Starring[]
- Jerry Mouse
- Tom Cat (the main antagonist)
Featuring[]
- Hen (debut)
- Hen's Chicks
Plot[]
Fade in. Jerry tries to get a piece of cheese from a mousetrap in a barn. Tom comes out of his hiding place to watch Jerry and he hears the trap go off. He chases after Jerry who has his tail caught in the trap while holding onto the cheese. Jerry stops the chase and hands Tom the cheese. Then Jerry releases his tail, grabs the cheese back, and runs away. Jerry tries to cut Tom's neck with a pair of shears by a door, but fails. Tom then chases Jerry near a chicken sitting on her nest. Jerry hides underneath the hen and Tom startles the hen when he reaches underneath her to grab Jerry. The hen responds by pecking Tom's head scaring him away. The hen sits back down on her nest and Jerry emerges eating his cheese. Jerry leaves the barn, but gets chased back into it by Tom. He runs underneath the hen again, and the hen wakes up before Tom can even try to reach underneath and she pecks him away again. Jerry then realizes how warm it is underneath the hen and he has to use one of the hen's feathers as a fan. Meanwhile, Tom has returned and he quietly tries to reach Jerry, but then ends up stepping into the hen's food bowl and runs away. He briefly disguises himself as a milkmaid while milking the cow and then tries again. As he reaches underneath the hen, he grabs one of the hen's eggs instead of Jerry, which results in the hen clucking at Tom in a mean way. The hen then arranges the eggs with a nearby triangle in the same manner as arranging billiard balls.
Tom then sets up a mousetrap tied to a string and puts it underneath the mother hen. Jerry comes out with the trap and he sets the trap with Tom's tail on it. Tom doesn't realize his tail is in the trap for a while and then screams out in pain.
The cat sneaks into the barn inside a butter churner. He sticks the chicken with a fork and searches the nest for Jerry. As the hen lands, he sneaks back inside the churner and sticks the hen again. After the hen lands again, Tom tries to stick the hen a third time. But the hen hides behind the churner and lets out a scream. She moves the churner, grabs the fork and ends up sticking Tom after he steals one of the hen's feathers. The hen starts to ride Tom like a horse, but suddenly stops when she hears some tiny chirps from her nest. Her eggs have hatched to release some baby chicks. She picks them up from her nest and sends them off to play. Jerry runs away from the nest with a few feathers and he tries to blend in with the other chicks. But one of the chicks mistakes Jerry's tail for a worm. The hen and her babies then walk in a line past Tom. Jerry sneaks past Tom and he doesn't figure out that Jerry is in disguise. So he gives Tom a swift kick and hitches a ride on the hen's backside. He waves at Tom and Tom realizes his stupidity. Tom then stands by an opening in the barn's wall and sees the shadows of the chickens passing by. It is in the next moment that he accidentally grabs a chick, thinking that one of them might be Jerry, and runs away. When he opens his hands the baby chick yells for his mama, who promptly arrives. Tom smiles and hands back the chick. The mother hen then slams a bucket onto Tom's head.
The chickens then cross paths with a family of ducks and Jerry follows the ducks into a pond. He goes underwater and then starts getting chased by Tom again. Jerry again tries to cut Tom's head with the shears but fails. Tom then grabs the shears and starts chasing Jerry with them. Tom chases Jerry near the mother hen, who is having a drink of water, and when Tom inadvertently cuts off the hen's tail feathers, he accidentally antagonizes the mother hen as she responds by grabbing Tom, wrapping a towel around his backside and cutting off his fur. At night, The injured Tom is shown pacing outside the hen house with bandages on his backside. As he looks in through the pop hole, the mother hen has tied a Chinese feather duster to herself and Jerry is resting, using the hen's feathers as a small pillow to relax with the rest of the chicks.
Notes[]
- This is the first short in the series to use the red and yellow sunburst MGM Cartoon title card, as well as the first such short to use the "Tiger Rag" theme in the original opening titles. The first MGM release to date to feature both of these was Blitz Wolf. The 1949 reissue replaced the opening theme with the contemporary Tom and Jerry theme.
- This is the first appearance of Hen.
- This cartoon features one of the rare moments where Tom successfully captures Jerry with a mousetrap, albeit briefly, before the mouse forces the cat in allowing him to escape from it.
Gallery[]
