Henery Hawk is an American cartoon character who appears in twelve comedy film shorts produced in the ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...

'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series. His first appearance is in the 1942 theatrical release '' The Squawkin' Hawk'', which was directed by

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, painter, voice actor and filmmaker, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He ...

and produced by Leon Schlesinger. Henery's second screen appearance, one directed by Robert McKimson, is in '' Walky Talky Hawky'' (1946), which also features the characters Foghorn Leghorn and Barnyard Dawg in their first cartoon roles. The last Warner Brothers theatrical short to showcase the little chickenhawk is the 1961 release '' Strangled Eggs'' in which he co-stars again with Foghorn Leghorn as well as with another popular character of that period, Miss Prissy. Following that production, Henery continued to be seen periodically in other animated presentations such as '' The Looney Tunes Show'' and '' Looney Tunes Cartoons''.

Character biography

Henery is a small, brown chickenhawk with a

forelock The forelock or foretop is a part of a horse's mane, that grows from the animal's poll and falls forward between the ears and onto the forehead. Some breeds, particularly pony breeds, have a naturally thick forelock, while other breeds, such as ...

of feathers. The young bird lives at home with his parents, speaks with tough-guy bravado, and shows surprising strength to pull or deadlift prey more than three times his size. He was played in the first short by Kent Rogers. Rogers died in 1944, so the role was then taken over by Mel Blanc (and later by Joe Alaskey and then Jeff Bergman). Henery has a high-pitched voice with a

New York accent The phonology, sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The accent (sociolinguistics), accent of the New York metropolitan area is one of the most recognizable in the United States, largely due to its p ...

and perpetually angry temperament. (With these characteristics, he became the later inspiration for the

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

character Scrappy-Doo.) In a typical Foghorn/Henery cartoon, Henery strikes out on his own for the first time, eager to capture (and presumably consume) a

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

. Having led a sheltered life, however, he does not know what a chicken looks like, only that chicken hawks eat them. Foghorn presumes that this diminutive, naïve troublemaker is no real threat; however, seeing the potential for annoyance, he points and manipulates Henery in the direction of Barnyard Dawg. The remainder of the cartoon is usually consumed by Dawg and Leghorn alternately assuring Henery that the other is a chicken and encouraging him to attack the "chicken" mercilessly. In a reversal, the cartoon '' The Foghorn Leghorn'' has Foghorn wanting Henery to believe Foghorn is a chicken, where Henery believes Foghorn is merely a "loud-mouthed shnook," supposedly a separate kind of creature. Later, when Barnyard Dawg calls Foghorn a "good-for-nothing chicken", Henery finally wises up. Many cartoons ended with Henery capturing one (or both) of his tormentors, pragmatically shrugging his shoulders over whether his prey may or may not be an actual fowl. Typically, Henery would decide that one of them must be a real chicken; therefore, he would knock out and capture both, after threatening them with the catch-phrase "Are you comin' quietly, or do I have to muss ya up!?" Henery Hawk is also a supporting character in the Looney Tunes comic books; in pre-1970s stories, he often starred in features of his own, typically played against Oliver Owl as well as Foghorn. Henery was going to have a cameo in ''

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. It is loosely based on the 1981 novel ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'' by Gary K. Wol ...

'', but was later dropped for unknown reasons. Henery Hawk made a brief cameo appearance in the bleacher scenes of the 1996 film '' Space Jam'', and has a supporting role in the 2000 film '' Tweety's High-Flying Adventure''. In the 2010s series '' The Looney Tunes Show'', Henery Hawk appeared in the episode "Fish and Visitors", in the Merrie Melodies segment "Chickenhawk" (sung by Barnyard Dawg) where he tries to eat Foghorn Leghorn while Foghorn tries to break him of his craving. In "Father Figures," Porky Pig becomes the father figure of Henery Hawk who wants Porky to get him chicken. In 2011, Henery Hawk appeared in a commercial for

GEICO The Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO ) is an American vehicle insurance company headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland. In addition to auto insurance, GEICO provides motorcycle, ATV, RV, boat, snowmobile, travel, pet, event, hom ...

along with Foghorn Leghorn. In the commercial, Foghorn was serving as a reader for a "book on tape" version of the

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

novel ''

A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by English author Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long impr ...

'' when Henery—sick and tired of Foghorn's ad-libbing—takes a club and hits Foghorn with it off-camera. Henery makes a cameo in '' Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers'' on a box meal.

Cartoons

Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies

#'' The Squawkin' Hawk'' (debut) (August 8, 1942) (directed by

) #'' Walky Talky Hawky'' (August 31, 1946) (directed by Robert McKimson) #'' Crowing Pains'' (July 12, 1947) (directed by McKimson) #'' You Were Never Duckier'' (August 7, 1948) (directed by Jones) #'' The Foghorn Leghorn'' (October 9, 1948) (directed by McKimson) #'' Henhouse Henery'' (July 2, 1949) (directed by McKimson) #'' The Scarlet Pumpernickel'' (cameo) (March 4, 1950) (directed by Jones) #'' The Leghorn Blows at Midnight'' (May 6, 1950) (directed by McKimson) #'' Leghorn Swoggled'' (July 28, 1951) (directed by McKimson) #'' The EGGcited Rooster'' (October 4, 1952) (directed by McKimson) #'' All Fowled Up'' (February 19, 1955) (directed by McKimson) #'' Strangled Eggs'' (March 18, 1961) (directed by McKimson)

Video games

* '' The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout'' (1990) * '' Space Jam'' (1996)

References

External links

Henery Hawk
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on January 27, 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawk, Henery Fictional hawks Anthropomorphic birds Looney Tunes characters Male characters in animation Child characters in animated films Film characters introduced in 1942 Animated characters introduced in 1942 Characters created by Chuck Jones Characters created by Robert McKimson Characters created by Michael Maltese