''Little Boy Boo'' is a 1954
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
''
Looney Tunes
''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.[ ...]
'' animated short directed by
Robert McKimson.
The cartoon was released on June 5, 1954, and features
Foghorn Leghorn,
Miss Prissy
Miss Prissy is a fictional character in Warner Bros. cartoons. She is typically described as an old spinster hen, thinner than the other hens in the chicken coop, wearing a blue bonnet and wire-rimmed glasses. She is often mocked by the other hen ...
and
Egghead Jr.
Egghead Jr. is a character in the animated cartoon ''Looney Tunes'', created by Robert McKimson in the 1950s. He debuted in 1954's ''Little Boy Boo'', and made two subsequent Looney Tunes appearances in 1955's ''Feather Dusted'' and 1960's ''Croc ...
The cartoon was one of several in the
Foghorn Leghorn series utilizing the theme of Foghorn attempting to woo the widowed Miss Prissy by babysitting her gifted son (Egghead, Jr.).
Plot
A newspaper story in the ''Barnyard News'' predicts a cold winter. To avoid freezing in his shack, Foghorn decides to woo Miss Prissy ("I need your love to keep me warm"), who lives in a warm, cozy cottage across the way. Miss Prissy is flattered by Foghorn's two-second courtship but tells him that, to prove his worthiness as her mate, he needs to show that he can be a worthy father to her bookish-looking son.
The little boy – Egghead Jr., a chick similar in appearance to
Tweety
Tweety is a yellow canary in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of animated cartoons. The name "Tweety" is a play on words, as it originally meant "sweetie", along with "tweet" being an English onomatopoeia fo ...
, dressed in a stocking cap and oversized
glasses
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses or spectacles, are vision eyewear, with lenses (clear or tinted) mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms (known as temples or ...
– would rather read about "Splitting the Fourth Dimension" than engage in typical little boy games. Foghorn immediately catches on to this and sets out to win his audition by showing Egghead Jr. how to play various sports games.
Although he apparently has never participated in any of the below-listed events before, Egghead Jr. effortly masters them all, as depicted in the cartoon's gags:
*
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...
. After Egghead Jr. swallows the ball whole and clonks Foghorn over the head with the bat causing Foghorn to yell "NO! NO, boy! You're supposed to hit the ball with it! The ball!" the rooster has Egghead Jr. properly use both items. Egghead goes to bat and smashes a line drive down Foghorn's throat, and later fires a fast-pitch offering that slices through Foghorn's bat and a row of trees in the grove. When asked to explain, Egghead produces a series of scientific formulas.
* Making
paper airplane
A paper plane (also known as a paper airplane in American English or paper aeroplane in British English) is a toy aircraft, usually a glider made out of single folded sheet of paper or paperboard. A simple nose-heavy paper plane, thrown like ...
s. Foghorn makes a conventional one, but Egghead Jr. creates a fighter that not only floats sleekly through the air, it shoots Foggy's plane down in flames. Foghorn is handed another scientific explanation, but Foghorn rejects.
*
Hide and seek
Hide-and-seek (sometimes known as hide-and-go-seek) is a popular children's game in which at least two players (usually at least three) conceal themselves in a set environment, to be found by one or more seekers. The game is played by one chose ...
. Foghorn hides in the feedbox, but using a slide rule and a shovel, Egghead Jr. finds the rooster underground and digs him up despite the fact that Egghead is at a considerable distance from the feedbox. Flabbergasted at how the chick accomplished this, Foghorn decides not to look in the feedbox, declaring "No, I better not look. I just might be in there."
Foghorn tries to take an interest in Egghead Jr.'s pursuits. The chick is experimenting with formulas in his Tiny Tot Chemical Set (marked "harmless"). Foghorn assumes Egghead Jr. is making "sody-pop" and shakes it to make it fizz – which causes an explosion which burns off all his feathers in an instance, leaving him completely bare.
Foghorn returns Egghead Jr. home and cancels the engagement. "I've got my bandages to keep me warm!" he scowls as he walks off with a crutch and in a full-body bandage.
Voice Cast
*
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy ra ...
voices Foghorn Leghorn, Egghead Jr.
* Gladys Holland voices Miss Prissy
* Additional Voices are provided by
Bea Benaderet
Beatrice Benaderet ( ; April 4, 1906 – October 13, 1968) was an American actress and comedienne. Born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, she began performing in Bay Area theatre and radio before embarking on a Hollywood career that s ...
References
External links
*
{{Robert McKimson
1954 animated films
1954 short films
1954 films
Looney Tunes shorts
Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films
Films directed by Robert McKimson
1950s Warner Bros. animated short films
Films scored by Carl Stalling
1950s English-language films
Foghorn Leghorn films
Miss Prissy films