"Walky Talky Hawky" is a 1946 Looney Tunes cartoon, directed by Robert McKimson.
Henery Hawk is a chickenhawk
who, as the cartoon begins, learns from his father that his destiny is to eat chickens. Henery doesn't have any idea what a chicken is, but he goes off looking anyway. He finds a farm and an actual chicken, Foghorn Leghorn himself. Foghorn takes advantage of Henery's naivete by telling him that Foghorn's enemy, Barnyard Dog, is actually a chicken. Hijinks ensue as Henery chases after Foghorn and Barnyard in search of something to eat.
Foghorn Leghorn's debut. This cartoon actually is focused on Henery, but Foghorn became the star, and future cartoons in this series would focus on him.
"Walky Talky Hawky" provides examples of:
- All the Other Reindeer: During their talk, Poppa Hawk tells Henery that being chickenhawks makes them Hated by All and hunted. Henery prefers to focus on how he can eat chicken to satisfy a craving he had been unable to explain until now.
- Art Initiates Life: At one point, Henery gets the Dog to come out of his house to walk into a trap by drawing a doorbell on the doghouse and then ringing it.
- Aside Comment: When he first starts directing Henery towards Barnyard Dawg, Foghorn does this when accusing the boy of not paying attention.
- Banana Peel: Part of the elaborate trap that Henery constructs to catch Barnyard Dog.
- Big "SHUT UP!": When Barnyard Dawg is at the limit of his leash and barks incessantly.Foghorn: AAAAH SHADDAP! [slaps him]
- Borrowed Catchphrase: The cartoon ends with Henery dragging Foghorn Leghorn, Barnyard Dawg and a horse behind him, prompting him to imitate Foggy's catch-phrase.Henery: One of these things, I say, one of these things has got to be a chicken!
- Breakout Character: Foghorn became the star with the second cartoon, "Crowing Pains".
- Comedic Spanking: Foghorn likes to do this to Barnyard Dog.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Not as much as "Odor-Able Kitty" or even "Cat-Tails for Two"note , but this cartoon does have some subtle differences between the first cartoon and all other Foghorn Leghorn shorts:
- Foghorn has three toes instead of two and four tail feathers. By the second cartoon, Foghorn had two toes, and three tail feathers (though some cartoons and even the DC Comics in the 1990s depict him with four).
- Foghorn is fatter in this short than he is in the others (the others have him taller and slightly pudgy, but here, he's roughly the same height as Barnyard Dawg and looks like a thick-bottomed bowling pin).
- While his familiar accent is still there, and at times it does sound like what we would hear in later cartoons, the voice Mel Blanc uses for Foghorn here sounds like a less brash Yosemite Sam.
- Foghorn actually clucks like a chicken (both when Barnyard Dawg attacks him and when Henery Hawk drags him, Barnyard Dawg, and the horse home).
- Foghorn isn't the focus of this short; it's Henery Hawk (a Chuck Jones-created character that Jones discarded when he stopped making Disney-esque Warner cartoons and McKimson adopted in an attempt to make a new character).
- Enemy Mine: Foghorn and Barnyard Dawg end brawling in a barn and disturbing a horse. The horse kicks them out and slams them into each other for good measure. Foghorn and Barnyard Dawg respond by shaking hands, going back into the barn, and ganging up on the horse.
- From the Mouths of Babes: When it looks like Henery's father is about to give him The Talk, Henery responds, "Okay, pop. What you wanna know?"
- Let's You and Him Fight: In a pattern that would be repeated in the series, Foghorn convinces a naïve Henery that the Barnyard Dog is a chicken so Henery can go after the dog and leave him alone.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The short ends with tiny little Henery dragging Foghorn, Barnyard Dog, and a horse.
- Running Gag: Barnyard Dog chasing after something, only to be brought to a sudden violent halt by his leash.
- Shout-Out: Henery's line "So round, so firm, so fully packed" when admiring the Barnyard Dog's tail was the slogan for Lucky Strike cigarettes.
- The Talk: Parodied. Henery's father gives a talk that sounds like he's going to explain the facts of life ("Well Henery, you're a big boy now"), only for him to tell Henery that he's destined to eat chickens.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: The second that Henery says he's out to eat a chicken, Foghorn starts smirking. He immediately figures out how to both misdirect the kid and who to send him after.
