Overview

Our lesson plans feature several short films from Warner Brother’s //Looney Tunes// series, all of which star Foghorn Leghorn. The episodes we have chosen are //Plop Goes the Weasel, Of Rice and Hen, The Dixie Fryer,// and //Little Boy Boo.// Like all of the //Looney Tunes// shorts, our episodes are six to seven minutes long and include one of the main characters in a brief but eventful conflict. The //Looney Tunes// series pioneered the children’s animated cartoon genre. It established not only many of the conventions that dominated children’s cartoons but also a long list of feature characters that still survive in contemporary media. Noted members of this list include Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Sylvester, Tweety, Marvin the Martian, Taz, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Pepé Le Pew, and Speedy Gonzales. Although there are a few characters that represent human members of this cartoon community, most of the //Looney Tunes// stars are highly personable animals that tend to exaggerate the stereotypes of their species and generally thwart the human characters in their comical interactions. These interactions are often violent (physical beatings, TNT explosions, gunshots, etc.), but there is never any lasting consequence for the victims. These three tendencies (active comical interactions, animal characters, and violence without consequence) are staples of the cartoon genre. In the case of Foghorn Leghorn, his violent interactions are often with supporting characters like the farmhouse dog or various chicken hawks. Although he is quite often blown away by a shotgun or plucked of his feathers, he always has a spare set of feathers “for just such an occasion.” Normally, in either the same scene as the altercation or the next, he will be seen with his new set of feathers and acting brand new, despite the previous injury. Foghorn is also a fairly sought after character in the henhouse community, and many of his promiscuous and “studly” behaviors often get him into trouble. The resolutions of these conflicts generally end up with either Foghorn or one of the characters with whom he is in conflict learning some sort of lesson. These lessons are often related to morals or general social precautions, and the presence of these lessons in the resolution has also become a standard in the children’s cartoon genre. The narrative patterns can generally be explained with cause and effect relationships, and the development of these aforementioned lessons tends to rely heavily on the transparency of these causes and effects. Many children’s cartoons are designed with these obvious relationships so that children can learn the desired lessons during the process of being entertained, but //Looney Tunes// has received fairly harsh criticism in the past due to the fact that they draw so many conclusions using cause and effect, yet demonstrate no lasting effects among their characters from the violence they experience.
 * Overview **