Fine Feathered Friend

Plot synopsis:
This episode starts with Jerry trying to get a piece of cheese from a mousetrap in a barn. Tom comes out of his hiding place to watch Jerry and hears the trap go off. He chases after Jerry who has his tail caught in the trap while holding the cheese. Jerry stops and hands Tom the cheese. Jerry then releases his tail, grabs the cheese back, and runs away. Jerry tries to cut Tom's neck with a pair of shears but fails. Tom then chases Jerry near a chicken sitting on her nest. Jerry hides underneath the hen and Tom startles her when he reaches underneath her to grab Jerry. The hen responds by pecking Tom's head, scaring him away. The hen sits back down 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 Jerry 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 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 arranges the eggs with a nearby triangle in the same manner as arranging billiard balls. Later, Tom sets up a mousetrap tied to a string and puts it underneath the hen. Jerry comes out with the trap and he sets the trap with Tom's tail on it. Tom doesn't find out that his tail is in the trap for a while and then screams out in pain.
Later, the cat sneaks into the barn inside a butter churner. He pokes the chicken with a fork and searches the nest for Jerry. As the hen lands, he sneaks back into the churner and pokes the hen again. This continues until the hen sees the fork and removes the churner, grabs the fork and ends up poking Tom with the fork. The hen starts to ride on Tom like a horse, but suddenly stops when she hears 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 mother hen and her chicks then walk in a line past Tom. Jerry sneaks past Tom who doesn't figure out that Jerry is in disguise. He kicks Tom in the inappropriate part and hitches a ride on the hen's backside and waves at Tom who has had enough of Jerry's prank. Tom then has a brilliant beyond idea by standing 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 quickly arrives. Tom smiles and hands back the chick. The hen then slams a bucket onto Tom's head.
The chickens 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 grabs the shears and starts chasing Jerry with them. He runs near the mother hen, who is having a drink of water, and Tom inadvertently cuts off the hen's tail feathers. She responds by grabbing Tom, wrapping a towel around his back and cutting his fur off. Tom is then outside the hen house with bandages on his back. When he looks in, the mother hen has tied a feather duster to herself and Jerry is resting, uses the hen's feathers as a small pillow to lie on.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
Tom & Jerry Branching Out. Tom and Jerry are on a farm, more specifically in a hen house, where Tom chases Jerry, Jerry fights back, Tom gets in trouble with a big hen, hen pecks Tom a few times, Tom runs away, Jerry hides in the eggs, Tom comes back, feels under the hen where the eggs are, Hen wakes up and pecks him more, on and on.
You get the picture.I liked how the hen arranged her eggs with a billiards' triangle and a few other sight gags but, to be honest, I didn't think the humor was anything noteworthy.At least the Tom and Jerry cartoons are branching out from their beginning ones which all took place in a home with "Mammy Two Shoes," a big black maid whom we never saw except for her feet and calves.The artwork is here is the standout feature of this, I thought.
There are really nice drawings of the inside of this barn, beautiful brown colors..
Very worthy early effort.
It was BEFORE Avery had any real influence on HB's product, but it's scarcely the worse for it.
A bit more leisurely paced than some may like (and the hen looks like a relative of "Tom Turkey's Harmonica Humdingers"); but a solidly-crafted effort, with flawless timing of the ofttimes-painful sight gags.
Also, Bill Hanna's early mastery of the ANATOMY of film-making is really evident here.
Some say there was no such thing as "MGM cartoon humor" before Tex Avery stepped in, which is so much poppycock.
Films like this, or "Innertube Antics" (directed by George Gordan), prove it was well within the MGM staffers' capacity to do great, distinctive comedy..
Classic animation is tops.
A Brilliant cartoon, Tom and Jerry (and the hen) at their best in this fun filled farm frolic bashing!
Tom tries to get to Jerry  who is hiding in a barn with a not so friendly hen!
Tom fails to  get hold of Jerry in the end and instead accidentally cuts the feathers off the hostile hen!
The hen retaliates and Tom gets what he deserves at the end by being slaughtered with the scissors by the hen!.
Beautifully crafted and well-timed in the gags, if a little slow in the pacing.
Fine Feathered Friend was a very solid Tom and Jerry cartoon, yes with a very simple story and a little leisurely in the pacing, but it is beautifully crafted and definitely worth seeing.
The animation is of true beauty, really beautiful colours and every character and building is well drawn.
The music is rousing and playful as pretty much always, and the sight gags are clever, well timed and look very painful.
Tom is quite cunning yet as always he gets the worst of the violence, while Jerry is sweet and funny.
Even the female chicken was a delightful supporting character.
Overall, beautifully done and well timed in the gags.
8/10 Bethany Cox. Fine Feathered Friend.
Fine Feathered Friend (1942)*** (out of 4)Another fast and fun short has Tom and Jerry once again battling one another and this time a third party is brought into the mix.
As Tom chases the beloved mouse, Jerry ends up finding shelter under a mother chicken who is constantly beating the cat to a pulp.
As Jerry once again initiates Tom, the poor cat ends up crossing up with the chicken who makes him regret it.
FINE FEATHERED FRIEND once again gets us out of the house as the cat and mouse fight outdoors and this leads to a lot of fun scenes.
The highlight has to be the sequence where Tom grabs what he thinks is Jerry when in fact it's a baby chicken and of course its mother isn't going to be happy.
There's a lot of fast action in this short and some very good laughs from the loud action..
Some nice fun, but sometimes Slow on the pace..
Again, this is another episode that I wish I could rate it a 7 and a half.
This is another episode that takes place outside a house in the early Tom and Jerry shorts, I think it could have take advantage with it's setting ( A farm), but it doesn't really pay off.The Story is that inside a barnyard, Jerry befriends a chicken, that act like a bodyguard, by thinking that Jerry is a chick, with this, Tom becomes the punch bag of the chicken.There are some really good jokes, such as the chick screaming "MAMA!", I couldn't stop laughing at that.
But, such as early Tom and Jerry episodes, it's slow on the pace, and there is sometimes much more personalization than action.And such as early episodes of The cat and mouse duo, there is much more cuteness on it.
The chicks and Jerry really add a adorableness level on it.I Recommend to you take a look at it if you don't have nothing else to do..
A rather unmemorable T&J caper..
Barring the fairly funny sight of Tom being repetitively pecked by an angry chicken, and the hilarious scene in which the poor cat gets attacked with shears after accidentally chopping the tail feathers off the same bird, Fine Feathered Friend proves to be one of the poorest T&J episodes so far.Whilst I admit that it is nice to see the cat and mouse outside of the 1940s house setting in which most of their early adventures take place, I feel that a lot more could have been done with the potentially interesting farmyard environment.
The quality of the animation is up to scratch; there just isn't enough in the way of genuine laughs.