The Honduras Hurricane (1938) Poster

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6/10
Rooster boxing
TheLittleSongbird25 May 2018
Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. Actually appreciate it even more through young adults eyes, due to having more knowledge of it, various animation styles, studios, directors and how it all works.

'The Honduras Hurricane' is not one of Friz Freleng's best cartoons by any stretch, in an uneven "still evolving" period of his long career, and he was yet to be in his full prime and not yet found his style properly. For a relatively early effort, 'The Honduras Hurricane' is above average but not great or a Freleng classic, he would do much better later. It is never what one would call hilarious (but is never unfunny), Freleng's later efforts show more evenness and confidence in directing and the story is flimsy and fairly tame up to the end.

It is fairly predictable story-wise and at times could have had more oomph, which would have been solved if the cartoon was a little shorter.

However, the titular character and the captain are fun characters and the chemistry between the characters elevates 'The Honduras Hurricane'.

The cartoon is amusing and it generally goes at a lively and energetic pace, apart from parts that could have done with more oomph. The dialogue is witty and clever.

Animation is excellent, it's fluid in movement, crisp in shading and very meticulous in detail. The music is lovely on the ears, lushly orchestrated, full of lively energy and characterful in rhythm, adding to the action if not quite enhancing.

Voice acting from Mel Blanc and Billy Bletcher is terrific and full of character.

Although, above average but nothing mind-blowing. 6/10 Bethany Cox
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5/10
This is the Captain and the Kids??
planktonrules13 October 2022
In the late 1930s, MGM bought the rights to the Katzenjammer Kids comic strip. They entitled the series 'The Captain and the Kids' and the series turned out to be a mistake...as they only made a few cartoons and they did not do well despite the strip being quite popular. I think much of it is because the chemistry of the comic strip just isn't evident in the cartoons...and it's as if the cartoonists never saw the strip.

In the case of "The Honduras Hurricane", it's directed by Friz Freleng...a man known more for his work with Looney Tunes after leaving MGM. And, like most non-Disney cartoons of the 1930s, it's in black & white.

In this cartoon, a pirate and his crew arrive and take the Captain prisoner. They then force his fighting rooster, The Honduras Hurricane fight against their champion chicken...knowing the scrawny Hurricane will lose. Well, to help out the Captain, the kids substitute a baby eagle for the chicken midway through the match...and no one seems to notice.

The cartoon is well animated but bad because it simply ISN'T like the comic strip. In the strip, the kids torment the dopey Captain and his dopey friend...but here they are out to help him, which makes no sense. Despite this, it's not a bad cartoon...but I can see why audiences disliked it as it just wasn't what they expected or wanted to see.
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7/10
The most crooked boxing match ever!
llltdesq4 April 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This is a short in the Captain and the Kids series from MGM studio. There will be spoilers ahead:

The MGM animated short series Captain and the Kids was based on a comic strip, The Captain and the Kids. The series wasn't very successful, probably because the source material didn't translate too well.

The title of this short refers to a boxing rooster, which is owned by Long John, a crook of the first order. John forces the Captain to bet his house on a boxing match, even going so far as to pick the Captain's rooster for him. It's a sickly looking, scrawny bird with a cold. Not content with this, John and his cronies do everything they can to fix the fight, abusing the Captain's bird until it looks like the bird will keel over before the fight even starts.

Hans and Fritz, the "Kids", decide they need to do a little evening of the odds and find a ringer of sorts-a baby eagle long on mean and with a punch. They put a rubber glove on its head and the eagle is switched for the rooster when the sickly rooster is driven through the floor of the ring.

The eagle beats the daylights out of Honduras repeatedly, the rooster winding up on a stretcher and carried off to more chicanery until the eagle finishes him off. The good guys win and John gets what's coming to him.

This short is reasonably good and is worth tracking down.
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1/10
Sick and senselessly violent
joneslepidas-264579 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I have to disagree with the other commenters here. Yes, the quality of the animation is good. The characters and settings are well drawn and the action is fluid. The pacing is fast and doesn't drag. The intervention by the boys is a nice twist.

However, the plot is predictable; the outcome is obvious at the beginning of the cartoon. And there's not much humour in this short; I didn't laugh even once

But what really bothered me was the cruel and senseless violence, which made this cartoon painful to watch. The outcome of the losing bird--dead, his body now reduced to meat in a can--was really, really sick. That character deserved to lose, but the animators could have handled the outcome in a more humane manner.
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7/10
Captain and The Kids
SnoopyStyle8 October 2022
The "Honduras Hurricane" is a black and white MGM A Captain and The Kids cartoon. Long John Silver has the Captain tied up and over a saw. He wants the Captain to agree to a cock fight. It's not much of a choice. Silver has a ruthless fighter while the Captain has a scrawny chicken. The Captain could lose his house. Silver declares that he will eat the boxing ring if he loses. It's a massacre until the Kids get involved. The Captain and The Kids is not one of my favorite series, but I do like this one. It's a simple fight. I love the Bond villain opening. I like the roosters. It has plenty of action. It's fun.
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