The Rattled Rooster (1948) User Reviews

Won't leave the viewer rattled

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 29 November 2017]

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.

Directed by Arthur Davis, it is easy to from reading the title assume that 'The Rattled Rooster' is a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon. Don't be fooled, because although the rooster character featured looks like a long-lost relative of Foghorn there is no Foghorn actually in sight. 'The Rattled Rooster' is certainly worth watching and is quite good, but do feel that it is not as good as most of the Foghorn Leghorn series and it is not and never will be one of my favourites.

'The Rattled Rooster' is pretty unoriginal and slight in story and some of the content could have done with more variety and not been as repetitive. It's always entertaining but very rarely is it hilarious.

However, the animation is excellent. Beautifully drawn, very detailed and the colours are vibrant, complete with some great expressions and Davis' distinctive style of the characters moving from foreground to background.

Carl Stalling's music score is typically lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms, it's also beautifully synchronised with the action and gestures/expressions and even enhances the impact.

Although not hilarious, 'The Rattled Rooster' amuses and entertains with some nice wit and good timing. The characters may not have much distinct personality or enough to have made them bigger or even stars but they were engaging and not hard to like. The ever versatile Mel Blanc's voice acting is stellar.

Overall, quite good fun though won't blow anybody away. 7/10 Bethany Cox

"Bah--an honest chicken hasn't got a chance . . . "

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 29 October 2017]

" . . . with these double-crossing chicks," is one of the early lines of THE RATTLED ROOSTER. No, it is NOT a quote from Bill O'Reilly, Roger Ailes, or Harvey Weinstein. It's not even a prophetic paraphrase of Bill Cosby, Bill Clinton, or Our Current Groper-in-Chief, Don Juan Rump. The rueful statement in question does not emanate from ANY male celebrity in 21st Century America who's been tricked into forking over $32 Million for an ill-advised roll-in-the-hay with a "Lady" whose signed "Non-disclosure" agreement is not worth the tissue paper on which it's written. No, this lament comes from the title character here, an easily-bamboozled barnyard fowl. Perhaps Warner Bros. is warning America's Men Folk to be Aware of the Unfair Sex after all, however, once THE RATTLED ROOSTER action begins involving what appears to be 1940s-Era Ben Wa balls. (These, of course, were brought back by the millions by American G.I.s returning from the various theaters of World War Two, and are credited with initiating the Baby Boom which spawned Clinton and Rump among others in those benighted Pre-Pill Days.) After the worm gets his jollies by using these lavender orbs to attract a female rattler, all manner of sexual perversion ensues.

For kids only!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 9 March 2018]

Director: ARTHUR DAVIS. Story: Dave Monahan. Animators: John Carey, Basil Davidovich, J.C. Melendez, Don Williams. Backgrounds: Phil De Guard. Lay-outs: Don Smith. Music director: Carl W. Stalling. Voice characterizations: Mel Blanc. Color by Technicolor. Producer: Edward Selzer.

Copyright 27 August 1948 by The Vitaphone Corp. A Warner Bros. "Merrie Melodies" cartoon. U.S. release: 26 June 1948. 7 minutes. COMMENT: At best, this one is a fairly amusing but somewhat routine account of the adventures of a young rooster who attempts to capture an elusive worm who plays various tricks on his adversary.

Finally, the worm tries imitating a rattle-snake only to unexpectedly attract a real but love-sick female of the species.

Well-drawn, nicely characterized, but the slapstick is obviously aimed firmly at ankle-biters.

Foghorn Leghorn's (possible) relative

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 28 July 2007]

When I first read the title, I naturally assumed that "The Rattled Rooster" was going to be a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon. It was a little jarring to see a different rooster (he looks like a slimmed-down version of FL) running through the routine. When he misses his chance to catch a worm in the morning - despite messing with the grandfather clock - this anonymous rooster comes across a rapscallion worm (a worm version of Bugs Bunny, you might say). After the rooster comes up with several tricks to catch the worm - all of which the worm turns against him, natch - the worm gets the rooster to think that he's a rattlesnake...at which point a female rattlesnake mistakes him for one! What is it with these characters?! So, it's one of the lesser known works from the Termite Terrace crowd, but worth seeing (if only once). Available on YouTube.

The Power of repetition

[Chip_douglas · 5/10 · 14 November 2005]

They say the early bird gets the worm, but not this rooster, who's tiny and trim and tries to stop the grandfather clock from waking the other chicks (so thats how roosters wake up). But it's all for naught: the other birds get their breakfast worms before him, the only one left being a smart Alec little worm with a tiny sailors outfit and a silly speech impediment. Nothing works, not a worm detector, a plunger, fire hoses, rubber balloons, toothpaste, or high voltage wires. This worm has a MacGyver like streak enabling him to thwart each and every attempt on his life.

As usual there is a whole bunch of useful stuff just lying around the place but nothing works for that scrawny cock. Around the halfway point the gagwriters start repeating themselves, but it's all for a good cause: to set up the finale. He starts using a pipe and some matches as a cannon (which backfires), and pretends a rattle is a snake. You guessed it, some snake sister wearing a scarf shows up and goes all gooey on the rattle. This is too much even for the worm, so the two enemies share a truce on the golf course until the poor snake is out of the way. Ah yes, you can't escape the good old law of repetitiveness.

5 out of 10

Just watching someone getting abused over and over again. Fun!

[lukeneedssand · 8/10 · 29 June 2021]

I enjoyed it. The gags and animation are perfect, not a single problem. I'm just not giving this as much of a high score as other cartoons, purely for the dislike of that Worm. Glad he didn't appear in anything else. It's just an awesome pile of Craziness, and that's all it needs to be. It will entertain massively. This cartoon still could have been a bland foghorn leghorn cartoon with pleasant animation, but It wasn't the characters are much different.

8.5/10.

Not what I was expecting, but hilarious nonetheless!

[KalloFox34 · 9/10 · 27 June 2021]

At first glance, you'd think The Rattled Rooster would be a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon, but this stars a completely different, much slower-witted rooster in his fruitless attempts to catch a worm.

The gags this time around are really clever, like you'd expect in an Art Davis cartoon. Especially the scenes with the rattlesnake and the toothpaste gag.

To be honest, it's a shame that this worm didn't make any other appearances, since he had quite a bit of potential.