Release Date:

June 26, 1948

Main Character(s):

None

Summary:

“The Early Bird Gets the Worm” is the motto of an ever-frustrated rooster, who always tries to sneak out and get a worm, only for his fellow roosters to always beat him to them. The only worm the rooster is able to locate is a wise-guy worm who wears a sailor cap and turtleneck sweater, and outsmarts him with pranks.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1048 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. When it was restored for HBO Max in 2020, the original titles were put back in.

The worm’s voice is similar to that of Red Skelton.

This is the final Warner cartoon to be written by Dave Monahan.

I took French my sophomore year in high school, and a common French phrase is, “Merci beaucoup!” In one scene (the screenshot used in this post), the rooster initially catches a worm but a smaller rooster steals it from him to eat it himself. The smaller rooster kisses him on both cheeks and says, “Merci beaucoup!” Prior to 2020, I thought little of the scene. Ever since seeing the cartoon in its beautiful restoration for the first time in November 2020, I now find that scene to be very funny.

Prior to the days of physical media (as of this writing, Warner Archive has not yet put this cartoon out on one of their Looney Tunes Blu-rays), an 8mm film print of this cartoon existed with its box art having a miscolored Foghorn Leghorn, despite this cartoon being a one-shot and clearly not being a McKimson cartoon.

A soundalike of “Huckleberry Duck” plays during the scene where the rooster uses an electric sonar radar device up to the point where he finds out it located a worm (although it’s not the actual tune; if it was I would’ve certainly pointed that out in the post on Raymond Scott).

This cartoon turned 50 just a day before my parents’ wedding.

What I Like About This One:

As the other roosters are still asleep, the rooster sneaks past them very quietly (animated by John Carey) and in order to prevent the grandfather clock in the henhouse from chiming, moves the clock weight out of the way, and bends the mallet back (animated by Bill Melendez).

The second the rooster opens the door to go out, however, the other roosters immediately rush out and then come back well-fed before the rooster can even get out the door (animated by Carey). Irritated at being cheated out of breakfast, the rooster comments, “Bah! An honest citizen hasn’t got a chance with those double-crossing crooks!” and throws out his “Early Bird Gets the Worm” sign in a trash can labeled “Rubbish” (animated by Melendez).

The rooster originally catches a worm, but seemingly loses it before he can eat it. The camera pans back to reveal a smaller rooster stole it from him to eat it himself. The smaller rooster kisses him on both cheeks and says, “Merci beaucoup!” before strutting off in a sassy-like walk (animated by Melendez).

Using an electric sonar radar device, the rooster locates the trickster worm via the radar flashing “Worm” in a cursive neon sign and beeping in Morse code. The rooster then uses a plunger to get him out, but he gets nothing so uses a hose instead. Out pops the worm, who has the hose pointed at the rooster’s rear end as he turns it on, blasting the rooster up into the air like a geyser (animated by Basil Davidovich). Spluttering, he tells the worm to shut it off, to which the worm responds, “Okay, if that’s the way you want it. He’s certainly asking for it, isn’t he folks?” The rooster’s relief at the water being shut off is short-lived as he now falls to the ground (animated by Melendez). After the rooster lands, the worm blasts him in the face with the hose once more (animated by Davidovich).

The worm goes back down into a hole as the rooster attempts to reach for him. The worm paints a face on the rooster’s finger, and when said finger pops up out of the ground, the worm tricks him into malleting it (animated by Davidovich).

The rooster then sneaks up on what he thinks is the worm but is actually snake-like toothpaste coming out of a tube of it. The worm confides, “He don’t know how really clever I am, do he?” When the rooster comes into view, the worm jumps on the toothpaste tube and squirts it into the rooster’s mouth, before brushing the rooster’s teeth (animated by Carey).

The worm deflates a balloon and has it stick out of a hole to make it look like a worm. The rooster bites down on it, as the worm pumps air into him while singing “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles”. The rooster deflates, flies around (animated by Davidovich), and lands in the pond where the worm “rescues” him with an electric wire. Just before flipping the “High Voltage” switch, the worm chortles, “He got himself all wet!” The electricity from the wire has the rooster briefly morph into a roast chicken (animated by Melendez).

Chasing the worm, the rooster ends up getting stuck in a pipe which lands on top of a small box in a launching position. Using a bow, the worm shoots several matches in between the rooster’s feet and lights them, causing the rooster to shoot out like a bazooka. The rooster zooms back and threatens, “I bet you wouldn’t DARE do that again!” The same thing happens with the rooster getting caught in another pipe (with this pipe landing in a launching position in between some rocks), getting matches in between his feet and the worm lighting them, and getting shot out again. This time, when the rooster zooms back, he has his white feathers burned off and asks, “Are you trying to start something!?” (animated by Davidovich)

The worm finds a baby rattle and attaches it to his tail to fool the rooster into thinking he instead caught a rattlesnake. Horrified, the rooster exclaims, “Rattlesnake!” and faints. As the worm silently laughs at this while shaking the rattle, a real mother rattlesnake hears him and affectionately bounces after him. The worm slithers along while shaking the rattle with his tail, only for the rattlesnake to catch him and try to kiss him. Not wanting anything to do with an actual snake, the worm tries to explain: “Now, now, wait a minute, sister. Haven’t you made a mistake? I’m really not a snake, you know. I’m just a little worm, see?” and shows her the unattached baby rattle as evidence. But she doesn’t seem to mind, and pursues him into the ground (animated by Don Williams).

Meanwhile, the rooster comes to, and realizes that the worm and the “rattlesnake” he apparently caught are one and the same, via two separate thought bubbles picturing the worm shaking the rattle with his tail and the worm shaking his tail without the rattle, respectively. “Aha! So THAT’S how he fooled me! Why, that little lowdown good for nothin’ (animated by Williams up to here) d-d-d- worm!”, saying the last word while catching the mother rattlesnake. The amused worm taps the rooster on the foot and tells him, “I’M a little worm, too!” Realizing this, the rooster runs off with the worm soon running off as well when the rattlesnake starts the affectionate bounce towards him. The rooster and the worm briefly team up to trap the rattlesnake in a fence hole by shooting a golf ball into her mouth to get her stuck in the hole and then another one to prevent her from getting out (animated by Davidovich).

Shaking hands after this, the rooster and the worm happily go their separate ways before the rooster makes a realization and a Times Square building beeps in Morse code in his head: “Flash! The worm is getting away…… you dope!!” The chase continues (animated by Davidovich), and ends with the rooster getting his head trapped in the fence hole next to the one the rattlesnake is in. After his head is weighed down by a golf ball, the rattlesnake mistakes him for a male snake and looks at him in a flirtatious way. It’s revealed that the golf ball getting shot into the rooster’s mouth was the worm’s doing, with the latter fluttering his eyebrows at the audience (animated by Melendez).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕