Release Date:

September 6, 1958

Main Character(s):

Foghorn Leghorn, Barnyard Dawg, Weasel

Summary:

During a snowy winter, Foghorn Leghorn and Barnyard Dawg send the Weasel back and forth at each other, claiming the other is food he’d want.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1489 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

Due to a musician’s strike in the fall of 1958, this cartoon and the next five contain stock music from John Seely, which would also be used on several early Hanna-Barbera works (Huckleberry Hound, Pixie and Dixie, Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, to name but a few). Some fans appear to be very biased towards the usage of these stock music cues but I actually think that the stock music fits perfectly in these six cartoons (and like with Raymond Scott, these cues also have very eccentric names).

Stock music cues in this cartoon include “Comedy Walker”, “Comedy Movement”, five cues all titled “Light Movement”, “Comedy Underscore”, “Rapid Comedy Movement”, “Comedy Circus”, “Comedy March Bridge”, two both titled “Grotesque Comedy”, “Wistful Comedy”, “Comedy Eccentric”, “Trumpet Wa Wa”, “The Cheeky Chappie”, “Comedy 6/8 Movement”, “Comedy Mysterioso”, and “Heavy Mechanical”. If you want to listen to these cues (and the ones for the next five cartoons) yourself, then I highly recommend checking out this playlist.

This is the third and final appearance of the Weasel. His fur color is also darker and his voice is also deepened.

The title is a pun for the song “Whistle While You Work”, from Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937; which was also Disney’s first feature-length animated film).

Michael Maltese wrote this one.

Robert Gribbroek did both the layouts and backgrounds.

This is the only Foghorn cartoon to take place in winter.

Part of the animator draft for the cartoon can be viewed here.

This marks Dawg’s final appearance in a Foghorn cartoon until 1962’s “Mother Was a Rooster”.

As a kid, before I knew what it was, I inexplicably thought “venison” was “medicine”.

Favorite Scene:

Foghorn’s figure skating on the frozen pond ends with him falling in due to Dawg stealing one of his skates and over-sharpening it (“Speaking of figures, I put two and two together and come up with a four-legged smart-aleck mutt!”)

What Happens in This One:

Walking along and carrying ice skates while scatting to “Camptown Races”, Foghorn comments, “Well!” at Dawg’s shut doghouse, putting his ice skates aside. He opens the door and takes the sleeping Dawg out to roll him around in the snow and turn him into a snowman- coal, pipe, hat, and all. In the midst of doing this, Foghorn remarks, “The snow-, I say, the snow’s so deep, the farmers have to jack up the cows so they can milk ‘em! But I like winter!” After Foghorn leaves, Dawg pops his head from out of the snowman’s hat and speaks in an initially calm, sophisticated tone, “There is but one course for me to follow-”, before shouting angrily, “I’LL MURDER THE BUM!” (animated by Ted Bonnicksen)

While Foghorn is putting on his ice skates to use on the frozen pond and scatting a variant of “The Little Brown Jug” as “Little old skates, how I love thee!”, Dawg sneaks around, steals the skate he’s not putting on, and over-sharpens it on the grinding wheel. He pulls out a hair on his head to test it, with said hair splitting in half when it falls on the blade. Dawg returns the skate before Foghorn puts it on. He then watches as Foghorn decides, “Now for a little ice folly! I’m-a gonna do the figure eight, foreign version! Two cheese pizzas!” Foghorn creates a circle with the regular skate but when he creates one with the skate Dawg over-sharpened, it cuts through the ice and causes Foghorn to fall in. Coming up out of the water, Foghorn realizes in annoyance, “Speaking of figures, I put two and two together and come up with a four-legged smart-aleck mutt!” (animated by George Grandpre)

Foghorn makes a snowball while remarking, “That Dawg’s as subtle as a hand grenade in a barrel of oatmeal!” He sends it down the hill where it gradually gets larger. Dawg peeks his head out in time and moves himself and his doghouse out of the way. The snowball goes up a curved cliff side, sending it flying back into the air and directly above Foghorn (animated by Warren Batchelder). “My corn hurts! It must be going to snow!”, he remarks before his own snowball lands atop him. Pushing all of the snow away angrily, Foghorn decides, “That Dawg’s like taxes! He just don’t know when to stop!” The Weasel suddenly appears out of nowhere and starts spinning around Foghorn’s leg, gnawing on it. Foghorn yells, “Hey, what’s the-, I say, what’s going on? Stop it! Quit that!”, taking the Weasel off his leg and seeing what it was. “Why, it’s nothing but a little old lint-pickin’ weasel! What’s the matter, boy? You hungry?” The Weasel replies with a few “Yeah!”’s and slurps (animated by Tom Ray).

Foghorn then asks, “Why waste your time on a tough old bird like me? How wou-, I say, how would ya like to sink your greedy little choppers into some delicious venison?” The Weasel is eager about this, so Foghorn instructs, “You wait right there!” and runs off (animated by Ray). Stopping a good distance away from Dawg’s house, Foghorn makes a snowball, “Anybody can bowl on the green! I’M gonna bowl on the WHITE!”, and uses it as a bowling ball for it to roll into Dawg’s house and directly hit him. With the upper part of his face initially covered in snow, Dawg runs out barking angrily, before the snow disappears and he loses track of Foghorn when he comes to a log. Foghorn comes up from behind the log and puts fake antlers on Dawg’s head. Going back to the Weasel, Foghorn points to Dawg, “There’s your venison, boy! Go get ‘em!”, and then snaps, “Pay attention, boy! I’m cuttin’ but you ain’t bleedin’! Go get ‘em!” As the Weasel runs off, Foghorn asides, “Like beating a dead horse! He’s got no get up and go!” (animated by Bonnicksen)

The Weasel starts gnawing on Dawg’s leg before Dawg slaps him off and begins yelling at him, “Hey! What’s the idea munching on my instep!?” Shaking and whimpering in terror, the Weasel points to the antlers on Dawg’s head, who takes them off and realizes what’s going on, “Oh. So that’s it, eh? A wise guy, huh?” Tossing the antlers away, Dawg informs the Weasel, “Look, sonny. How would you like some chickens-eye frozen chicken?” When the Weasel replies with more enthusiastic “Yeah!”’s and slurping, Dawg leads him, “Well, come on! Be my guest!” (animated by Bonnicksen)

Foghorn is sledding down the hill, laying chest-first on the sled, “Make way for the King of the Road! Ya-hoo!” Dawg chops a tree down where it falls down in front of Foghorn’s path, where he knocks into it and the sled continues without him. Dawg freezes him by throwing a pail of water over him. Dragging in Foghorn encased in a block of ice, Dawg tells the Weasel, “Eat hearty, boy!” The Weasel takes the ax Dawg chopped the tree with and splits the ice with it. Despite still being frozen, Foghorn groans, “Yeee! I got a splittin’ headache!”, before he literally splits in two (animated by Batchelder).

From behind Dawg’s house where a small hole in the back is, Foghorn sharpens a needle he’s put on the end of a billiard stick, preparing to poke Dawg in the rear with it, “The screwball in the back pocket!” Once his behind gets pricked by Foghorn jabbing the needle into him, Dawg goes flying out of his house screaming in pain and getting stuck in a corset Foghorn has set up, making him not only appear like a seal, but his strained barking also causes it to sound like one. Foghorn tells the Weasel, “Hey, boy! It’s seal season! There’s an ‘S’ in December, there’s a seal! Go get ‘em! Go, go, go, go, go, go!” The Weasel dashes off and comes back carrying Dawg with him. Foghorn makes another aside, “That boy’s as strong as an ox! And just about as smart” (animated by Ray).

With Dawg in a makeshift rotisserie, the Weasel begins sprinkling pepper on Dawg, whose sneezing from said pepper causes a large amount of snow from the cliff above him to completely bury him. Poking his head out of the snow, an enraged Dawg is fed up, “Ooh, you stupid little idiot! I’m a dog! D-O-G, dog!” Walking up to him while having removed the corset, Dawg continues, “What you want is a chicken! R-A-T, CHICKEN!” (animated by Batchelder)

Foghorn is now skiing and does a ski jump off the cliff. In mid-air, he shouts, “Whee! Look, I’m flyin’! I’m flyin’!” Due to not paying attention to what’s in front of him, Foghorn ends up flying smack into a long pole right-first and sliding down into the Weasel’s pot below. After landing in the pot with a splash, Foghorn asks the Weasel, “Say, boy, wouldn’t you-, I say, wouldn’t you rather have some delicious dog soup?” This time, the Weasel does a subversion of his usual response by shaking his head and replying with several “Uh-uh!”’s instead. Seeing that the Weasel isn’t going to change his mind, Foghorn replies before suddenly shouting in anger, “Well, in that case…. ADIOS, YOU CHICKEN-PLUCKING LITTLE STINKER!”, and running off (animated by Grandpre). Dawg hands the Weasel a club and orders, “Here! Don’t let him get away! Go get him!” The Weasel’s pursuit of Foghorn is interrupted by something in his way: a giant ice sculpture of Foghorn that is significantly larger than the actual Foghorn. The Weasel starts gnawing around it, as Foghorn laughs at this, “Now I won’t have anything to worry about ‘til the Fourth! Of July, that is!” Walking off, he passes Dawg’s house, where the latter’s tail is seemingly sticking out of it. Foghorn stops and shrugs, proving he can’t resist the chance to torment him. As he begins pulling it out, “Dawg’s tail” is actually a decoy tied to a plank on wheels that has an ignited rocket attached. By the time, Foghorn realizes this, the rocket takes off with him holding onto it before it explodes into several fireworks. Watching from below, Dawg chuckles, “The Fourth of July came a little early this year!” (animated by Batchelder)

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕