Mother was a Rooster

Mother was a Rooster
Lobby card.
Production company	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributor	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	October 20, 1962
Starring	Mel Blanc
Producer(s)	David H. DePatie
Music composed by	Milt Franklyn
Story by	Dave Detiege
Animation	George Grandpré Keith Darling Ted Bonnicksen Warren Batchelder
Director(s)	Robert McKimson
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Title card

Mother was a Rooster is the four-hundred and eightieth Merrie Melodies theatrical short. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures on October 20, 1962. It was written by Dave Detiege, produced by David H. DePatie, and directed by Robert McKimson.

When Barnyard Dawg pranks Foghorn with an ostrich egg, the rooster believes that he's a father. But when the dog insults the baby ostrich too much, Foghorn decides to fight for his son's honor.

Memorable quotes

Baby ostrich: They left me all alone. Where did everybody go?

Characters

Legend
Character debut	Speaking debut	Ep. debut	No lines	Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character	Actor
Foghorn Leghorn	Mel Blanc
Barnyard Dawg	Mel Blanc
Baby ostritch	Mel Blanc

Locations

• Earth
  • United States
    • Ostrich farm
    • Farmyard
      • Water tower

Objects

• Ostrich egg
• Anvil
• Dynamited football

Production

Second lobby card

Music

The music was composed by Milt Franklyn, and was the last-released cartoon scored by him. Bill Lava would take over as composer for Warner Bros. cartoons starting with Good Noose, until the cartoon department's closure in 1969. As Franklyn died in April 1962, he completed scoring music for this cartoon prior to his passing.

It is also one of the seven cartoons (not counting The Jet Cage, as Lava also did music for that short) that were released after Franklyn's death, alongside Mexican Boarders, Bill of Hare, Zoom at the Top, The Slick Chick, Louvre, Come Back to Me!, and Honey's Money.

Crew credits

• Layouts and Backgrounds: Robert Gribbroek
• Film Editor: Treg Brown

Release

Dates are in order of release:

• United States: October 20, 1962 in theatres

Behind the scenes

• The baby ostrich from Plenty of Money and You and The Lyin' Mouse appears once again, but with a different character design, consisting of smaller body proportions and a different color scheme.
  • This was the only cartoon featuring the ostrich that not directed by Friz Freleng.

Legacy

• This cartoon was used in The Bugs Bunny Mother's Day Special.