Lazy Chicken of Tomorrow

Genetic gene mixing is the main source of humour in Tex Avery’s Farm of Tomorrow which, unfortunately, is more miss than hit.

“Picking up corn used to waste vast amounts of energy,” says narrator Paul Frees, as a tired hen quickly pecks on the ground with the animation on ones (the movement is so fast, it resulted in DNVR on the Avery disc collection released in Europe). “So, we crossed the corn with Mexican jumping beans.” Cut to one of a number of black background, outline drawings, though the beans on this one animate. Cut to a contented hen with the corn jumping in her mouth to the strains of La Cucaracha.



This is the weakest of Tex’s spot gaggers in the latter part of his career. He told historian Joe Adamson the difficulty with them. “There was nothing to build to. Boom—you’ve got your last gag, which maybe you think is the strongest. Like a deck of cards, you pick the highest one, put it down at the end. It might be a little entertaining, but there’s nowhere to go. Those were definitely cheaters, and I hated to make ‘em, but we’d get stuck once in a while.” Bob Bentley, Walt Clinton, Grant Simmons and Mike Lah are the animators with backgrounds by Joe Montell.