The Squawkin’ Hawk Review

The Squawkin’ Hawk is a 1942 animated short film from the Merry Melodies series. It is a standard flick.

By standard I mean that I’ve seen many similar Merry Melodies where a youngling is restless for some adventure or food. This time around, a young hawk wants to catch and eat chicken despite his mother’s warnings to eat a worm and be happy with it. He eventually meets a chicken and hilarity ensues. I liked that ending where the worm kissed the hawk the best. It’s sweet and endearing.

The rest of the cartoon has its good moments, but it thoroughly lacks in the humor department. The scenario itself could have been well used for laughs, but the end result is surprisingly devoid of such laughs and is overly dramatic. The chicken are underutilized, but the hawk himself is quite memorable and fun. The animation is solid, but not great.

The Squawkin’ Hawk has its good scenes and a fun ending, but it lacks in humor and is overly serious.