The Bashful Buzzard

The Bashful Buzzard is a Looney Tunes cartoon completed in 1944 and released on September 15, 1945.^[1][2] It is directed by Robert Clampett and is the second to feature the character Beaky Buzzard.^[3]

The Bashful Buzzard
"Blue Ribbon" reissue title card for The Bashful Buzzard
Directed by	Robert Clampett
Story by	Michael Sasanoff
Produced by	Edward Selzer
Starring	Mel Blanc (all other voices) Kent Rogers (Beaky Buzzard) Sara Berner (Mama Buzzard)[1]
Edited by	Treg Brown
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Robert McKimson Manny Gould Rod Scribner C. Melendez
Layouts by	Thomas McKimson
Backgrounds by	Richard H. Thomas
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	September 15, 1945 (1945-09-15)
Running time	6:42
Language	English

The cartoon is notably the last Warner Bros. Cartoon to feature the voice of Kent Rogers, who died from a training flight accident on July 1944.

Plot

In an opening sequence similar in-vain to Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid, Mama Buzzard tasks her children to catch food for an evening stew. As they are sent on there way, her slow and dimwitted son Beaky (named Killer in this short) refuses to go, forcing her to kick him off of the ledge.

Beaky follows his siblings to a nearby farm. As his brothers "divebomb" to capture some chickens, Beaky ends up crashing into a weather vane after mistaking it as a "great big rooster". Mama laments to his son for his foolishness and in an attempt to prove her wrong, Beaky attempts to catch a sheep only to rip off her wool coat instead.

Later that day, Beaky's siblings have captured other various animals such as a cow, a dog, a horse and a pack of elephants (with a smaller one holding a sign reading "I am NOT Dumbo"), while Beaky himself had only caught a tiny bumblebee. A larger bee, presumably the parent, arrives and stings Beaky, who crash lands and soothes his sting in some water. While there, a small head pops out from behind rocks. Beaky picks a fight with the animal he calls "Shorty". He yanks on the head and tries to lift it from the ground before realizing that what he is confronting is actually a large dragon.

Beaky runs from the dragon, and the scene changes to the mother buzzard worrying late into the night about him not returning home. He he does arrive back home, she's happy to see him return but soon becomes angry as he seemingly once again did not brought anything home for dinner. However, it is revealed that Beaky caught the dragon, who dismisses the mother's claim by saying "Well now, I wouldn't say that!" (a reference to Mr. Peavey of The Great Gildersleeve).