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Hunch is the tertiary antagonist in Rock-a-Doodle. He was voiced by the late Charles Nelson Reilly.
Personality[]
Hunch is the Grand Duke's pygmy nephew and lead henchman. Hunch enjoys rhyming words with "aggravation" and humming "The Ride of the Valkyries". He is bumbling and dimwitted, but extremely aggressive. He carries an all-purpose Swiss Army Knife in a lidless soda can strapped to his back and uses its various bladed objects, tools and household objects (like a flyswatter) as weapons. A small running gag in the movie was that whenever the Duke would breathe on him, his magic would transform Hunch into a randomly different creature.
Role in Film[]
Hunch first appears onscreen when he literally drops in on his uncle, the Grand Duke, much to the latter's annoyance. The tiny owl reports that he saw Edmond and his friends riding on a drifting toy box in the river nearby. Pleased to hear the news, the Duke orders his nephew and four of his owl underlings to pursue the animals and kill them.
Hunch and his flock eventually catch up to the floating toy chest and swoop down to attack but, in the ensuing battle, are blinded by the flash of a camera at the hands of Peepers and Snipes, causing the owls to fly out of control and slam into a wall. They fail to reach the chest in time when a strong current pulls it into a sewage pipe leading to an aqueduct. Hunch, however, misreads a sign above the pipe saying "DANGER: AQUEDUCT PIPE", believing it to say "DANGER: ADEQUATE PIPE" and thus assuming his work was done and that the animals had drowned inside.
Hunch returns to his uncle's lair and reports to him that Edmond, Patou, Peepers and Snipes were finally done away with, exciting the Duke into asking him how he did it. Hunch simple states that it was all done "adequately", which confuses his uncle at first, and he further specifies that he had let the animals get sucked the drainage pipe and mentions the "adequate pipe" sign above it. The Duke angrily yells at Hunch, correcting him that it was an aqueduct pipe that led to the city and that the animals were still alive. He then orders Hunch to fly alone to the city to dispose of Edmond and his friends once and for all (as his last chance upon threatening to dispose of him) and provides for him a pair of sunglasses to protect his eyes from the city's bright lights when the latter feared going blind.
The bumbling bird eventually arrives at the city and spots the animals below in front of the entrance of Chanticleer's studio. He swoops down behind them in an attempt to perform a sneak attack with the aid if his multipurpose Swiss-Army knife when he is suddenly interrupted by the entrance doors slamming on him, causing him to stumble into the path of a giant red carpet which soon rolls over him. From behind the doors emerge a group of frog bodyguards, their boss, Pinky, and his star attraction, Chanticleer. Edmond attempts to get to the famed rooster, but fails as the bouncers drive the fans away from him to give him space. As a depressed Chanticleer boards onto Pinky's helicopter, a dazed Hunch emerges from underneath the red carpet.
Later, Hunch finds the gang tied up in Pinky's trailer (upon them having been discovered by the fat fox and his men) and breaks in through the roof entrance, comically injuring himself in the process. Regaining composure, the clumsy owl hops onto a television set and rears in on the gang to finally kill them, but his metal Swiss-Army tool makes physical contact with the TV's antennae, electrocuting him, causing him to frantically flail around the room and inadvertently set the animals free. Hunch then chases them around the room in his mad attempt to kill them when Chanticleer and Goldie, trying to escape Pinky and his goons, accidentally run into him, knocking the nocturnal nitwit into a fishbowl.
In the ensuing chase, as the animals take control of Pinky's Cadillac, they discover Hunch scaling the wall of the trailer and puncturing holes in the tires in an attempt to crash the vehicle. Peepers jumps down to detach the link connecting the car form the trailer to drive away Pinky's thugs, but Hunch swoops away just in time for the trailer to crash.
After Edmond, Chanticleer, and the others manage to escape Pinky via his helicopter, they fly straight to the farm to confront the Grand Duke and his owl henchmen. However, this is cut short when Hunch (somehow finding his way inside the helicopter) unexpectedly emerges from the helicopter's ventilation shafts and jumps in to attack the gang. Unfortunately for him, he lands in front of Goldie, who slaps him straight across the face (believing he was ogling at her breasts) and into a fire extinguisher. It suddenly fires its foamy substance and flies around the room, with Hunch clinging on for dear life, hitting buttons and switches, which forces the helicopter to spin out of control and crash.
After the Duke's defeat, Hunch is seen emerging from the wreckage of the helicopter and notices a tiny creature stumbling past him. He picks up the creature who reveals himself as "Uncle Dukey", much to Hunch's surprise. Then thinking back, now that he was much bigger than his uncle, Hunch chases the Duke with a flyswatter as a means of revenge for all his abuse, both disappearing into the clouds.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Hunch is similar to Killer. Both are abused and mistreated by their bosses, often threatened with death and are both voiced by Charles Nelson Reilly. Unlike Hunch however Killer isn't related to Carface and is still left as a schnoodle unlike Hunch who is often changed into various creatures.
- Hunch is the only owl to survive the film and remain his full size. The Duke survived as well but he was turned into a miniature version of himself. The other owls either get killed by Chanticleer's crowing or killed with Hunch.