Catch as Cats Can
Catch as Cats Can is a 1947 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Arthur Davis.[2] The short was released on December 6, 1947, and stars Sylvester.[3]
Catch as Cats Can | |
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Directed by | Arthur Davis |
Produced by | Edward Selzer |
Story by | Dave Monahan Lloyd Turner (uncredited) |
Starring | Mel Blanc Dave Barry (uncredited) Richard Bickenbach (uncredited) |
Music by | Carl Stalling Milt Franklyn (uncredited) |
Animation by | Basil Davidovich J.C Melendez Don Williams Herman Cohen Manny Gould (uncredited) A. C. Gamer (effects animation)[1] |
Layouts by | Don Smith |
Backgrounds by | Philip DeGuard |
Color process | Technicolor |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date | December 6, 1947 |
Running time | 7 mins |
Language | English |
Plot
An emaciated canary, singing like Frank Sinatra and attracting the attention of all the admiring chicks, is getting on the nerves of a pipe-puffing parrot, who speaks like Bing Crosby. The parrot spots a cat, foraging through the trash. Telling the cat he needs more vitamins (which the canary has been swallowing in bulk), he lures the cat inside to snare the canary. The straightforward approach fails (the canary hits him in the left eye turning it violet). Helped by the parrot's encouragement, he carves a female canary from soap and lures Frankie there; the birds slide down a greased counter, into the sink, and down the drain, but only the soap bird goes through the pipe and down the cat's throat. A trail of birdseed into the garage seems to work, but Frankie jacks the cat's mouth open. The cat laces the vitamins with buckshot, but the magnet attracts everything metal in sight except his prey. The canary turns the cat's vacuum cleaner against him, with a crash in the fireplace giving the cat a hot-stomach; as he buries his head in the sink, the bird adds Foamo-Seltzer to the water; the cat rockets off, crashing into a wall.
The cat finally realizes the portly parrot is a better meal; he is later shown sitting on the parrot's perch, imitating his mannerisms.[4]
References
- Beck, Jerry (1991). I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety. New York: Henry Holt and Co. p. 92. ISBN 0-8050-1644-9.
- Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 180. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
- Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 140-142. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- Looney Tunes - "Catch as Cats Can" (1947) 1995 Turner Dubbed Opening Title & Closing, retrieved 2020-01-22