Go Fly a Kit

There's a lot to like about this cartoon. For starters, it has an original and very imaginative story: a cat who's taught to fly by a maternal eagle. I also loved the sweet relationship between the two cats, which was unusual for a cartoon from this period. The animation was well-drawn, and the colours were rich and beautiful. The musical score was lovely and well-suited to the action.

But one thing ruined this cartoon for me: the ending. Although the bulldog was the villain in this short, his fate--stuck on top of a very high building with no way to get down again and nobody to help him (and how would anyone even SEE him up there?)--was far too cruel and mean-spirited. It really ruined this cartoon for me.

I wish I could reach through the screen and rescue that poor bulldog! No villain deserves this!

Adorable story, told through flashback, about a kitten raised by an eagle who grows up with the ability to fly. One day while flying around he spots a female cat being chased by a bulldog and rescues her. The two fall in love and, well, just watch and see. It's charming in every way. Not the funniest Looney Tunes short but it is smart and endearing. One of the many classics from the great Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese. The animation is excellent with well-drawn characters, backgrounds, and action. The colors are bright and lush. Milt Franklyn's evocative, lively score is among his best work. It's a real gem for fans of Chuck Jones; a heartwarmer if there ever was one.

Along with Max Fleischer, former Disney animator David Hand, and Japan's Hayao Miyazaki, Chuck Jones is one of my favorite animators, and this short is one of my favorite shorts from the late 1950s. An elderly mother eagle, in my opinion, raised a sweet-tempered kitten with maternal instincts. He flys by using his tail like a propeller. When he leaves the nest to explore the outside world, he falls in love with a lovely little girl kitten after rescuing her from a vicious bulldog.

I just love the backgrounds with their vivid colors. My favorite scenes are when our hero (The Flying Kitten) wants to join a chorus of blackbirds (tweet, tweet, tweet, meow). But when they see him, they are so frightened that they bump right into each other, even when they fly away. And also, when our canine nemesis tries to pounce on our hero but our hero is too quick for him, during the struggle he uses his propeller-like tail to get away, and the dog finds himself biting his own leg!

All in all, I love every bit of it. It has got tenderness, the love he shares with his adopted mother and his sweetie, and sorrow when he says goodbye when he leaves his first home and when he flies south every fall (being part bird). But every spring, he returns, and his girlfriend awaits him at the airport, as in the myth of Persephone and the origin of the seasons.

Most of this cartoon is told in flashback. It's a goofy premise (hey, it's a cartoon) about a cat who was raised by a big momma bald eagle. He uses his tail as a propeller and learns how to fly. Like all birds, one day it's time to fly the coop and go out in the world on his own.

Soon after he saves a female cat from a big Spike-like bulldog, the kind is always shown in cartoons, it seems. He wins her heart with his flying ability and gives the big dog a "shave" from above as well as a few other things to the big - and humorous - canine.

There is some really nice artwork in here with excellent colors.

The two best-known voices in cartoon history - Mel Blance and Daws Butler - are listed on the IMDb title page but it doesn't say who the narrator is, and he did 99 percent of the talking here.

Chuck Jones's 'Go Fly a Kit' is a sweet little cartoon which is just a little too short on laughs. It's often considered to be a solo outing for Pussyfoot, the kitten from Jones's masterpiece 'Feed the Kitty', but the kitten here is clearly a different cat in both design and character. Confusingly enough, Marc Anthony (the bulldog from 'Feed the Kitty') or a dog who looks very much like him, appears as the main antagonist of 'Go Fly a Kit'. Regardless of who these characters may be, 'Go Fly a Kit' aims squarely at the heartstrings rather than the funny bone. There are a few chuckles as we see the flying cat's engaged in battle with the bulldog (the bulldog's eventual fate is priceless) but the story of the cat's childhood and subsequent romance get a little too schmaltzy and the ending is far from satisfactory. This odd tale of a flying cat is typical of writer Michael Maltese's experimental scripts of this period which included the story of a minuscule elephant ('Punch Trunk') and, more famously, a singing frog ('One Froggy Evening', a Jones masterpiece). However, 'Go Fly a Kit' falls short and Jones only manages to create a likable curio that is worth a look but doesn't stand up to repeated viewings.