King-Size Canary

An alley cat struggles to find any food. He spots a nice home with a refrigerator. Only problem is the guard dog Atom. There turns out to be nothing in the house except a tiny mouse. In order to escape, the mouse directs the cat to a canary but the canary turns out to be tiny. That's when the cat finds a bottle of Jumbo Gro plant fertilizer. I like the premise up to a point. It grows out of room sort of speak.

Of Tex Avery's three masterpieces, "King-Size Canary" is the best of the lot. (In case you're wondering, the other two are "Who Killed Who?" and "Red Hot Riding Hood," both 1943.) This has to be seen to be believed, let alone appreciated. I once tried to describe it to a friend, one who admitted affection for Chuck Jones' Bugs/Daffy/Elmer hunting trilogy from Warner Bros., and failed miserably to do it justice. The insanity builds from a merely amusing opening to a mind-boggling yet inevitable finale, an image that will stay with you for some time after the fade-out.

The gag with the cat, dog, bird, and mouse guzzling down "Jumbo Gro" to get bigger in an arms race of sorts is repeated quite a bit in this little cartoon from Tex Avery, but it also features clever bits of animation. One of the dog's eyes acting as a searchlight, for instance, or the bird rearranging the cat's face on his back before realizing it's scowling at him. Great voices for the dopey cat and streetwise mouse too, the latter of whom we naturally see reading "The Lost Squeek End." I don't read too much into possible Cold War symbolism because the intention seems to be much more about wacky exaggeration than it does political satire, but it was interesting that on the globe at the end, the cat stands over America and the mouse over the Soviet Union.

Tex Avery, IMHO, is probably hands-down the best at his craft. Current stuff -- just that, stuff. The closest I've seen of recent work would have to be the four Roger Rabbit/Baby Herman cartoons (including the short that opened the film, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?").

This simple premise -- starving cat & undersized intended snack -- is complicated by a miraculous growth fertilizer and spirals rapidly out of control to a completely ridiculous conclusion.

I was lucky enough to own the box-set of laserdiscs which included every cartoon Tex Avery made for MGM, and I would have paid three times what I did for it. Although this particular cartoon wasn't my favorite (I might have to lean toward one of the two versions of "Northwest Hounded Police" in which double-takes and eyeball gags are elevated to an art form), it was certainly in the upper levels. Another high-ranking short: "Bad Luck Blackie", in which a black cat simply struts in front of a surprisingly vicious bulldog to bring him instant -- and potentially lethal -- bad luck.

Try to see these shorts unedited, not the hacked 'politically correct' versions being shown on some cable cartoon shows. Absolutely the best animation for sheer hilarity that has ever been committed to celluloid.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best he ever did. Have yet to see a "bad" Tex Avery cartoon, of the ones seen so far (which has been a vast majority) his weakest have still been decent. 'King-Size Canary' is often considered one of his greatest, have to completely agree with this. One of my favourites of his along with 'Red Hot Riding Hood', 'Who Killed Who?', 'Rock-a-Bye Bear' and 'The Legend of Rockabye Point', most of his Droopy cartoons and the likes of 'Magical Maestro', 'A Wild Hare' and 'Symphony in Slang' are up there too.

Every single one of the characters are great fun and the cartoon makes imaginative use of them. The voice work is impeccable if not quite as big a tour-De-force as 'Red Hot Riding Hood'.

Can't say anything bad about Avery's direction. He does a wonderful job directing, with his unique, unlike-any-other visual and characteristic and incredibly distinctive wacky humour style all over it as can be expected.

Once again there is nothing sadistic or repetitious, instead it's imaginative, wonderfully wild, deliciously deranged, violent but imaginatively so, shockingly racy, red hot sexy and hilarious throughout from start to finish. The sight gags throughout are an absolute joy and are immaculate in timing.

It is no surprise either that the animation is superb, being rich in colour and detail. The character designs are unique, Avery always did have creative character designs, and suitably fluid. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed.

Overall, simply amazing and one of my favourites. 10/10 Bethany Cox