O Canarinho Gigante

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.

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.

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

'King Size Canary' is one of MGM and Tex Avery's better animation shorts, and concentrates on what might happen if a hungry cat goes in search of food and finds a way to make everything larger! Of course this being cartoon fun you just know that whatever the cat makes larger will end up being too large, and that the gag will progress on and on to its inevitable conclusion. The main characters - cat, dog, bird and mouse - are funny and watchable; the animation is well drawn, and the cartoon is a diverting few minutes.

Although MGM's cartoons, Hanna and Barbera aside, are not known as much as the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies of Warner Bros., or the shorts made by Walt Disney, they are not at all bad and can still be appreciated today by any generation.

An alley cat is starving and does all he can to find food. Eventually, he breaks into a house and ransacks the contents of the kitchen. He finds a can of cat food, but upon opening it, he finds a mouse who talks him into letting him go, and tells him to eat the canary in the next room. Well, now comes the kicker. The cat finds a bottle of some growth substance. He pours it down the throat of the canary and the thing becomes enormous. Now the cat must drink the stuff and get bigger, followed by a dog, and finally the mouse. You get the point. I won't talk about the ending, but it's pretty much what you would expect from what has happened. We never really question the fact that such a substance exists. Tex Avery handles the expressions and the craziness just fine.