Kit for Cat

Kit for Cat (1948)

**** (out of 4)

An orphan kitten and Sylvester the Cat are brought in by Elmer Fudd on a cold night. He can't keep both of them but says he'll make up his mind in the morning. This gives the cats enough time to try and make the other one look bad. Here's another favorite of mine as we get non-stop laughs from start to finish as well as some great characters. I've always been impressed with what they did with Elmer here and that's making him a rather angry character. I find it downright hysterical when he has his sleep interrupted and runs downstairs ready to fight. The orphan kitten is also very cute and adds a few laughs. Sylvester is the poor guy here as he's constantly trying to do something good but failing miserably.

Having seen "Back Alley Oproar" and "Kit for Cat", I wish that Elmer Fudd and Sylvester could have co-starred more often. This one has Sylvester and an orange kitten vying for adoption by Elmer one cold night, and they both keep trying to frame each other for making noise, in the hope that Elmer will throw out the other. I never predicted what would happen at the end! One thing that I wondered while watching the cartoon was about the radio show with which they try to awaken Elmer. It features a character named "Melvin". Knowing that the Man of 1,000 Voices himself - Mel Blanc, that is - provided the vocalizations here, I wonder whether or not that character was named after him.

Oh well. I probably shouldn't get hung up on that. The point is that this is a hilarious cartoon.

As a big fan of Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, I naturally wanted to see Kit for Cat after seeing it lauded as one of Freleng's best and most memorable. After seeing it, I agree, while starting off a tad slow, it picks up very quickly right up until the corker of an ending, which is both hilarious and intense. The animation is beautifully done in especially the colours, which are rich and plentiful. The music has a huge amount of energy and fits very well with every scene it features in, the writing and quotes are one big jewel after another and just get better and better and the sight gags are clever(ie. balancing of the falling plates). Sylvester is very well-rounded here, the other feline is a worthy contrast while Elmer while maintaining the dim-witted character that makes him so endearing is also quite kindly. All in all, very, very entertaining. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Sylvester is out in some alleyway, searching for food among the garbage cans. Suddenly, he spots a kitten doing the same right near him. "Say there, small fry," he says, "I'm working this side of the street. Now scram. Beat it!"

Sylvester boots the little guy across the street. Suddenly a cold, hard wind comes up and the cat decides he needs to "find a warm place to flop." He goes up to a house, pounds on the door and pleads, "Please save a frost-bitten feline from a frozen fate!"

Who answers the door? Elmer Fudd! Elmer, being a nice guy, lets the cat in and puts him on a nice easy chair next to the fireplace and tells him, "Please consider this your home now, Mister Pussycat."

Seconds later, someone else in knocking on the door: the little kitty. Elmer can't believe it. "Great grasshoppers," he says, "another orphan of the storm!"

Elmer tells the felines, "I can only keep one of you," but it's obvious he thinks the little kitten is cuter and probably will be the one to stay. Sylvester is no sap; he sees this and goes to work to get the little kitten in trouble and force Elmer to pick him as his pet. Needless to say, whatever Sylvester cooks up.....it deservedly backfires. Some of the scenes are very clever, such as the cat doing his balancing act with falling dishes.

Overall, a good cartoon, although justice didn't prevail in the end, at least for the "nice guy."

Sylvester the cat is trashcan diving for his dinner when he runs into an little orange kitty trying to take food from the same trashcans. It's extremely cold outside so Sylvester is happy when he's taken in by Elmer Fudd. But here comes that darn orange kitty again and Elmer can only keep one. So it's a battle of wills to see who stays while Elmer sleeps on the dilemma. This cartoon is great and further proves (if any were truly needed) that Sylvester was the TRUE star of his pairings with Tweety bird. As he excels in this solo outing. Plus the kitten makes an excellent foil. This animated short can be found on disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1.

My Grade: A+