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Kitty Kornered is a 1946 Looney Tunes cartoon, directed by Bob Clampett and produced and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. Considered among Clampett's best and wackiest films, Kitty Kornered was Clampett's final cartoon starring his longtime star Porky Pig (although he made a cameo in Clampett's next cartoon The Great Piggy Bank Robbery as a train driver), and marks the only appearance of the (then unnamed) Sylvester in a Clampett-directed cartoon, and only one of two times Sylvester spoke in a Porky Pig cartoon. It was also the first appearance of Sylvester in the Looney Tunes series. Sylvester previously appeared in Merrie Melodies cartoons.
Porky and Sylvester would later be paired in a trio of shorts directed by Chuck Jones: Scaredy Cat, Claws for Alarm, and Jumpin' Jupiter. Both also co-starred (with Daffy Duck, which has a speed-up version of Sylvester's voice, including the lisp) in The Scarlet Pumpernickel (the only other time Sylvester spoke in a Porky Pig cartoon).
Plot
Sylvester and the other three cats after throwing Porky outside. A scene cut from BBC and Kids WB.
At 9pm on a cold winter's night, the neighborhood's cat owners all (literally) throw their cats out for the night. Porky Pig attempts to do the same, but his three cats (a tall black and white lisping cat (Sylvester), a medium sized tabby, a diminutive kitten, and a dumb drunkard cat) throw him out. Porky falls into the snow. Sticking his face out (and now resembling Santa Clause), Porky states that he hates pussycats. Porky bangs on the door, demanding to be let in, but the cats pop out of the door and proclaim in unison, "Milkman, keep those bottles quiet!", and then slam the door in his face.
While the cats are lounging around, Porky throws open the window while making an incredibly menacing face. He chases them around the house until one of them throws him into a teapot. Porky retaliates by setting his pet dog "Lassie" (a reference to the dog of the same name from the movie Lassie Come Home (1943) from MGM) on the cats. The cats see the dog's shadow and run for their lives, not knowing that "Lassie" is really only a shadow puppet created with Porky's fingers.
When the cat with the lisp (Sylvester) finds out that they've been tricked, he and the others plot revenge, which is exacted by having the cats create a War of the Worlds-esque sensation about invading aliens, placing the fear of God in their porcine owner and driving him into a panic over "M-M-Me-M-Me-M-M-M-Me-M-Me-M-Men from Mars!". Assuming the appearances of Theodore Geisel and his Rough Riders cavalry (in reference to the then-popular film Arsenic and Old Lace), the cats charge at Porky and run him out of the house once and for all. Homeless, alone, and cold in the snow, Porky turns to the camera and asks "Pardon me, but d-d-does anybody in the audience kn-kn-know somebody that kn-knows somebody that, uh, that has a house to rent?"
Censorship
Versions shown on FOX's Merrie Melodies Show, The WB, and the BBC in the United Kingdom cut the scene where the cats smoke cigars, read comics, lounge, and drink wine before Porky bursts in on them.[1]
Ending sequence
This is the first color Looney Tunes cartoon to use the written-out "That's All Folks" ending sequence and onwards, although the Merrie Melodies ending music is heard because WB was making a new version of the music to replace the 1939-46 ending as that one had Porky say, "Th-th-th-that's all Folks!" At the cartoon's start, the WB shield doesn't zoom to the viewers (similar to the Daffy Duck short The Great Piggy Bank Robbery), only the sound effect is heard.
Goofs
- When the drunk cat slips into the goldfish bowl, we hear the wound of the bowl rolling on the table, yet the bowl does not roll.
- Porky's front door has molding on most scenes, but when the smallest cat lowers the doorknob to jump through the keyhole, the door is plain. On the next shot, where the drunk cat dives for where the keyhole was and hits the door, the molding is back, then disappears again when the cat falls to the floor.
- When Sylvester dives under the bed, the production cells of him diving were placed over the bed by mistake, so that he appears to dive on top of the bed and then disappear.
- At the beginning of the cartoon, every time the font door of Porky's house is opened or closed, the door changes color often. Although the original door color is white, when half opened the door turns green and when wide open the door turns yellow. And when the door is closed, the door color changes from yellow to green and finally white.
Evolution of Sylvester
Character wises, the still anonymous Sylvester appears in the film, with a black nose and yellow-green eyes. He is joined by, among others, a drunk cat with the red nose, gray fur, big lips, and saggy jowls who was popular enough to appear in several later cartoons such as in the Rolling Stones music video Harlem Shuffle (with art by Ralph Bakshi and John Kricfalusi); in a few episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures; an episode of Animaniacs; and among the many cats in Tweety's High Flying Adventure.
Trivia
- The alien disguises worn by Sylvester and his cohorts were seen again as real characters in the episode of The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, "Spaced Out".
- The wine bottle the drunk cat drinks from is named "Arsenic and Old Grapes", a reference to the then-popular film Arsenic and Old Lace.
Gallery
Availability
- Laserdisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 1, Side 4: Bob Clampett
- VHS - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 4: Bob Clampett
- VHS - Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition, Vol. 1: All-Stars
- DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, Disc Three
- Blu-Ray, DVD - Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1, Disc 1
References
External links
- Kitty Kornered at the Internet Movie Database
- Review of Kitty Kornered and context to War Of The Worlds