Kitty Kornered
- Disambiguation: This was a Modern Madcaps story in Season 5 Episode 57 of The Harveytoons Show.
| Kitty Kornered | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes (Sylvester/Porky Pig) series | |
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| Directed by | Robert Clampett |
| Produced by | Edward Selzer |
| Story by | Warren Foster (uncredited) |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Carl Stalling |
| Animation by | Manny Gould Rod Scribner Bill Melendez |
| Layouts by | Thomas McKimson |
| Backgrounds by | Dorcy Howard |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 8, 1946 (USA) |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7 min. |
| Language | English |
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Kitty Kornered is a 1946 Looney Tunes cartoon, directed by Robert 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 the cat 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.
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 sped-up version of Sylvester's voice, including the lisp) in The Scarlet Pumpernickel (the only other time Sylvester spoke in a Porky Pig cartoon).
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[edit] Plot
The neighborhood's cat owners all (literally) throw their cats out for the night. Porky Pig attempts to do the same, but his four cats (a tall black and white lisping cat (Sylvester), a medium sized tabby, a diminutive kitten, and a dumb drunkard cat) throw him out into the snow. Porky states that he's starting to hate 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, 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" 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 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, and driving him into a panic over "Men from Mars!". Assuming the appearances of Theodore Roosevelt 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 the audience if they have a vacancy.
[edit] Censorship
On Kids WB and BBC, the scene where the cats smoke, read comics, lounge and drink wine (as pictured in the page) was cut.
[edit] Canon continuity
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 Carl Stalling didn't have enough time to compose a new version of the Looney Tunes ending music. 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.
Character-wise, the still anonymous Sylvester appears in the film, with a black nose and yellow 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 The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries; and among the many cats in Tweety's High-Flying Adventure.
