Marc Antony and Pussyfoot
Marc Antony (referred to as Marc Anthony on his food dish in Feed the Kitty) and Pussyfoot (sometimes called "Kitty", but in some of the WB animation history books, he is referred to as "Cleo") are animated characters in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Marc Antony is a burly bulldog that is usually brown with a tan belly and black ears, though his coloration varies in some shorts. Pussyfoot/Cleo, in contrast, is an extremely cute, blue-eyed kitten to whom Marc is utterly devoted. Chuck Jones has discussed the efforts to maximize the kitten's sheer adorableness. All head and eyes, she is black with a white face and belly and a white tip on her fluffy tail.
Film appearances
Animator Chuck Jones introduced the odd duo in his film Feed the Kitty, first released on February 2, 1952. Prior to this, a bulldog looking like Marc Antony had appeared in previous shorts with Claude Cat and Hubie and Bertie, but it was never named. In the short, Marc Antony adopts the interminably cute kitten only to receive a stern warning from his owner not to "bring one more thing into this house . . . not one single solitary thing!" Marc Antony is thus forced to go to extreme lengths to keep his new pet under wraps. Meanwhile, Pussyfoot's curiosity gets her into a series of life-threatening situations, which Marc Antony must, of course, rescue her from. Jones would largely repeat the scenario in 1953 with Kiss Me Cat, only this time Marc Antony tries to convince his owners that the kitten is a champion mouser so that they will let him keep her. (Oddly, in this episode, one of the owners refers to the kitten as "Him", but this pronoun might have been meant to be neutral, or was a mistake.) In Feline Frame-Up (1954), Jones pitted the dog against another of his lesser-known players, Claude Cat; later in 1954, Marc Antony (or a bulldog looking just like him) made a brief appearance in the Claude Cat/Frisky Puppy short No Barking.
Jones directed a quite different entry in 1957 with Go Fly a Kit, the story of an eagle who teaches a different - but similar-looking - male kitten how to fly. In this cartoon, Marc Antony serves as an antagonist, chasing an orange female-cat, that the Pussyfoot-like cat saves. This is the only cartoon which saw the two on opposite sides. In 1958, Jones paired the cat and canine for one final film, Cat Feud, in which Marc Antony must defend Pussyfoot (and her catfood) from a thieving interloper.
The duo would later make a cameo appearance in the ending scene of Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). A gray-colored version of Marc Antony also appeared during the final scene of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. They also made a cameo in the bleachers in Space Jam.
Recent history and influence
Since their retirement, Marc Antony and Pussyfoot have been largely forgotten due to the popularity of other characters such as Jones' earlier creations, Wile E. Coyote and Pepe le Pew. Pussyfoot has appeared in some recent Warner Bros. merchandising, however, and the pair have been featured in various Warner Bros. productions, such as the third segment of the Twilight Zone movie, and a 1999 Looney Tunes comic book story called "Bringing Up Baby". Tiny Toon Adventures featured a similar character named Barky Marky who was a comparatively minor character on the show. The pair were also an inspiration for the Mindy and Buttons characters that were featured in the successor to Tiny Toons, Animaniacs. Interestingly enough, in the Mindy and Buttons short subject, Cat on a Hot Steal Beam, the cat that Mindy follows throughout the cartoon is none other than Pussyfoot.
Chuck Jones would later revisit the gimmick of a cute kitten with an unlikely protector in a MGM Tom and Jerry short, The Unshrinkable Jerry Mouse, with Jerry becoming a kitten's friend and protector against a selfish and jealous Tom.
A segment of Feed the Kitty, in which Marc Antony believes that Pussyfoot has been turned into a cookie (and unaware that she is actually perfectly safe), was the subject of an homage in the Pixar film Monsters, Inc. In it, monster James P. Sullivan ("Sulley") believes that a little human girl he is protecting has fallen into a trash compactor and reacts nearly shot for shot as Marc Antony did in his cartoon short.
Feed the Kitty is available on DVD, appearing on the compilation Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 and Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection.
Trivia
One noted recurring feature of the Marc Antony and Pussyfoot relationship is during each episode there is a scene where Pussyfoot climbs onto Marc Antony's back and starts kneading him in the process of getting comfortable. Pussyfoot claws at Marc Antony's back while Marc Antony endures it and writhes in severe pain. Pussyfoot eventually stops and snuggles into Marc Antony's back for a nap and Marc Antony, relieved that the painful clawing has stopped, heaves a huge sigh of relief and lies down. Both dog and his beloved kitten then nap.
