Kitty Kornered
| Kitty Kornered | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes (Sylvester/Porky Pig) series | |
 | |
| Directed by | Robert Clampett |
| Produced by | Edward Selzer |
| Story by | Robert Clampett (uncredited) |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc (All) |
| Music by | Carl Stalling |
| Animation by |
Rod Scribner Manny Gould 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 minutes |
| Language | English |
Kitty Kornered is a 1946 Looney Tunes cartoon, directed by Robert Clampett, produced by Edward Selzer 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 streetcar 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. Also, this is the only cartoon where Sylvester has yellow eyes and a black nose.
This is the first Looney Tunes cartoon to have the red and blue rings as well as the written out "That's all Folks!" at the closing rings. The Merrie Melodies music is heard at the end though.
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) in The Scarlet Pumpernickel as the villain roles (the only time Sylvester spoke in a Chuck Jones-directed cartoon).
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) attempt to turn the tables and 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 which soon leads to a battle between Porky and his cats for the house.
While the cats are lounging around, Porky bursts through the window, making an incredibly menacing face. He chases them around the house until one of them throws him into a cabinet full of dishes and 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 and he doesn't actually have a dog.
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, and driving him into a panic over "Men from Mars!". Porky gets frightened and tries to shoot them with a gun but the cats charge at Porky with swords and run him out of the house once and for all and winning the battle. Homeless, alone, and cold in the snow, Porky turns to the camera and asks the audience if they have a vacancy for a house. Here we go again...
Edited versions
On the defunct WB channel in the United States and the UK's BBC, the scene where the cats smoke, read comics, lounge and drink wine (as pictured in the page) right before Porky shows up outside the window in anger was cut out of the cartoon. However, the short has been shown unedited (as recently as 2015) on the Canadian cable channel Teletoon Retro.
References
"Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet" was a WWII hit song by Ella Mae Morse, and was sung by Nancy Walker in the movie Broadway Rhythm.
The wine that the grey drunken cat was drinking says "Arsenic and Old Grapes" is a parody to Arsenic and Old Lace.
On Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, the "Men from Mars" characters made an appearance in "Spaced Out".
The cats charging at Porky assume the appearances of Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders cavalry (in reference to the then-popular film Arsenic and Old Lace).