Kit for Cat

Kit for Cat
Original title card
Directed byI. Freleng
Story byMichael Maltese
Tedd Pierce
StarringMel Blanc
Arthur Q. Bryan (uncredited)
Bea Benaderet (uncredited)
Music byCarl Stalling
Animation byGerry Chiniquy
Ken Champin
Manuel Perez
Virgil Ross
Layouts byHawley Pratt
Backgrounds byPaul Julian
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • November 6, 1948 (1948-11-06)
Running time
7:23
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Kit for Cat is a 1948 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on November 6, 1948 and features Elmer Fudd and Sylvester. The title is a pun on the phrase “tit for tat”; Sylvester would appear in another cartoon with a similar title, Trip for Tat.

Plot

While scavenging for food in a snowy alleyway, Sylvester encounters a stray kitten attempting to do the same. After driving the kitten away, Sylvester seeks shelter at a nearby home and is welcomed in by Elmer Fudd. The kitten soon arrives and is also given shelter by Elmer, who states that while he enjoys having a cat, he can only keep one and will decide which animal to retain the following morning. Sylvester's attempt to win favor by acting like an infant is dismissed by Elmer, who tells him to act his age.

Sylvester subsequently attempts to eliminate his competition through sabotage. He pours milk on the kitten to frame it for a mess, but Elmer instead pities the kitten and rewards it with a large meal. Sylvester then tries to incriminate the kitten by rigging a stack of dishes to fall, but he is caught red-handed attempting to sabotage the kitten's efforts to clean up the broken items.

Further plots backfire. When Sylvester hypnotizes the kitten and gives it a baseball bat to strike the sleeping Elmer, the kitten mistakenly hits Sylvester instead, causing him to climb into Elmer's bed. Elmer wakes up and throws Sylvester down the stairs, warning him that he will be held responsible for any further disturbances. Sylvester then traps the kitten by nailing a piece of wood over a mouse hole; however, the kitten retaliates from inside the walls by knocking down shelves, paintings, and eventually a chandelier over Elmer's bed.

After Elmer issues a final ultimatum threatening Sylvester's expulsion for any more noise, the kitten deliberately creates a massive disturbance using a variety of devices, including a shotgun, a parade drum, and a radio. Sylvester desperately attempts to drown out the noise by placing earmuffs on the sleeping Elmer. The disturbance ultimately wakes Elmer, but before he can penalize Sylvester, his landlord arrives and serves him an eviction notice due to the excessive noise. The cartoon concludes with Sylvester, the kitten, and Elmer all searching for food together in the alley.

Home media

References

  1. ↑ Beck, Jerry (1991). I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety. New York: Henry Holt and Co. p. 95. ISBN 0-8050-1644-9.
  2. ↑ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 191. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  3. ↑ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 77-79. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.