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Catch as Cats Can is a 1947 Merrie Melodies short directed by Arthur Davis.

Title[]

The title is a play on the term "catch-as-catch-can."

Plot[]

An emaciated canary, singing like Frank Sinatra, is getting on the nerves of a pipe-puffing parrot, who speaks like Bing Crosby. The parrot spots Sylvester, foraging through the trash. Telling Sylvester he needs more vitamins, which the canary has been swallowing in bulk, he lures Sylvester inside to snare the canary.

The straightforward approach fails (the canary bops him in the eye instantly). After Sylvester gives up instantly, the Crosby parrot stops him and forces him to continue "to get the vitamins he needs". Sylvester employs the following tricks to eat Frankie, all of them ending in failure;

  1. He carves a female canary from soap, lures Frankie there; the birds slide down a greased counter, into the sink, and down the drain, but only the soap bird goes through the pipe and down Sylvester's throat.
  2. Sylvester creates a trail of birdseed into the garage. This technique seems to work, but Frankie jacks Sylvester's mouth open.
  3. Sylvester laces the vitamins with buckshot; like all cartoon magnets, his attracts everything metal in sight except his prey.
  4. Sylvester uses the vacuum cleaner to suck up Frankie. After opening the vacuum bag, the canary turns Sylvester's vacuum cleaner against him, causing him to suck up and eat various objects such as a pair of high heels, an ink bottle, a book and a saucepan, with a crash in the fireplace giving Sylvester a hot-stomach; as he buries his head in the sink, the bird adds Foamo-Seltzer to the water; Sylvester rockets off, crashing into a wall.

Just as the Crosby parrot is about to give an injured Sylvester a new plan to eat Frankie, the cat finally realizes the portly parrot is a better meal. The canary sees Sylvester sitting on the parrot's perch, imitating his mannerisms.

Caricatures[]

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Music Cues[]

  • "A Gal in Calico" - Arthur Schwartz [Credits]
  • "As Time Goes" - Herman Hupfeld) [Sung by the canary throughout the cartoon]
  • "Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral" (That's an Irish Lullaby) - J.R. Shannon [Parrot talks to Sylvester]
  • "A Little on the Lonely Side" - Richard Robertson, Frank Weldon and James Cavanaugh [Sung by the canary throughout the cartoon]
  • "It Can't Be Wrong" - Max Steiner Lyrics by Kim Gannon) [Sung by the canary throughout the cartoon]
  • "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" - James Brockman, James Kendis and Nat Vincent [Sylvester hiccups bubbles]

Censorship[]

  • All versions of the cartoon, theatrical, television, home media and streaming, ends with Sylvester sitting in place of the Bing Crosby parrot saying "Ah, there's nothing like Vitamins." and then quickly fades out to the end title, prompting the possibility that a scene was edited before it was released to theaters. According to the podcast Cartoon Logic the intended ending was going to pan out the background to the parrot's tombstone saying, "Came in before his horse" a joke about Crosby's poor luck at betting on horses. The missing scene has been lost to time, as the release on Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 1 did not restore it.

Notes[]

  • This short is one of three non-Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1947 not to be reissued. The others were "Mexican Joyride" and "A Pest in the House".
    • This is the only Sylvester short made in 1947 to not be reissued.
  • This one of the only two shorts featuring Sylvester to be directed by Arthur Davis, joining "Doggone Cats". In contrast to the former short, where Sylvester didn't talk and had an orange, unnamed feline partner, "Catch as Cats Can" has Sylvester speaking, albeit with a dopey voice (that sounds like an early version of the voice Mel Blanc would use for Barney Rubble on The Flintstones) and no lisp. Coincidentally, both cartoons were released in 1947.
    • This short is, however, Davis' first Sylvester cartoon based on production order, despite being released after "Doggone Cats".
  • This is the first Merrie Melodies short to use the 1947-48 color rings in both the opening and ending titles.
  • The lobby card erroneously labels this cartoon as a Looney Tune, despite being a Merrie Melodie, suggesting that it was original in the Looney Tunes series during production.
  • A Bing Crosby parrot from this cartoon would later reappear in "Curtain Razor" two years later, with a new design and given the name "Bingo".
  • When the Sinatra-bird gives Sylvester the Foamo-Seltzer, he uses the Alka-Selzer catch-phrase "listen to him fizz!" replacing the original "it" with "him." This line was previously referenced in Hobo Gadget Band and Scrap Happy Daffy.
  • In the restoration, a few frames panning over to the final shot of Sylvester were cut for unknown reasons, likely due to a minor damage in the film negative the restoration is sourced from.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. https://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig3291213libr/page/n118/mode/1up?view=theater
  2. (3 October 2022) Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 (in en). BearManor Media, page 136. 
Sylvester Cartoons
1945 Life with FeathersPeck Up Your Troubles
1946 Kitty Kornered
1947 Tweetie PieCrowing PainsDoggone CatsCatch as Cats Can
1948 Back Alley OproarI Taw a Putty TatHop, Look and ListenKit for CatScaredy Cat
1949 Mouse MazurkaBad Ol' Putty TatHippety Hopper
1950 Home, Tweet HomeThe Scarlet PumpernickelAll a Bir-r-r-dCanary RowStooge for a MousePop 'Im Pop!
1951 Canned FeudPutty Tat TroubleRoom and BirdTweety's S.O.S.Tweet Tweet Tweety
1952 Who's Kitten Who?Gift WrappedLittle Red Rodent HoodAin't She TweetHoppy Go LuckyA Bird in a Guilty CageTree for Two
1953 Snow BusinessA Mouse DividedFowl WeatherTom Tom TomcatA Street Cat Named SylvesterCatty CorneredCats A-weigh!
1954 Dog PoundedBell HoppyDr. Jerkyl's HideClaws for AlarmMuzzle ToughSatan's Waitin'By Word of Mouse
1955 Lighthouse MouseSandy ClawsTweety's CircusJumpin' JupiterA Kiddies KittySpeedy GonzalesRed Riding HoodwinkedHeir-ConditionedPappy's Puppy
1956 Too Hop to HandleTweet and SourTree Cornered TweetyThe Unexpected PestTugboat GrannyThe Slap-Hoppy MouseYankee Dood It
1957 Tweet ZooTweety and the BeanstalkBirds AnonymousGreedy for TweetyMouse-Taken IdentityGonzales' Tamales
1958 A Pizza Tweety-PieA Bird in a Bonnet
1959 Trick or TweetTweet and LovelyCat's PawHere Today, Gone TamaleTweet Dreams
1960 West of the PesosGoldimouse and the Three CatsHyde and Go TweetMouse and GardenTrip for Tat
1961 Cannery WoeHoppy DazeBirds of a FatherD' Fightin' OnesThe Rebel Without ClawsThe Pied Piper of GuadalupeThe Last Hungry Cat
1962 Fish and SlipsMexican BoardersThe Jet Cage
1963 Mexican Cat DanceChili WeatherClaws in the Lease
1964 A Message to GraciasFreudy CatNuts and VoltsHawaiian Aye AyeRoad to Andalay
1965 It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the HouseCats and BruisesThe Wild Chase
1966 A Taste of Catnip
1980 The Yolks on You
1995 Carrotblanca
1997 Father of the Bird
2011 I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat
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