Kiddin' the Kitten

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Kiddin' the Kitten

Directed By: Robert McKimson Produced By: Eddie Selzer (uncredited) Released: April 5, 1952 Series: Merrie Melodies Story: Tedd Pierce Animation: Charles McKimson Herman Cohen Phil DeLara Rod Scribner Layouts: Peter Alvarado Backgrounds: Richard H. Thomas Film Editor: Treg Brown (uncredited) Voiced By: Mel Blanc Bea Benaderet (uncredited) Sheldon Leonard (uncredited) Music: Carl Stalling Starring: Dodsworth The Kitten Preceded By: Little Beau Pepé Succeeded By: Water, Water Every Hare 11 - Kiddin' the Kitten

Kiddin' the Kitten is a 1952 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert McKimson.

Plot

Dodsworth's mistress is on a table and screaming as a group of mice steal food and take it to their hole, mocking her. She gets down from the table and walks to Dodsworth, who is lying down on his bed and eating sardines instead of catching the mice. She is mad at Dodsworth because of his laziness, and tells him that he'll be out of his home if he doesn't get rid of the mice. As soon as his mistress walks away, lazy Dodsworth, who refuses to chase the mice on his own, sets up a school of mouse-catching, of which he pretends to be a professor.

Dodsworth hears a knock on the door, and he opens it to see a white kitten outside. After he lets the kitten in, he hooks the kitten to a fishing line and casts him into the kitchen. The kitten sees the mice, who are carrying more food to their hole, and he starts chasing them. The chase with one mouse continues until that mouse scurries into the hole. The kitten manages to catch the mouse by setting his fingers up like a mouse trap and placing a piece of cheese on it. With two tugs on the fishing line, Dodsworth reels the kitten back and places the caught mouse in a cage, but he also tells the kitten that he has to catch more than just one mouse in order to graduate. He casts the kitten back into the kitchen, and the kitten sees three more mice, who each go inside a different hole. The kitten takes a hunk of cheese from the fridge and places ball bearings in the cheese. He then carries the cheese to the mouse holes, sticks signs on it, and watches all the mice come out of their holes and eat the cheese while out of their sight. Once the mice finish eating, they all go back into their holes, and the kitten tugs twice on the fishing line again, signaling Dodsworth to reel him back for the second time. Dodsworth asks the kitten where the mice are, and the kitten takes out a magnet, which attracts the mice because of the ball bearings in the cheese they ate. Dodsworth is surprised by this, and while all the caught mice are put in the cage, he hears his mistress calling him, causing him to hand the kitten his diploma and rush him out of the house. When the mistress sees all the mice in the cage, the kitten comes back inside to see that Dodsworth is getting credit for the kitten's work, much to his anger. While Dodsworth and his mistress go into the kitchen, the kitten opens the cage and pours water on the mice, causing them to run loose and cause trouble. The kitten goes out the door and back in the house through the kitchen door. In the kitchen, Dodsworth is bound, gagged, and knocked out with a mallet by one of the mice, while the mistress is on a box and screaming as the rest of the mice dance around like Indians. The kitten then chases all the mice out of the house.

The kitten now lies on Dodsworth's bed, with Dodsworth's name on it crossed out, and behaves the same way Dodsworth did, while the mice have returned inside the house and started stealing food again.

Availability

• (1999) VHS - Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 13: Comic Cat-Tastrophies
• (2006) DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, Disc 4
• (2020) Streaming - HBO Max

Notes

• This cartoon marks the debut of Dodsworth the Cat, a fat, lazy black-and-white cat resembling an obese version of Sylvester, as well as his white kitten apprentice. The two would later reappear again the following year in "A Peck o' Trouble".