Kit for Cat

Kit for Cat is a 1948 "Looney Tunes" cartoon starring Sylvester, an unknown cat, and Elmer Fudd. This cartoon features Elmer Fudd without his hat or hunting clothes just like he does with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.

This was only one of five post-1948 WB cartoons to get a Blue Ribbon reissue prior to 1956 - with the original credits cut. The others were "Daffy Dilly", "The Foghorn Leghorn", "Scaredy Cat", and "You Were Never Duckier".

Plot

The beginning starts with Sylvester in the trash alley trying to find food to eat. When another kitten comes by, Sylvester yells at the kitten that the alley is his. When a blizzard comes, Sylvester acts frozen and knocks on Elmer Fudd's door, begging for shelter. Elmer Fudd tries to warm up Sylvester by putting him on his sitting chair near the fire. When the same kitten comes acting half frozen, Elmer Fudd is surprised by two kittens. Elmer thinks the baby kitten is cute. Sylvester tries to act like a baby, but Fudd is disappointed by Sylvester's way of acting when he's grown-up (labelling it "a widicuwous way for a gwown-up cat to behave") and tells Sylvester to act his age. Elmer decides to make up his mind in the morning. Sylvester then decides how to get rid of kitten, like thinking of hanging up the kitten, shooting him with revolver, or tying him up and leaving him in front of a train. Then Sylvester decides to blame the baby kitten that broke the milk bottle. Fudd thinks the kitten did it by accident and gives the kitten hamburgers, pickles, bologna, cheese, salami, and milk. Then Sylvester knocks his head on the wall.

Sylvester then throws a ball of string to the baby kitten to play with, but the string is tied to the glasses and dishes. When the kitten plays with it, the glasses and dishes break. The kitten quickly tries to fix it all by gluing them back together, but Sylvester breaks every one he fixes. When Fudd sees Sylvester breaking his dishes, he says that he's making it very easy for him to make up his mind which of the two cats to keep.

Sylvester then hypnotizes the kitten with a book of hypnosis to hit Elmer on the head (He says, "The head. The head. On the head. Here, stupid, on the head."). The kitten becomes mistaken, and hits Sylvester's head near Elmer's bed, making Sylvester sleep with Fudd in the bed, and Elmer, noticing Sylvester in his bed, throws him back down the stairs. Sylvester is then warned by Elmer that he'll be held responsible for the next time Elmer gets disturbed (He says "If I'm disturbed wonce more, I'm holding you wesponsible!"). Sylvester then uses a mouse toy and the kitten chases it, getting inside a mouse hole. Sylvester locks up the mouse hole with wood and nails. The kitten, however, undoes all the portraits and things held by nails on the walls. Sylvester tries to catch all of them. The chandelier on top of Fudd's head crashes before Sylvester can fix it with a screwdriver, which angers Elmer so much, that he tells Sylvester he will be thrown out if Elmer hears just one more sound.

Next, the kitten tries to shoot lots of rifle bullets (Sylvester puts some earmuffs on Elmer's ears beforehand), bangs on a drum, slams the door numerous times (at which point, Sylvester has had enough, and decides to try to get rid of the kitten by force), turns on the radio, plays on the piano (it's a coin-operated piano, so the kitten puts a quarter in it), and is even chased by Sylvester. Elmer Fudd stops them and says that he had made up his mind, but not before Elmer's landlord serves him an eviction notice. The cartoon ends with Elmer, Sylvester and the kitten looking for food in the trash alley.

Credits

* Director: Friz Freleng
* Co-Writers: Michael Maltese, Tedd Pierce
* Music: Carl Stalling
* Voices: Mel Blanc (Sylvester, Landlord); Arthur Quirk Bryan (Elmer; uncredited)
* Animators: Gerry Chiniquy, Ken Champin, Manuel Perez, Virgil Ross
* Layout and Backgrounds: Hawley Pratt and Paul Julian

Censorship

*When this aired on ABC, the part where Sylvester hypnotizes the kitten to hit Elmer in the head as he sleeps (with the kitten hitting Sylvester instead) was cut. Also: the part where Sylvester uses his finger to plug the barrel of a firing shotgun was shortened.