Shrunken Cinema/Termite Terrace/Feed the Kitty
From Eccentric Flower
Feed the Kitty
1951
Summary: A bulldog adopts a kitten and tries to keep it hidden from his owner.
Director: Chuck Jones
Writer: Michael Maltese
Featuring: No regulars.
Onreel
0:20 The credits seem like they are a musical cue I haven't identified, but perhaps not.
0:38 Sound cue: "Ain't She Sweet." Played several more times when the kitten is being cute.
1:54 Sound cue: IMDb thinks this is Jimmie Rodgers' "Sleep Baby Sleep," and at first I thought they were crazy, but after listening to a few versions I think they might be right. You be the judge.
3:21 Sound cue (as the dog powders his nose): "Oh! You Beautiful Doll."
3:34 The "Sleep Baby Sleep" cue again.
3:51 Sound cue: "Shortnin' Bread." Yes, people did keep flour in bins like this sometimes.
5:12 Yet another unidentified cue. This mournful violin piece may be what IMDb is identifying as Czibulka's "Stephanie" gavotte, but it isn't. (Although this cue does sound like Czibulka's maudlin pieces - see "Hearts and Flowers" - "Stephanie" is actually pretty lively, as befits a gavotte.)
Offreel
This cartoon was named one of the "fifty greatest cartoons" in a vote of 1000 animation professionals in 1994.
The main reason to watch this cartoon is the dog's various reaction shots, and a lot of people think this is some of Jones' best character design ever. Credit of course must also go to the animators, especially Ken Harris, who reportedly was responsible for most of the Marc Antony work.
There are several reports that the Pixar folks used the dog's reaction when he thinks the kitten has been baked into cookies as the model for Sully's reaction when he thinks Boo has gone into the trash compactor in Monsters, Inc. Some people claim it is a shot-for-shot correspondence.
Bea Benaderet did the voice of the lady of the house.
Marc Antony and the kitten
Jones did five cartoons featuring the bulldog and the kitten, who has been referred to in various times/places as Cleo, Pussyfoot, and just "the kitten." (Jones' original model sheet for her, for the record, just says "Kitten.")
Not all of these cartoons have the same plot. In "Feline Frame-Up," Claude the Cat (see The Hypo-Chondri-Cat) tries to make the unseen owner think the dog is trying to eat the kitten so he'll get thrown out of the house. In Go Fly a Kit, Marc Antony is the villain, of sorts. The full list is in the Lost and Found. Feed the Kitty is the best of the lot, and deserves its accolades; the rest are so-so.
Someone behind the Golden Collection liked these. Four of the five cartoons appear in these sets. (Contrast this to the fact that they include four of seven Hubie/Bertie cartoons, and only two of five Marvin the Martian cartoons!)
These characters were apparently an inspiration for the Buttons and Mindy sequences of "Animaniacs," where a well-meaning dog attempts to keep his little owner (a small human girl) out of trouble, and always ends up getting caught in whatever disaster near-misses her. In one such sequence, the device whereby Mindy keeps wandering into trouble is that she is chasing a kitten - the kitten from these cartoons!
