The Robber Kitten

For some reason, a cartoon about a robber wannabe with an annoying voice who runs into a real outlaw isn't very appealing. Boring, predictable, and unfunny. All the wannabe wants to do is play robber and not having to take baths. Just didn't find the story captivating.

Grade D---

While I am not normally a fan of the SILLY SYMPHONY series, I like some of them. This one happens to be one of my favorites that I watch often. The title character named Ambrose (Butch as he prefers to be called) is about to receive a bath from his mother. He runs away from home to be a robber. This short appears to take place in the 18th century as Butch wears a Three Musketeers-type costume. When he runs into a bulldog named Dirty Bill (who dresses just like Robin Hood), he points his toy guns at him and says "Your money or your life!" Soon Butch and Bill become friends. Butch tells Bill a fictional story of how he held up a stagecoach and forced the people in it to give him all their valuables. Bill's facial expression turns from friendly to greedy as he orders Butch to bring the bag to him. Butch tells him that they're only cookies. Bill pulls a knife on Butch and it literally scares the pants off of him. The ending was good as Butch runs into his home and voluntarily jumps into the tub. There is a Disney reference to this cartoon. AT the beginning of the short, when Butch is playing with his toys in his room, there is a holdup scene similar to that of the movie TOY STORY. Of course this cartoon was released sixty years before TOY STORY.

As a big fan of Disney Silly Symphonies in general, it is hard to single out favourites(though Skeleton Dance, The Old Mill and Flowers and Trees are certainly up there) but The Robber Kitten is definitely one. Once or twice Ambrose/Butch's voice can get a little too cutesy for my tastes especially in the final scene, but that is something so minor because everything that is so good about The Robber Kitten overshadows that one small debit. The animation is smooth and colourful with some good detail in the backgrounds, and the music particularly Dirty Bill's song is very catchy. The story has a quite cute feel with Butch's fabrication about his stagecoach robbery, but also deals with some mature themes also, Dirty Bill turning nasty is quite scary. What is also great about The Robber Kitten is the attention to the characters, Butch is one of those characters that a child can see within them and is cute but not really overly so(apart from a couple of instances), his toughing up act and looking up to Dirty Bill as a hero, who for me is one of the Silly Symphonies' better "villains", is the main reason why Dirty Bill turning nasty is as scary as it is. In conclusion, was one of my favourites and still is. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This is one of Disney's best short cartoons. A young cat named Ambrose wants to be a daring outlaw. He renames himself Butch and doesn't want to take baths. "Robbers don't take baths!" he exclaims. He runs off into the forest, where he runs into a real outlaw, Dirty Bill, a bulldog. This is one of Disney's best villains. His song, explaining why he is called Dirty Bill, is just great. 10/10.

I've always preferred Warner Bros. cartoons to Disney ones, and "The Robber Kitten" is an example why. A bland morality parable, it uses a kitten's fantasies to remind us to always tell the truth. I can't even tell which era it's supposed to take place in. In my opinion, "The Old Mill" was the cleverest Silly Symphony, even if its intensity level rivaled that of "American Horror Story" and "Joker".