Canned Feud

Every now and then, a cartoon comes along that you can't help but feel bad for the supposed-bad guy. Sylvester's owners have gone on vacation in California, and they (gasp!) forgot to put the cat out! Sylvester luckily finds a stash of canned tuna, but he still needs a can opener to get the food or he'll starve. As luck would have it, there is only one can opener in the house, and it's being held by a mouse who decides to torture poor Sylvester into fighting for it.

I couldn't help but watch this and wonder, what did Sylvester do to deserve this? Makes you wonder just what he's done to that mouse in the past to deserve such treatment. Or, there is the possible alternative that this mouse is just evil, pure and simple. Either way, Sylvester truly takes a beating through a falling piano, a vacuum cleaner, and a rather large mess of fireworks, as he desperately tries to keep from starving. A Friz Freling classic that everyone will love.

I've long wondered why the Termite Terrace crowd tortured Sylvester so much. In "Canned Feud", his owners go on vacation and leave him locked in the house. He has plenty of cans of tuna, but a nasty little mouse keeps holding the can opener out of reach, forcing Sylvester to come up with all sorts of unpleasant gags to try and get it.

So why would a mouse want to be a sadist? Your guess is as good as mine. Of course, these cartoons were chock-full of sadists (or at least characters with a New York side): Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, even Tweety himself. If nothing else, it goes to show that these cartoons weren't really intended for children; they were created to get shown before feature films in the cinema.

Anyway, it's not a bad cartoon, but I've seen better.

Sylvester's owners have gone on vacation and left him alone in a locked house. That's pretty messed up! Sylvester does find a stash of canned tuna in a cupboard but the problem is he can't find a can opener. Turns out a little mouse that's a real jerk has the can opener and taunts Sylvester throughout the cartoon, refusing to let him have it and making him do desperate things to try and open the cans. As others have mentioned, this is one short where you really feel sorry for Sylvester. He's the victim here, both of his owners' neglect and this bastard mouse that torments him for nothing. It's a pretty good cartoon with great animation and music. Some of the gags are very funny although, as I said, you really feel bad for poor Sylvester.

Sylvester the Cat is left alone in his house all by his lonesome by his neglectful owners who lock him in with nothing to eat or drink. He finds a stash of canned tuna, but a deviant mouse has stolen the can opener and holds it just out of his reach, needlessly tormenting him. This is a somewhat amusing shot, but the mouse is just being a dick for the sake of being a dick which kind of tainted the overall feel of the short a tad. This animated short can be found on disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 and features an optional commentary by Jerry Beck.

My Grade: B

Hilarious cartoon in which Sylvester The Cat is accidentally left inside the house when his owners Sam and Violet go off to California for vacation. The puddy tat panics until he finds a cupboard full of tuna and other feline-friendly treats, but he can't find the can opener, because a mean-spirited mouse has appropriated the device!!! I felt sorry for poor Sylvester and wished he'd catch that mean rodent and eat him up!!!