Canned Feud

Friz Freleng's 'Canned Feud' is a wonderful solo Sylvester cartoon. I always preferred Sylvester either on his own or paired with anyone but Tweety and this is one of his finest solo performances. Warren Foster's script has the inspirational twist of making a cat and mouse cartoon where the mouse is the bad guy. Sylvester does nothing to deserve the emotional and physical pummeling he gets in 'Canned Feud' and that somehow makes the experience all the more delicious. We share in Sylvester's desperation as he finds himself locked in the house for a fortnight with only canned food to eat, only to discover that a smug mouse has taken the only can opener. Like many of Freleng's best cartoons, 'Canned Feud' is extremely high-energy. Rather than start out slightly worried and build into a frenzy as the cartoon progresses, Sylvester starts at frenzy and builds to complete mental collapse. It's a classic performance by the cat, a masterclass in the art of animated physical comedy. A few fairly standard jokes are given new life by virtue of Sylvester's crazed desperation and there are tons of brilliantly original gags too. The axehead joke is one of my all-time favourites, so beautifully simple and perfectly timed. 'Canned Feud' is a Freleng masterpiece: a hysterical, frantic, claustrophobic study of obsessive desperation and unnecessary cruelty that just pulsates with energy. Up there with Freleng classics such as 'Yankee Doodle Daffy' and 'Kit for Cat'.

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

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.

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.

Watching Friz Freling's Canned Feud, I found myself feeling very sorry for Sylvester for not getting the can opener, to open tuna, from a mean little mouse since no reason is established for his animosity. Still, its pretty funny seeing the cat trying to do nasty things back to the rodent and failing each time. And the twist at the end shows how exhausted Sylvester can get with each obstacle. So, with that in mind, I'll just say that despite the cat being more sympathetic this time around, that doesn't lessen the laughs I got from all his troubles with the mouse, the can opener, and the way things turned out in the end. Frustration can be so hilarious when one calamity builds upon another. So, on that note, I highly recommend Canned Feud.