Kitty Kornered

Now THIS is more like it, after having to sit through the awful Tweety Bird cartoons. The next short is this classic, hilarious tale of Porky Pig trying to let his cats out for the night and their retaliation. Brilliant in it's execution, this Robert Clampett classic lampoons Arsenic and old lace as well as War of the Worlds. Every single gag hits the spot and it'll leave you laughing with it's hilarity. Just simply a great cartoon all around. This animated short can be seen on Disc 3 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 and also features an optional commentary by Michael Barrier.

My Grade: A+

Porky Pig is trying to put out his four cats for the evening and one them is the cat we know as Sylvester, who became a lot more famous when he was paired with Tweetie, which began the year after this cartoon was released.

At 9 p.m., according to this story, all cats were thrown out of their houses for the night, even in the middle of winter. Where did that come from? Well, Porky has three big cats and one little guy. That's the one, the shrimp, with an attitude and there is no way he's going out in the snow. Pretty soon all four cats are inside and Porky is outside and f-f-f-freezing in his nightcap.

There are some funny visuals in here as the cats live it up for a short while, getting drunk on "Arsenic And Old Grape" wine, smoking cigars, binging on chocolates....until Porky gets back inside. Then, look out!

Great visuals and direction by Robert Clampett highlight this, although all the action and noise could give you a headache. This is one, wild cartoon with something loud happening every second. It has to be one of the wilder cartoons of the classic era.

I enjoyed how both sides tried tricks on each other, such as the "Lassie" and "War of the Worlds" imitations.

This cartoon is just fantastic! One of my favorite Porky cartoons is by the late Bob Clampett. The cartoon is hilarious, and I love cats. Out of Porky's four cats, I love the little bitty kitty the most. You might also notice that one of the cats is an early version of Sylvester; he's got a black nose, not a red one. I love that speech he made:"Brother pussycats! We've been skidded out, scooted out, backed out, and booted out! But tonight, we was scared out! It's unhospitabitatble, and furthermore, it's un-cat-stitutional! "

I found it humorous when Porky, wearing a teapot on his head, clashes with a china cabinet and declares, "I hate p-p-p-pussycats!" via the spout.

That about says it - only Clampett would have booted-out house cats try to scare their way back into the nice warm house by convincing their master (in this case, a terrified Porky Pig) that the Earth is being overrun by Martians! One of the best double-takes ever.

In "Kitty Kornered", Porky Pig has a really hard time getting his cats to go out for the night, as they always seem to be one step ahead of him. I assume that the whole part about the Martian invasion was probably a takeoff on Orson Welles's famous (or is that infamous?) radio broadcast. It's the sort of cartoon where they just keep a gag coming every second. But how could it not be, coming as it does from the crowd behind the Looney Tunes cartoons? So, it may not be the greatest cartoon ever created, but you're sure to have a good time watching it. And if you ever hear of a Martian invasion, you know just what to do.