King-Size Canary is an animated cartoon short that debuted in movie theaters in 1947. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Tex Avery.[2] The canary in this short was a primary inspiration for the design of Maurice, a character from The Wacky World of Tex Avery.
| King-Size Canary | |
|---|---|
 Original title card for the short | |
| Directed by | Tex Avery |
| Story by | Heck Allen |
| Produced by | Fred Quimby |
| Starring | Frank Graham (Mouse, uncredited)[1] Pinto Colvig (Cat, uncredited)[1] Sara Berner (Canary, uncredited)[1] |
| Music by | Scott Bradley |
| Animation by | Ray Abrams Robert Bentley Walt Clinton |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 7:55 |
| Language | English |
Plot
editAn alley cat searches for food in some garbage cans late at night. Unable to find anything worth his while (the bones he finds are stolen by other alley cats before he can take a bite), he spots a refrigerator inside a house and heads for it. He sneaks onto the property only to wake a sleeping bulldog. The bulldog chases the cat up to the side of the house. The cat quickly pulls out some sleeping pills, putting the dog into a deep sleep.
Once inside, the cat searches for food in the kitchen, but comes up empty. His luck finally changes when he notices a can of cat food. He quickly opens the can and out pops a mouse, who is plopped down onto a dinner plate. The cat is about to dig in with a fork, but the mouse puts a quick stop to that. He says that the cat can't eat him because he has already seen the cartoon they are in, and that he winds up saving the cat's life later. The feline understands, but wants some food as he is starving. The mouse points into the other room and tells him that there is a huge, fat, tasty canary in there. The cat charges out into the other room, stuffs the unseen canary into a sack, and heads back to the kitchen.
The bird is emptied from the sack, to be revealed as scrawny and little. The bird tells the cat, "Well, I've been sick...". Disgusted with the tiny creature at first but still desperate, the cat gets a (literal) brainstorm when he sees a bottle of Jumbo Gro plant growth formula on the shelf. Quickly, he pours some of the formula into the bird and sure enough, the canary grows rapidly in size. But before the cat can take a bite, the bird is already over ten feet tall. The canary takes advantage of his new height and beats up on the cat. The cat turns the tables on the bird and drinks the Jumbo Gro formula himself, increasing in size until he is much bigger than the bird. He tosses the formula out of the window only for it to land in the bulldog's mouth. While the now giant-sized cat chases the slightly smaller canary through the side of the house, the bulldog guzzles down the formula. After a quick run around the block, the cat and canary wind up back outside of the house, where a now gigantic bulldog appears before them. The cat runs away in fear as the bulldog tosses the bottle of Jumbo Gro down the chimney, where it rolls out of the fireplace and straight to the mouse, who is reading a book titled The Lost Squeekend (a play on the 1944 book The Lost Weekend) in the living room. The dog leaps over the house and chases the cat into the city.
Meanwhile, the mouse takes a few sips of the formula, instantly growing to gigantic size. The dog chases the cat through the city, only for the now gargantuan mouse to show up and scare the bulldog away with a simple "Boo!". The mouse, who is as tall as a twenty-story building, reminds the cat that he told him he would save his life. The cat thanks him as the mouse hands the bottle of Jumbo Gro back to him and waddles off. The cat rubs his enormous belly, realizing he is still hungry, then sees the huge mouse waddles off and gets another idea. He suddenly drinks more of the formula and grows even bigger than the mouse. The cat, who is by now one hundred stories tall, chases the giant but smaller mouse through the city and across the country, passing the Grand Canyon, the Hoover Dam and the Rocky Mountains.
The giant mouse hides in a railroad tunnel, losing the cat for a moment. The mouse drinks the Jumbo Gro when the cat isn't paying attention and becomes even bigger than the cat. The mouse starts to beat up on the cat only for the cat to take the formula back and drink it, further increasing his size. The mouse takes it back and drinks more to further increase his size as well. They continue to increase their sizes until they suddenly both come to a stop at the same exact size when they realize that the formula's bottle is empty. They tell the audience that they will have to end the cartoon, now that the formula has run out. They wave goodbye to the audience before the camera pulls back, revealing that they have outgrown the Earth itself and are standing atop the globe.
Production
edit- Directed by: Tex Avery
- Animation: Ray Abrams, Robert Bentley, Walt Clinton
- Story: Heck Allen
- Music: Scott Bradley
- Produced by: Fred Quimby
Reception
editIn 1994, it was voted #10 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.[3]
In popular culture
editThe Simpsons episode "Itchy and Scratchy and Marge" reproduces the climax, with Itchy and Scratchy shooting each other with ever-larger handguns.
"Planet of the Capes", an episode of Darkwing Duck, has the hero and villain repeat the final sequence with an energy gun that makes them grow. At the end, the villain rebuilds his gun to work in reverse. However, Darkwing Duck shoots himself with it, leaving the villain to stand on the planet alone.
An episode of Dexter's Laboratory titled "Monstory" parodies the short, in which Dexter and Dee Dee repeatedly drink a formula that transforms them into increasingly giant monsters. Like the Avery short, the episode ends with both Dexter and Dee Dee on top of the globe.
References
edit- ^ a b c “Pretty Long Wait, Wasn’t It?”: TEX AVERY’S VOICE ACTORS (Volume 3)
- ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 146–147. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7.
- ^ Beck, Jerry (1994). The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals. Turner Publishing. ISBN 978-1878685490.