Cartoon a Day: Puss N' Booty

Puss N' Booty
1943
Directed by Frank Tashlin
Available on: Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 4

"Puss N' Booty" is a cartoon of unique historical significance. First of all, it is the final black and white Looney Tunes cartoon produced. In some ways you do feel like you're watching one of the color cartoons on a black and white TV. The film is also significant since this is pretty much a Tweety and Sylvester cartoon before those two characters existed.

In this cartoon, Rudolph the cat has his owner believing that her last several canaries have been escape artists. Rudolph's feather filled hiccup tells those of us in the audience different. There are some great poses during this sequence when the cat tries to gather up the feathers.

A new canary is ordered and Rudolph wait anxiously for the delivery truck. This is another great sequence which features some great poses for the cat. Especially funny is the moment where he tears a chunk of a brick wall out in order to make sure the approaching delivery truck sees the address sign.

Director Frank Tashlin eventually moved on to a career directing live action films. His great sense of comic timing is certainly on display in this short. It's kind of surprising that it took a little while for this cat vs. bird premise to catch on. Sylvester and Tweety would turn it into a classic premise a little while later.