Canned Feud (1951)

Thanks for the memories!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Canned Feud (1951) *** 1/2 (out of 4)Hilarious cartoon has Sylvester being left alone for two weeks and thankfully he has a cupboard full of food to eat. Sadly the mouse has the can opener so Sylvester must do battle in order to get it. I'm really not a big fan of Sylvester but this is a great short with one wonderful joke after another. The movie gets off to a very fast and furious pace and never slows down until the final credits come on. There are many great moments but my favorite would have to be seeing the fur-less Sylvester. That site is certainly worth anyone's seven minutes. The final gag at the end also works quite well. The mouse here is certainly the bad guy even though poor Sylvester takes all the beatings.

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'.

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.

This was a good idea for a Looney Toons short, BUT that mouse was so mean to poor Sylvester, when he was just trying to eat something. It would've been better if Sylvester won at the end.We find that his owners have taken off to California, leaving Sylvester locked in the house alone, with no milk. (He also tries opening the door but to no avail--how can the door be locked from the inside?) He then believes he'll starve to death, until he finds an entire cupboard of canned tuna fish. And all he needed was the can opener. Of course, that evil little rodent has stolen it, and will not give it to Sylvester. The mouse tries everything to make him miserable, when all he wants is cat food. How would that mouse feel if Sylvester was keeping him from a huge refrigerator of cheese? At the end, Sylvester stuffs loads of dynamite in the mouse hole and blows it up, and the can opener is amidst the rubble. He grabs it and runs to the cupboard to find it padlocked, and that mean mouse has stolen the key. Why did the writers of this short have to make Sylvester lose at the end after all he went through?I do agree--some shorts, Sylvester was being a jerk, and got what he deserved at the end, but in this one, you can't help but feel really sorry for that cat. (Same with Tom and Jerry.) Like I said, good idea, but that mouse deserved to get eaten by Sylvester. 7/10.