Canned Feud



Canned Feud is a 1951 Looney Tunes animated short featuring Sylvester. It was on the Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume 1 Disc 2 cartoon #6. It is also available on Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2 Disc 1 cartoon #15. This 2012 version has the original opening restored as well.

Plot
Sylvester's family goes on vacation to California, but forgets to put him out. Sylvester abruptly notices this, finding that he is locked inside an empty house devoid of food with no milk being delivered for two weeks. Fortunately, he finds a cupboard full of canned tuna and cat food, but discovers that he also needs a can opener. He seemingly cannot find one, until he sees a mouse with it. He begs the mouse to give it, but the mouse throws it in his hole. Sylvester frantically tries and fails to retrieve it and the mouse casually walks away. Sylvester very angry gives chase and crashes into the mouse's hole while trying to catch him.

Sylvester tries vainly to open the tuna by beating it against the floor and jumping on it. When this doesn't work he tries to chop it with an axe, but when he's about to swing the blade flies off and goes out the mail slot. The mouse appears to be giving the can opener and when he tries to retrieve it the mouse grabs it and runs back into his hole causing Sylvester to crash into it again. Next he tries using an unbent coat hanger to retrieve the can opener, however the mouse hooks it to a live wire and he receives an electric shock when the wire touches another. Sylvester then sets up a piano to drop on the can, just before the mouse offers the can opener, prompting Sylvester to release his hold on the rope attached to the piano, thereby crushing him. He then attempts to cut a larger hole in the wall to enter the mouse's home, but is foiled (in similar manner to a Bugs and Daffy shotgun routine) by the mouse cutting the floor beneath Sylvester's feet.

His next attempt involves dynamite, which predictably backfires after the mouse inflates and pops a paper bag making him think the dynamite had already blown. His following attempt, involving a vacuum, results in Sylvester being sucked in, along with hot coals, and clumsily tumbling down into the basement while trying to hit the mouse with a golf club. However, the angrily persistent cat (thinking that that's the last straw) returns with an armful of dynamite and fireworks, but they blow prematurely while he's lighting the fuse, resulting in a tremendous explosion and he does finally recover the can opener in the process. Going to the cupboard and yelling "I got it" along the way, he finds it locked, and the mouse now holds the key. Sylvester cries out in anguish while the mouse merely shrugs and twirls the key on his finger.

Censorship

 * On CBS, the part where Sylvester uses a bent wire hanger to retrieve the can opener (only to get shocked when the hook of the hanger gets snags on two bare electrical wires) was cut to remove Sylvester tugging harder and the predictable result of Sylvester getting shocked
 * The same scene that was cut on CBS was also removed on Nickelodeon (even though a similar scene in "Yankee Dood It" was left intact). Also cut was a scene where Sylvester uses an axe to open his can of cat food, only to have the blade fly off and go through the mail slot (even though a similar scene in "Moby Duck" was left uncensored on Nickelodeon)

Release/Trivia

 * In this cartoon, Sylvester is tied up with his nemesis, which is the same unnamed mouse from Rhapsody Rabbit.


 * The title is a pun on canned food.


 * This cartoon was reissued as a BLUE RIBBON Merrie Melodie in 1958-59 with opening title cards replaced.


 * Error in the blue ribbon the 1955-64 version plays instead of the 1946-55 version of The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down in the opening


 * The Piano Gag also appears on The Super Snooper