Canned Feud (1951)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Sylvester's owners have gone on vacation and left him alone in a locked house. That's pretty messed up! Sylvester does find a stash of canned tuna in a cupboard but the problem is he can't find a can opener. Turns out a little mouse that's a real jerk has the can opener and taunts Sylvester throughout the cartoon, refusing to let him have it and making him do desperate things to try and open the cans. As others have mentioned, this is one short where you really feel sorry for Sylvester. He's the victim here, both of his owners' neglect and this bastard mouse that torments him for nothing. It's a pretty good cartoon with great animation and music. Some of the gags are very funny although, as I said, you really feel bad for poor Sylvester.

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'.

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.

I can't believe Sylvester's owners are cruel enough to go on holiday without him, never mind leaving him locked in the house for 2 weeks without any milk. Luckily our fave cat finds a massive stash of tinned tuna. But wait...no can opener. The mouse has stolen it.But instead of being nice to Sly the mouse taunts him endlessly with an ever-just-out-of-reach can opener. Why? Why not be nice? The more he starves Sly the more likely he is to just eat the mouse. Sylvester's plans and attempts at getting the can opener echo many Tom and Jerry cartoons. But when he finally gets his hands on the prized object the mother of all twists is revealed. Poor kitty.