Cat Feud (1958) User Reviews

A very humorous cartoon visual in nature

[llltdesq · 8/10 · 8 December 2000]

This Cartoon consists of a great many sight-gags and is one of at least three cartoons that feature both Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot. While the concept of a bulldog becoming the protector of a kitten is too cute by half, this one has found a soft spot in my heart (or is it my head?) because it principally covers what happens to another cat who tries to bully Pussyfoot and suffers, in consequence, Marc Anthony's wrath in return. I will always root for a bully to receive their comeuppance and the gags, while more or less standard, are reasonably good. Worth watching.

End of a short-lived series

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 23 June 2016]

The final Marc Antony and Pussyfoot short, directed by the great Chuck Jones. It's a sweet and funny cartoon that changes a few things from previous entries but, for the most part, still follows the formula of the series. If you've never seen Jones' classic "Feed the Kitty," you definitely should. It was a brilliantly simple cartoon about a bulldog protecting an adorable little kitten. A short-lived series of cartoons featuring these two characters followed but they were all pretty much derivative of the original and thus never quite as memorable. The animation here is good, if a little sketchy. You can definitely start to see some Grinch in the faces, particularly with the alley cat trying to get at Pussyfoot. The music from Milt Franklyn is nice. Mel Blanc handles the voice work but that's just cat and dog noises, no talking. In the end this is a fun cartoon but nothing exceptional. It's easy to see why they decided to stop making them. The central idea was pretty limited and here, removed from their regular household setting and with Pussyfoot being tougher than usual, they were getting away from the premise of the series. It still works on a basic level but I don't know where they could have gone from here.

A decent cartoon but not great

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 13 October 2012]

I saw Cat Feud as a fan of Chuck Jones and also of Furry Frame-Up and especially Feed the Kitty. It was rather disappointing compared to those two cartoons and to some of Jones' other work, with a very standard and rather rushed story and a couple of parts that come across as too cutesy for my taste. However it is not bad. The animation is good, maybe Marc Anthony's character design is a little too generic here but the backgrounds do have detail and the colours are appropriately luscious. The music has the energy and characterful orchestration as you'd expect it to, while the dialogue is amusing and the gags while not what you call imaginative at least make their mark, particularly Marc Anthony's frenzied barking and the ending. Both Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot are memorable here, and their rapport is fun, dynamic and touching. The vocals of Mel Blanc are stellar as always. So all in all, not a great cartoon but nowhere near what I call bad. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Actually quite good - nice to see the bulldog given a slightly different role than usual

[bob the moo · 27 February 2004]

A bulldog is guarding a building site when a cat manages to get in. He tries to scare it away, but it is way too cute for him and it wins him over. He settles the little cat down and gives it some food for later - but an alley cat spies the grub and decides that it will break in and steal it. While the bulldog tries to stop the alley cat, he also has to make sure that the little cat doesn't get hurt on the building site.

Usually when the bulldog is in a film he is just a barking creature that continually manages to hammer Sylvester or whoever else is trying to get wherever the Bulldog is. Here it appears that the same will be the case here, but instead it flips it and gives the bulldog a rather paternal instinct with his little cat. This is a nice addition and I did find it enjoyable to see this character given an extra element for a change, however I worried that the film would be too cutesy for my tastes as a result.

Luckily the alley cat turns up and makes this film a tradition battle between cat and dog, albeit spiced up by the fact that the bulldog is also trying to protect the smaller cat. It's pretty funny and plays out like the end of Baby's Day Out - if you liked the building site, slapstick humour of that film then you should find this funny too!

Overall, the characters here are pretty good, with the Bulldog a specific draw thanks to his extra personality. The cartoon looks good and the material is funny and pretty well delivered. It may be cute at the start and end but the guts of this cartoon are funny sequences as the dog tries to get one cat and protect the other in the iron girder world of the building site.

More great Chuck Jones moments

[pawtrax67 · 7/10 · 3 April 2016]

First of all the previous poster, must be some type of Cartoon snob. Despite the Marc Antony and Pussyfoot as character names. The reality is the dog is a different colour and it put a similar scenario in a different setting. So what? It's still funny. It is more in a Road Runner/Coyote vein. It's a more realistic setting, and it's hilarious that the dog barks and the ears blow back with the wind effect of his barking. The kitten just ignores the barking and proceeds to show affection to the bulldog.

There is also listing of sympathy for the alley cat as he was just trying to get food. If you watch again, the alley cat is looking to get the food, and if the kitten dies, it doesn't care. The watchdog takes his job seriously, protecting it. Is it the best Warner Bros. cartoon? No. But it still has Chuck's facial expressions. And comedy along the construction site.

How the previous reviewer says its to be avoided at all costs. Maybe cartoons aren't for you then? Lighten up and relax and enjoy. It's better than a lot of drivel out these days.

In this riff on "Baby's Day Out" . . .

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 5 May 2016]

. . . Warner Bros. substitutes the kitten Pussyfoot for an endangered-but-lucky human baby toddling around a big city high-rise construction site. Bulldog Marc Antony serves as the self-appointed Guardian Angel watching over the diminutive feline, while an aging Claude Cat extracts his foot from the grave to imperil Pussyfoot for the sake of a coveted sausage. To put this tale in terms familiar to Today's viewers, Marc Antony might as well be Bernie Sanders, bestowing the sausage of Free College upon a vast herd of Pussyfooting Millenials. Claude can be seen as a long-in-the-tooth Hillary Clinton, trying to swipe Pussyfoot's sausage to provide Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security Gravy to her Gang of Greying Geezers in this Zero Sum Game. Marc Antony represents the Average American Voter, awarding state after state (Indiana makes 18) to Bernie while feeling all burned up at Hillary. Claude is last seen here dangling high from a New York City girder as this prophetic Looney Tune concludes. If Life Imitates Art, perhaps Hillary needs to avoid walking past open windows for awhile.

Fairly Entertaining But A Dumb Story

[ccthemovieman-1 · 5/10 · 10 August 2007]

It's odd: the previous cartoon on this Spotlight Collection Vol. 4 DVD had "Marc Antony" and "Pussyfoot" as best of friends in a 1953 cartoon. Marc was a huge brown bulldog. Now, five years later, he's gray and he has no idea who this little Pussyfoot is. Plus, they are out of their home and in a outside in some construction site. However, we quickly get a similar scene in which the kitten scratches the dog as she kneads herself and then settles in for a nap on top of Marc Anthony.

Anyway, when a nearby cat wants to steal some food from Pussyfoot, Marc Antony is there to protect. We get into high-rise slapstick when the chase scenes elevate to high altitudes on the construction site and Marc uses all the tricks of this particular trade to fend off the cat. Actually, the invading cat shouldn't have been portrayed as such a villain. He wasn't after the little kitten; just the food, and what's wrong with that? Every animal looks for food. So, in reality, this was a dumb story. The only redeeming quality was the decent artwork and direction with the high-rise shots. There was very little humor in here.

Lovingly thought out, likingly drawn.

[LanceManley · 6 February 2003]

NOT up to the standard of Feed the Kitty but still excellent.

Guarding a construction site bullying hound Mark Anthony finds the endearing kitten Pussyfoot emerging from a trash can. When his frenzied barking only elicits purrs and affection he takes a shine to the kitten and proceeds to batter and pound a stray that wanders in and tries to take the cat's food.

While the animation is a bit ropey (a la the later Tom and Jerry's) this is still one of my favourite cartoons ever despite being the least pleasing of the Bulldog/ Kitten quartet.

As has been noted before, Mark Anthony's increasingly frenzied barking at Pussyfoot producing no reaction whatsoever is one of the funniest things Chuck Jones has ever done.

I dearly wish that Warner Bros would put this and the other 3 cartoons on one cassette/ DVD.

A terrible reworking of 'Feed the Kitty' which drains away all the charm and artistry of that classic cartoon

[phantom_tollbooth · 1/10 · 9 January 2009]

Chuck Jones's 'Cat Feud' is a dreadful reimagining of his masterpiece 'Feed the Kitty', starring the affectionate bulldog Marc Anthony and the cute kitten Pussyfoot. Since 'Feed the Kitty' was such a perfect cartoon, I was always sceptical of an follow-ups. However, the excellent 'Kiss Me Cat', Jones's first Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot sequel, proved that there was more mileage in the characters. 'Cat Feud', however, is just abysmal. Taking Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot out of the home environment, 'Cat Feud' also restarts their relationship from scratch in a scrappy, rushed reworking of the classic scene from 'Feed the Kitty' in which the characters first meet. At this early stage in 'Cat Feud', it is clear that this dog is Marc Anthony only in name. The wonderful facial expressions, gestures and moving warmth have all been drained away leaving us with a generic cartoon bulldog (he's even the wrong colour for Marc Anthony). The story then goes on to place the characters in a totally unsuitable scenario as Marc Anthony must stop an oblivious Pussyfoot from hurting himself on a building site and save him from a scraggly alley cat. Since Jones fails to sell the love-at-first-sight meeting this time round, 'Cat Feud' simply doesn't work. These are not the characters that all true cartoon fans so adore. What's more, they seem totally out of place against the limited-animation backgrounds (even after they've been uglied-up!), the script is unfocused and the gags are unfunny. How one of the greatest directors who ever lived managed to drain all the charm out of two of his most lovable characters is a mystery but 'Cat Feud' fails on absolutely every level and is best avoided at all costs.

Better than "Feed the Kitty"

[Spleen · 30 March 2002]

This is bulldog Marc Antony's third outing (if my count is correct) with that cute little kitten - and the best. I was never quite satisfied by the motivation in the original cartoon, "Feed the Kitty" (1952). The dog goes to so much effort to hide his newly-adopted pet kitten from his master, but we sense it's unnecessary, and there's something a trifle unpleasant about watching the dog suffer undeserved blame as a result of a breakdown in communication. But there's nothing in the least unpleasant about watching the bullying slinky black cat of this cartoon bash its head into steel girders. The opening scenes in which Marc Antony barks at the cute kitten, with no effect whatever, are among the funniest Chuck Jones has ever directed. Full use is made of the towering construction site.

Little bit cruel

[toddsundell · 3/10 · 21 June 2015]

Never liked this one. Watched it when I was about ten and I found the cat's fate at the end torturous and cruel. Chuck Jones did a great job with the artwork and sound effects but some of the sight gags are a bit repetitive. Maybe the author of the cartoon delights in torturing cartoon characters that he sets up to be evil. Perhaps Chucks Jones is using this as some sort of catharsis to placate some of the angst he experienced growing up. Hopefully the workmen let him down the next day. Just felt bad for him. Could you imagine being cramped up in a bucket like that? It must be awful and of course Mr. Bulldog doesn't care! Just goes to show you that some people just like to cause evil to suffer and delight in their suffering.

If only Pussyfoot would watch where he's walking!

[slymusic · 1 October 2009]

Starring Marc Anthony the bulldog and Pussyfoot the kitten, "Cat Feud" is not one of the funnier entries in the Warner Bros. catalogue of cartoons, I'm sorry to say. Marc Anthony guards a construction site, where a scruffy old cat wishes to steal a hot dog weenie from Pussyfoot's mouth. I won't even mention all the trouble that results from the shabby cat's thoughtlessness.

There's only one scene in "Cat Feud" that I find funny, and that occurs at the very end, after the greedy, troublemaking feline has been done away with. Marc Anthony grunts "Rock-a-Bye Baby" as Pussyfoot sharpens his claws on Marc's back.

Again, "Cat Feud" misses its mark in the laughs department. Oh, well. I guess you gotta take the good with the mediocre. You can find this cartoon on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 Disc 4.