Catch as Cats Can

Catch as Cats Can is a 1947 Merrie Melodies short directed by Arthur Davis.
== Title ==
The title is a play on the term "catch-as-catch-can."
== Plot ==
An emaciated canary, singing like Frank Sinatra, is getting on the nerves of a pipe-puffing parrot, who speaks like Bing Crosby. The parrot spots Sylvester, foraging through the trash. Telling Sylvester he needs more vitamins, which the canary has been swallowing in bulk, he lures Sylvester inside to snare the canary.
The straightforward approach fails (the canary bops him in the eye instantly). After Sylvester gives up instantly, the Crosby parrot stops him and forces him to continue "to get the vitamins he needs". Sylvester employs the following tricks to eat Frankie, all of them ending in failure;
# He carves a female canary from soap, lures Frankie there; the birds slide down a greased counter, into the sink, and down the drain, but only the soap bird goes through the pipe and down Sylvester's throat.
# Sylvester creates a trail of birdseed into the garage. This technique seems to work, but Frankie jacks Sylvester's mouth open.
# Sylvester laces the vitamins with buckshot; like all cartoon magnets, his attracts everything metal in sight except his prey.
# Sylvester uses the vacuum cleaner to suck up Frankie. After opening the vacuum bag, the canary turns Sylvester's vacuum cleaner against him, causing him to suck up and eat various objects such as a pair of high heels, an ink bottle, a book and a saucepan, with a crash in the fireplace giving Sylvester a hot-stomach; as he buries his head in the sink, the bird adds Foamo-Seltzer to the water; Sylvester rockets off, crashing into a wall.
Just as the Crosby parrot is about to give an injured Sylvester a new plan to eat Frankie, the cat finally realizes the portly parrot is a better meal. The canary sees Sylvester sitting on the parrot's perch, imitating his mannerisms.
== Caricatures ==
* Bing Crosby - parrot
* Frank Sinatra - canary
== Availability==
File:FB IMG 1723058552878-1-.jpg|Super 8
Golden-Age-of-Looney-Tunes-2-F.jpg|(1992) LaserDisc The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 2, Side 6: McKimson and Davis
LTCE VOL 13 COMIC CAT-TASTROPHIES.jpg|(1999) VHS Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 13: Comic Cat-Tastrophies (USA 1995 Turner dubbed version)
331779 front.jpg|(2023) Blu-ray Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 1 (restored)
===Streaming===
lt boomerang.jpg|Boomerang App (2017 - ) (EU 1995 Turner dubbed version, in NTSC speed)
==Music Cues==
* "A Gal in Calico" - Arthur Schwartz [Credits]
*"As Time Goes" - Herman Hupfeld) [Sung by the canary throughout the cartoon]
* "Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral" (That's an Irish Lullaby) - J.R. Shannon [Parrot talks to Sylvester]
*"A Little on the Lonely Side" - Richard Robertson, Frank Weldon and James Cavanaugh [Sung by the canary throughout the cartoon]
*"It Can't Be Wrong" - Max Steiner Lyrics by Kim Gannon) [Sung by the canary throughout the cartoon]
*"I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" - James Brockman, James Kendis and Nat Vincent [Sylvester hiccups bubbles]
==Censorship==
*All versions of the cartoon, theatrical, television, home media and streaming, ends with Sylvester sitting in place of the Bing Crosby parrot saying "Ah, there's nothing like Vitamins." and then quickly fades out to the end title, prompting the possibility that a scene was edited before it was released to theaters. According to the podcast Cartoon Logic the intended ending was going to pan out the background to the parrot's tombstone saying, "Came in before his horse" a joke about Crosby's poor luck at betting on horses. The missing scene has been lost to time, as the release on Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 1 did not restore it.
==Notes==
* This short is one of three non-Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1947 not to be reissued. The others were "Mexican Joyride" and "A Pest in the House".
** This is the only Sylvester short made in 1947 to not be reissued.
* This one of the only two shorts featuring Sylvester to be directed by Arthur Davis, joining "Doggone Cats". In contrast to the former short, where Sylvester didn't talk and had an orange, unnamed feline partner, "Catch as Cats Can" has Sylvester speaking, albeit with a dopey voice (that sounds like an early version of the voice Mel Blanc would use for Barney Rubble on The Flintstones) and no lisp. Coincidentally, both cartoons were released in 1947.
** This short is, however, Davis' first Sylvester cartoon based on production order, despite being released after "Doggone Cats".
* This is the first Merrie Melodies short to use the 1947-48 color rings in both the opening and ending titles.
* The lobby card erroneously labels this cartoon as a Looney Tune, despite being a Merrie Melodie, suggesting that it was original in the Looney Tunes series during production.
* A Bing Crosby parrot from this cartoon would later reappear in "Curtain Razor" two years later, with a new design and given the name "Bingo".
* When the Sinatra-bird gives Sylvester the Foamo-Seltzer, he uses the Alka-Selzer catch-phrase "listen to him fizz!" replacing the original "it" with "him." This line was previously referenced in Hobo Gadget Band and Scrap Happy Daffy.
* In the restoration, a few frames panning over to the final shot of Sylvester were cut for unknown reasons, likely due to a minor damage in the film negative the restoration is sourced from.
==Gallery==
PS125.jpg|Lobby card
Tumblr n3oje3zlzv1s92nono1 1280.jpg|Model sheet of the Bing Crosby parrot
File:(1947-12-6) Catch as Cats Can.mkv 20240402 191148.045.png
File:(1947-12-6) Catch as Cats Can.mkv 20240402 191150.587.png
File:(1947-12-6) Catch as Cats Can.mkv 20240402 191200.066.png
File:(1947-12-6) Catch as Cats Can.mkv 20240402 191207.124.png
File:(1947-12-6) Catch as Cats Can.mkv 20240402 191214.435.png
File:(1947-12-6) Catch as Cats Can.mkv 20240402 191229.005.png
File:(1947-12-6) Catch as Cats Can.mkv 20240402 191239.183.png
File:(1947-12-6) Catch as Cats Can.mkv 20240402 191256.384.png
==References==
es:Catch as Cats Can
Category:1947
Category:Sylvester Cartoons
Category:Cartoons directed by Arthur Davis
Category:Shorts
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:Cartoons animated by Don Williams
Category:Cartoons animated by Bill Melendez
Category:Cartoons animated by Basil Davidovich
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Don Smith
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer
Category:Caricatures of real people
Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package