King-Size Canary
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''King-Size Canary'' is an
animated cartoon Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...
short that debuted in movie theaters in 1947. It was produced by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
and directed by
Tex Avery Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, animation director, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American a ...
. The canary in this short was a primary inspiration for the design of Maurice, a character from ''
The Wacky World of Tex Avery ''The Wacky World of Tex Avery'' ( French: ''Le Monde Fou de Tex Avery'') is a short-lived animated television series created by Robby London and co-produced by DIC Productions, L.P., Les Studios Tex SARL, Milimetros, M6 and Telcima. Both the ...
''.


Plot

An alley
cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...
searches for food in some garbage cans late at night. Unable to find anything worth his while (the bones he finds are stolen by other alley cats before he can take a bite), he spots a
refrigerator A refrigerator, colloquially fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external environment so th ...
inside a house and heads for it. He sneaks onto the property only to wake a sleeping
bulldog The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is of medium size, a muscular, hefty dog with a wrinkled face and a distinctive pushed-in nose.sleeping pills Hypnotic (from Greek ''Hypnos'', sleep), or soporific drugs, commonly known as sleeping pills, are a class of (and umbrella term for) psychoactive drugs whose primary function is to induce sleep (or surgical anesthesiaWhen used in anesthesia ...
, putting the dog into a deep sleep. Once inside, the cat searches for food in the
kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a ...
, but comes up empty. His luck finally changes when he notices a can of cat food. He quickly opens the can and out pops a
mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
, who is plopped down onto a dinner plate. The cat is about to dig in with a fork, but the mouse puts a quick stop to that. He says that the cat can't eat him because he has already seen the cartoon they are in, and that he winds up saving the cat's life later. The feline understands, but wants some food as he is starving. The mouse points into the other room and tells him that there is a huge, fat, tasty
canary Canary originally referred to the island of Gran Canaria on the west coast of Africa, and the group of surrounding islands (the Canary Islands). It may also refer to: Animals Birds * Canaries, birds in the genera ''Serinus'' and ''Crithagra'' i ...
in there. The cat charges out into the other room, stuffs the unseen canary into a sack, and heads back to the kitchen. The bird is emptied from the sack, to be revealed as scrawny and little. The bird tells the cat, "Well, I've been sick...". Disgusted with the tiny creature at first but still desperate, the cat gets a (literal) brainstorm when he sees a bottle of Jumbo Gro plant growth formula on the shelf. Quickly, he pours some of the formula into the bird and sure enough, the canary grows rapidly in size. But before the cat can take a bite, the bird is already over ten feet tall. The canary takes advantage of his new height and beats up on the cat. The cat turns the tables on the bird and drinks the Jumbo Gro formula himself, increasing in size until he is much bigger than the bird. He tosses the formula out of the window only for it to land in the bulldog's mouth. While the now giant-sized cat chases the slightly smaller canary through the side of the house, the bulldog guzzles down the formula. After a quick run around the block, the cat and canary wind up back outside of the house, where a now gigantic bulldog appears before them. The cat runs away in fear as the bulldog tosses the bottle of Jumbo Gro down the chimney, where it rolls out of the fireplace and straight to the mouse, who is reading a book titled “The Lost Squeekend” (a play on the 1944 book The Lost Weekend) in the living room. The dog leaps over the house and chases the cat into the city. Meanwhile, the mouse takes a few sips of the formula, instantly growing to gigantic size. The dog chases the cat through the city, only for the now gargantuan mouse to show up and scare the bulldog away with a simple "Boo!". The mouse, who is as tall as a twenty-story building, reminds the cat that he told him he would save his life. The cat thanks him as the mouse hands the bottle of Jumbo Gro back to him and waddles off. The cat rubs his enormous belly, realizing he is still hungry, then sees the huge mouse stomping off and gets another idea. He suddenly drinks more of the formula and grows even bigger than the mouse. The cat, who is by now one hundred stories tall, chases the giant but smaller mouse through the city and across the country, passing the
Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...
, the
Hoover Dam Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on Se ...
, and the
Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
. The giant mouse hides in a railroad tunnel, losing the cat for a moment. The mouse drinks the Jumbo Gro when the cat isn't paying attention and becomes even bigger than the cat. The mouse starts to beat up on the cat only for the cat to take the formula back and drink it, further increasing his size. The mouse takes it back and drinks more to further increase his size as well. They continue to increase their sizes until they suddenly both come to a stop at the same exact size when they realize that the formula's bottle is empty. They tell the audience that they will have to end the cartoon, now that the formula has run out. They wave goodbye to the audience before the camera pulls back, revealing that they have outgrown the
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
itself and are standing atop the globe.


Production

* Directed by: Tex Avery * Animation: Ray Abrams, Robert Bentley, Walt Clinton * Story: Heck Allen * Music: Scott Bradley * Produced by: Fred Quimby


Reception

In 1994, it was voted #10 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.


In popular culture

''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'' episode " Itchy and Scratchy and Marge" reproduces the climax, with Itchy and Scratchy shooting each other with ever-larger
handgun A handgun is a short- barrelled gun, typically a firearm, that is designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun (i.e. rifle, shotgun or machine gun, etc.), which needs to be held by both hands and also braced ...
s. "Planet of the Capes", an episode of ''
Darkwing Duck ''Darkwing Duck'' is an American animated superhero comedy television series produced by Disney Television Animation (formerly Walt Disney Television Animation) that first ran from 1991 to 1992 on both the syndicated programming block ''The Disn ...
'', has the hero and villain repeat the final sequence with an energy gun that makes them grow. At the end, the villain rebuilds his gun to work in reverse. However, Darkwing Duck shoots himself with it, leaving the villain to stand on the planet alone. An episode of ''
Dexter's Laboratory ''Dexter's Laboratory'' is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. It follows Dexter, a short, enthusiastic boy-genius with a hid ...
'' titled "Monstory" parodies the short, in which Dexter and Dee Dee repeatedly drink a formula that transforms them into increasingly giant monsters. Like the Avery short, the episode ends with both Dexter and Dee Dee on top of the globe.


References


External links

*
''King-Size Canary''
on
Big Cartoon DataBase The Big Cartoon DataBase (or BCDB for short) is an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows, and cartoon shorts. The BCDB project began in 1997 as a list of Disney animated featu ...
{{Tex Avery 1947 films 1947 animated films 1947 short films 1940s American animated films 1940s animated short films Films directed by Tex Avery Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer short films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short films Films scored by Scott Bradley Films about size change Animated films about cats Animated films about birds Animated films about dogs Films with screenplays by Henry Wilson Allen Films produced by Fred Quimby Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio short films