by Linda Kay
Directed by: Walt Disney
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: One of the silent Alice’s Wonderland short films, an early Disney project which combined animation with live action.
Kitty Cameo: Alice (Virginia Davis) is playing baseball with a gang of boys (reminiscent of Our Gang without the charm) which leads to the ball being struck through a window of an old abandoned house. The boys argue about who will retrieve the ball, none of them wanting to step up, but brave Alice boldly enters the house. She is startled by a cardboard box seemingly walking around on its own until a long haired black cat steps out.
Cartoon Cat: Unlike the Fleischer’s Out of the Inkwell series which found animated characters emerging into the real world, the Alice’s Wonderland shorts found the real little girl surrounded by a cartoon universe. This happens here when Alice is knocked out in the haunted house and finds a weird animated world full of ghosts. One of the ghosts approach her and asks for help, saying, “Take it off!” When she removes the sheet it reveals a cartoon black cat.
The cat thanks her for saving him from a life of being a spook and bows down to her in gratitude.
Music starts playing nearby and the cat begins to dance.
The ghosts are having a concert and Alice and the cat cut a rug.
All is fine until Alice swings the cat and ends up throwing him into a Mahjong game between a couple of ghosts.
The irate ghosts chase the cat who eventually takes off his tail and uses it as a bat to fight them off (much the way Felix the cat would remove his tail for various purposes).
Alice also conjures up a club and between the two of them they manage to knock out all the ghosts.
The cat is so grateful he woos Alice and even seems to propose.
As the cat is kissing her hand in the cartoon world, Alice awakens to find the real live black cat licking her hand.
Final Mewsings: Cats are typically not bothered by ghosts.
Many thanks to Mark Murton for letting me know about the cats in this short.
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