by Ted Davis

Directed by: Gene Kelly

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this special!

Synopsis: A Hanna-Barbera made-for-TV mixture of limited animation and live-action featuring a heavily rouged Gene Kelly as Jeremy Keen, traveling peddler, who guides young Jack, played by Bobby Riha, into a life of crime as the pair climb the magic beanstalk to invade the sanctuary of the frugal Giant (voiced by Ted Cassidy) and loot his most treasured possessions, a goose that lays golden eggs and Princess Serena in harp form (voiced by Janet Waldo and singing voice provided by Marni Nixon).

Cartoon Cat: A dark brown cat (voiced by Don Messick) joins the Giant in his chase for the robbers, but taps out when the frustrated Giant aims and misses a kick at his rump.

The vigilant cat returns to confront Jack who has been trying to organize the mice of the castle into a united front against the feline, but this legitimate procedure is forestalled by Jeremy, who uses a needle to jab the cat in the behind, which initiates a sword-claw fight between the pesky peddler and the faithful feline.

After Jack pricks the poor cat’s toe, the wary feline unsheaths all of the claws on one paw only to go back to fighting with a single claw in the next (recycled) shot.

Jack employs the underhanded method of catching the cat’s tail in a mousetrap to give the advantage and the win to the covetous huckster, and the injured animal runs away.

Final Mewsings: The cat would have won if he had just used all four claws.

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