Van Beuren Studios
Directed by: Harry Bailey

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

Synopsis: Three kittens run amok in a grocery store, then have to battle a nasty rat.

Cartoon Cats: The short begins with the Mama cat leading her kittens to a bowl where there is supposed to be milk. But the bowl is empty and Mama cat attempts to get some milk out of a pitcher. Instead her head gets stuck. She falls to the ground, shattering the pitcher and scaring her away. She does not come back throughout the short.

Finding themselves unsupervised, the kittens get into everything, playing on the scales like a teeter-totter, riding the basket across the store, finding out castor oil tastes nasty, and getting caught in a cash register as well as on fly paper.

The kittens end up in the adjacent living quarters and spend some time playing on the piano and enjoying a catnip mouse.

The black kitten then sees what looks like a string sticking out of a hole in the wall. The kitten grabs the “string” but it turns out to be the tail of a very large rat!

The rat carries the kitten to its lair where it happens to have a meat slicer (what rat doesn’t?) The short turns scary as the rat straps the kitten to the machine and threatens to cut him into slices.

The siblings are quick to the rescue, luring the rat out with some cheese. They rescue the black kitten and then the short turns insanely violent as the kittens just pound on the rat, using everything within their reach to pummel the baddie.

In the end the rat is subdued (maybe even killed!) and the kittens stand aside looking pleased. The black kitten then manages to get its head stuck in the closing iris of the cartoon.

Final Mewsings: Don’t let the cuteness fool you; kittens can be vicious when riled!.

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