King-Size Canary 1947

In the dead of night, a hungry alley Cat prowls the streets, rooting through garbage cans for a bite. His search is thwarted when bones are snatched away by other alley cats, leaving him with nothing but hunger and determination. He spots a refrigerator inside a house and slips onto the property, intent on a meal, but the moment he sneaks in, a sleeping bulldog is roused to life. The bulldog gives chase up to the side of the house, and the clever [Cat] pulls out sleeping pills, knocking the dog into a deep sleep and buying a moment of silence for his own hunger.

Inside the kitchen, the cat’s luck begins to shift. He finds a can of cat food, and as he pries it open, a Mouse pops onto a dinner plate from within the can. The cat is about to dig in with a fork when the tiny rodent halts him with a stubborn grin and a warning: he’s already seen the cartoon they inhabit, and he will eventually save the cat. The hungry predator isn’t ready to listen, but the mouse keeps talking, steering him toward a new possibility. The mouse points toward the other room, hinting that there is a huge, fat Canary waiting to be found. The [Cat] bolts toward the other room, stuffs the unsuspecting bird into a sack, and carries it back to the kitchen in triumph.

The canary is revealed not as a grand rockstar but as a scrawny little creature. The canary speaks, “Well, I’ve been sick…,” and the cat is initially repulsed by the tiny figure. Yet desperation wins, and a literal brainstorm happens when the cat spots a bottle of Jumbo Gro plant growth formula on the shelf. He drips a bit of the formula into the canary, and the bird grows rapidly, quickly towering over ten feet tall. With newfound height, the canary takes advantage of the size to rough up the cat. The cat, not to be outdone, drinks Jumbo Gro himself and swells into a giant, tossing the bottle out the window. It lands straight into the bulldog’s mouth, and the bulldog gulps down the formula, enlarging as well.

The trio erupts into a chase: the giant cat and the canary race around the side of the house, while the bulldog lumbers after them, crashing through the yard. Outside, the bulldog leaps onto the scene and the bottle slides down the chimney, rolling into the living room where the mouse, who’s quietly reading a book titled The Lost Squeekend (a playful nod to The Lost Weekend), watches in bemused disbelief. The dog bounds over the house and chases the cat into the city.

Meanwhile, the [Mouse] drinks a few sips of the Jumbo Gro formula, instantly growing to gigantic size. The bulldog chases the cat through the city, but the gargantuan mouse appears and frightens the bulldog away with a simple, chilling cue: > Boo! The mouse, now as tall as a twenty-story building, reminds the cat that the promise of saving his life still stands. The cat thanks the mouse as the bottle of Jumbo Gro is handed back to him and the waddle off begins. Still hungry, the [Cat] rubs his enormous belly, catches sight of the towering mouse trudging away, and hatches another plan.

Driven by hunger, the cat drinks more formula and grows even larger than the mouse. The chase reaches epic proportions as the cat — now a hundred stories tall — pursues the giant mouse across the city and into the countryside, sweeping past landmarks like the Grand Canyon, the Hoover Dam, and the Rocky Mountains. The giant mouse, in response, hides in a railroad tunnel, then drinks Jumbo Gro again when the cat isn’t looking, becoming even bigger. The two giants exchange blows while the formula keeps flowing, but when the bottle finally runs dry, they both pause and realize the scale has pushed beyond the Earth itself.

They wave goodbye to the audience, acknowledging that the formula has run out, and the camera slowly pulls back to reveal the two titans standing atop the globe, a playful, outsized finale that closes the cartoon with a wink.