Life with Feathers

Life with Feathers is a 1945 Merrie Melodies short directed by I. Freleng.

Title[]

The title is a pun on the 1935 book and 1939 play Life with Father.

Plot[]

A lovebird is depressed because his wife no longer loves him, so he decides to commit suicide. He finally settles on getting eaten by a cat. The bird happens on a hungry Sylvester and calls him over with a whistle. Excited, the cat runs to the bird, only to stop when he finds the bird wants to be eaten. Sylvester, thinking the bird is poisoned, refuses. Determined, the bird tries to sneak and even force himself into the cat's mouth, but to no avail.

Finally, the bird tunes into food commercials on the radio to increase Sylvester's appetite. The cat decides he "might as well die" eating the bird. As the feline is about to have a meal at last, a telegram arrives for the bird. It reads that that relations between him and his wife are going to be just fine. Unfortunately, the cat hasn't changed his mind and pursues the bird off a balcony.

The bird, overjoyed, returns home and says that his wife has returned to her mother. A dish is thrown from across the room. It was from the wife, who changed her mind. The bird runs back outside and calls for Sylvester.

Caricatures[]

• Bill Thompson's character Wallace Wimple

Availability[]

(1989) VHS
Cartoon Moviestars: Tweety and Sylvester

(1991) LaserDisc
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 1, Side 2: Firsts

(1992) VHS
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 2: Firsts

(2003) VHS
Tweety & Sylvester (2003)

(2014) Blu-ray
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc 2

(2014) DVD
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc 2

Censorship[]

• On Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TNT, TBS, and The WB, the scene of the lovebird contemplating different ways to commit suicide after his wife has thrown him out (shown as crude sketches of the bird shooting himself, throwing himself off a building, and laying on active train tracks) before coming up with the idea to have a cat eat him was cut.^[4]

Notes[]

• This is the debut of an unnamed cat, who would be later known as Sylvester. He got this name three years later in a 1948 short, "Scaredy Cat", directed by Chuck Jones.
• It was nominated for an Academy Award for best short subject in 1946, but lost to the Tom and Jerry cartoon "Quiet Please!".^[5]
• This was the final cartoon to have 1941-45 rendition of Merrily We Roll Along. The opening themes would be shortened, but the ending rendition still remained unchanged for another ten years.
• This was the final non-Bugs Bunny Merrie Melodies short with the WB shield appearing before "WARNER BROS. PICTURES INC.", Present, the production code, and the copyright notice appear. Some cartoons from 1949 to 1951 would have this feature, but only for Bugs Bunny cartoons.
  • The next cartoon "Behind the Meat-Ball", would be the final non-Bugs Bunny short to have the WB shield appear before the byline words "WARNER BROS. PICTURES INC." This was also the last cartoon to have the WB shield as big as it first appeared in 1936. In later shorts, the shield is smaller, even with the big background circle Merrie Melodies shorts still had in later years.
• When re-released in the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies program, like most reissued Merrie Melodies at the time, the original closing bullet titles were kept. All Merrie Melodies shorts that were part of the Associated Artists Productions package originally released between 9/1/44-7/10/48 had their original closings bullet titles kept, except for the Cinecolor ones.
• In 1951, Chuck Jones reused a similar concept for Hubie & Bertie's final short, "Cheese Chasers".
• On September 5, 2014, a Facebook post by a cartoon historian Jerry Beck revealed a 35mm print of the original titles.^[6] Due to the print having no music track, and the fact that it is in black and white, the Blue Ribbon titles were restored instead.
• In both the a.a.p. print and the 1995 Turner "dubbed version" print, Sylvester has black fur (similar to his current appearance). The restored version on Blu-ray and DVD releases shows that Sylvester originally had a lighter bluish-black fur.
• This was Owen Fitzgerald's last cartoon where he provided layouts. Since his work was unfinished, Hawley Pratt had to finish his remaining work. Pratt would soon replace Fitzgerald as Freleng's layout artist.^[7]

Gallery[]

Lobby card

Lobby card

Sylvester

Original credits

Life With Feathers Cartoon Network and Boomerang Censorship

Layout drawings

References[]