There’s a female chorus, there are cute little kittens doing gag-less kitten stuff, there’s a threat vanquished when everyone gangs up on him. The designs are way, way too simple to compare to Disney, even 1933 Disney. The animation’s pretty stiff and odd in places (the kittens’ necks stretch out at times for some reason).
Here’s one of those atmospheric segments that’s going for likability. The black kitten lands on some flypaper and gets stuck. (This came out before Norm Ferguson animated Pluto battling with flypaper at Disney).
One of the other two kittens tries pulling him off by grabbing his tail. The black cat looks back at him. We can’t see an expression. A missed opportunity.
Cut to the kittens and flypaper on the floor. Note the little flick lines when the kittens wag their tails.
And some emotion lines.
Finally the kittens separate the flypaper and rescue the black one. On to the next scene.
I still like this short. It has no pretentions. And those kittens sure beat up on that rat.
Within about three years, Van Beuren had animators like Jack Zander and Bill Littlejohn who could compete with Disney-style animation. Mind you, within three years, the Van Beuren studio was closed because RKO decided to release real Disney cartoons.
This short was unique. It looks like a cutesy kitten short until that rat tries to slice one of the kittens up in his bologna slicer, and then they all go crazy on the rat (he was asking for it, though). Then it goes back to the cute little "Meow, meow, meow!" song. We know better by then. Don't start anything with these kittens! They'll finish it!
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