Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot
From Loonipedia
Template:WBToonCharMarc Anthony and Pussyfoot (sometimes called "Kitty," but in some of the Warner Brothers animation history books, she is referred to as "Cleo") are animated characters in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Marc Anthony is a burly bulldog who is usually brown with a tan belly and black ears, although his coloration varies in some shorts. Pussyfoot is an extremely cute kitten to whom Mark is utterly devoted. Charles Jones has discussed the efforts to maximize the kitten's sheer adorableness. All head and eyes, she is black with a white face and belly and a white tip on her fluffy tail.
Film Appearances[edit | edit source]
Animator Charles Jones first introduced the odd duo in his film Feed The Kitty, first released on Groundhog Day, 1952. Prior to this, a bulldog similar to Mark had appeared in previous shorts with Claude Cat and Hubie and Bertie, but he was never named. In the short, Mark adopts the interminably cute kitten, only to receive a stern
warning from his owner not to ". . . bring one more thing into this house! Not ONE, SINGLE, SOLITARY thing!" Mark is thus forced to go to extreme lengths to keep his new pet under wraps. Meanwhile, Pussyfoot's curiosity gets her into a series of life-threatening situations, which Marc Anthony must, of course, rescue her from.Charles would largely repeat the scenario in 1953 with Kiss Me Cat, only this time Mark tries to convince his owners that the kitten is a champion mouser so that they will let him keep her. In Feline Frame-Up (1954), Charles pitted the dog against another of his lesser-known players, Claude Cat; later in 1954, Marc Anthony (or a bulldog looking just like him) made a brief appearance in the Claude Cat/Frisky Puppy short, No Barking. Charles directed a quite different entry in 1957 with Go Fly A Kit, the story of an eagle who teaches a different - but similar-looking - male kitten how to fly. In this cartoon, Mark serves as a villain, chasing an orange female-cat, that the Pussyfoot-like cat saves. This is the only cartoon which saw the two on opposite sides. In 1958, Jones paired the cat and canine for one final film, Cat Feud, in which Mark (with grey coloring, and a more fierce personality) must defend Pussyfoot (and her catfood) from a thieving interloper. A grey version of Mark Anthony also made a cameo appearance during the final scene of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). They also appear in a cameo during the basketball game in Space Jam (1996). The duo would later make a cameo appearance in the ending scene of Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003).
Recent history and influence[edit | edit source]
Since their retirement, Mark and Pussyfoot have been largely forgotten due to the popularity of other Charles Jones-created characters, such as Wile E. Coyote, Roadrunner, and Pepe Le Pew. Pussyfoot has appeared in some recent Warner Bros. merchandising, however, and the pair have been featured in various Warner Bros. productions, such as the third segment of the Twilight Zone movie, and a 1999 Looney Tunes comic book story entitled "Bringing Up Baby." Tiny Toon Adventures featured a similar character named "Barky Marky" who was a comparatively minor character on the show. The pair were also an inspiration for the Buttons and Mindy characters that were featured in the successor to Tiny Toons, Animaniacs. Chuck Jones would later revisit the gimmick of a cute kitten with an unlikely protector in a Tom & Jerry short, The Unshrinkable Jerry Mouse, with Jerry becoming a kitten's friend and protector against a selfish and jealous Tom. A segment of Feed The Kitty, in which Marc Antony believes that Pussyfoot has been turned into a cookie (and unaware that she is actually perfectly safe), was the subject of a homage in the Pixar film, Monsters Inc., in which Sulley believes that Boo has fallen into a trash compactor, and he reacts nearly shot-for-shot as Mark did in his cartoon short. Feed the Kitty is available on DVD, appearing on the compilation Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 and Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection.
Filmography[edit | edit source]
- Feed The Kitty (Groundhog's Day, 1952)
- Kiss Me Cat (1953)
- Feline Frame-Up (1954)
- No Barking (1954)-cameo
- Go Fly A Kit (1957)
- Cat Feud (1958)
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)-cameo
- Space Jam (1996)-cameo
- Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003)
Gallery[edit | edit source]
- Pussyfoot.png
- Looney-Tunes-Pussyfoot.jpg