Warner Bros.
Directed by: Friz Freleng

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

Synopsis: Recital Day at the schoolhouse sees several students reciting and performing with various levels of success.

Cartoon Cats: This cartoon is notable because it was the first screen appearance of a soon-to-be famous character, Porky Pig. But it was also the debut of several other animated characters including Beans the Cat. Beans is a little black cat with a tough guy attidude. He is introduced in the opening while stealing some jam and then sticking his tongue out at the camera after having been caught.

In the classroom there are a few cats present, one in a bonnet who is Little Kitty and two smaller kittens sitting two desks behind.

Beans has to nudge Porky to get his attention that it’s his turn to go up and recite.

Next Little Kitty takes the stage, very reluctantly.

She nervously recites Mary Has a Little Lamb with prompts from her teacher, Miss Cud, but she is a nervous wreck the entire time she’s onstage and she ends by running far away.

Beans is seated behind Oliver Owl who is eating a bag of candy and refuses to share.

When Oliver gets up to play piano he forgets the candy. Beans tries to reach the bag but Oliver comes back for it and sneers at him.

Wanting revenge, Beans sneaks outside and climbs a ladder to look in the schoolroom. A non-anthropomorphic black cat is sleeping on the ladder.

Beans picks up the cat and puts it inside the piano.

Beans then spots a dog and puts it inside the piano as well.

The piano playing gets out of Oliver’s control but is a hit with the audience until the dog and cat emerge in a chase. And it’s the cat who is chasing the dog!

Beans has a good laugh at Oliver, who then squirts him with his fountain pen.

Beans falls and knocks over some paint which flies inside and Oliver ends up covered in paint. As the short ends the two make up.

The studio was trying to come up with a new star and at the time Beans was the odds on favorite to succeed and appeared in several shorts after this one.

Final Mewsings: Cats aren’t above using other cats to get revenge.

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