Chips Off the Old Block (1942)

Butch, while napping, is awakened by two knocks on the door. Butch really hit his chin, with a paw to wake him up completely. And after opening the door, he sees a basket, with a cloth cover. When he lifts the cloth, he sees four look alike kittens. They all purr at Butch. Butch realizes they all look like him "in his earlier days". Atfirst, he faints in shock, then the four look-alike little feline rascals wake him up, licking his furry face. Butch deeply fears the lady that owns him, will send him away and keep the four kittens! After being awakened, he tries to bury them alive. After the quick bury, he heavily sighs, so do the four kittens sigh, (following their paw's steps). Fortunately, the basket had a weak base and the four kittens were not buried alive, Butch then tries to be a Pied Piper cat, but does not succeed, because he stopped piping too soon, to pursue the one kitten, that walked inside his emergency door entrance and into the house! After the first kitten goes inside, (while Butch was being a feline Pied Piper) he successfully led three out the fence door, but stopped piping too soon, to chase the first kitten. While inside the house, to chase the first kitten already inside, the three others come inside (still hearing the Pied Piper's charm). Butch captures the first kitten, after his owner thinks he is going back to his second kitten-hood. The second kitten causes "trouble" by grabbing onto her knitting thread (and completely undoing her labor, of her knitting) and gets Butch to grab onto the thread, also! Then, she immediately starts chasing Butch, with the big glass vase. As she starts chasing Butch. Butch captures the third and fourth kittens. Butch then quickly takes the vase out through the front door. The vase breaks and then Butch's owner sees the four "extra furry fuzzball rascals". There, she sees Butch, just outside, she sees what Butch was worried about. She accepts them and keeps Butch, also. The animation humor would have been much more stronger if Disney's Clarence Nash was the voice of Butch and his fearful remarks of thinking the owner was going to keep the four kittens and send Butch away from the four kittens!

Just found this M-G-M cartoon short on Daily Motion. A cat finds out he has four kittens and tries to keep his female master from finding out. This is a cute and very amusing cartoon usually devoid of slapstick but there are plenty of chases nonetheless, mostly concerning the adult cat trying to keep his kids out of sight. Rudolf Ising gets a credit here so it must be his influence director Robert Allan is basing his approach on. This is one of those rare M-G-M animated shorts I've never seen on the "Tom and Jerry" show on weekday afternoons when I came home from school in the '70s. Thanks to the internet, I've been discovering new animated gems almost every day. So on that note, I recommend Chips Off the Old Block.

Robert Allen directed many a fine animated short for MGM, from the Captain & The Kids shorts from 1938/1939, and beyond. This is another cute short that could have turned out to be too cute for it's own good (but thankfully wasn't). A house cat,named Butch (sounding like that alley cat with the Donald Duck voice, from the aptly named 'The Alley Cat')has just found a basket of kittens on the front porch of his house,with the kittens bearing an unmistakable resemblance to him. He tries to keep them a secret from his master,with some very funny results. Some fine animation & a well written script keeps this breezy little short a delight to watch. Perfect for the whole family.

This is a one-shot cartoon, which MGM did with some frequency, featuring a cat with a voice somewhat reminiscent of John Byner's "duck" voice. While I don't imagine a cat sounding quite like this, it's still quite engaging at times, with a tender moment or two mixed in with the general mayhem. Good animation helps. Well worth seeing and recommended.