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Life with Feathers is a 1945 Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Friz Freleng and produced and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short Film, but lost to a Tom and Jerry cartoon called Quiet Please!. This cartoon marks the first appearance of the then-unnamed cat Sylvester.

The title is a play on the longest-running non-musical on Broadway, Life with Father (the title being the only connection between the two works). Warner Bros. would produce a film version in 1947.

Plot

The film centers on a heartbroken lovebird's decision to commit suicide after his marriage goes sour. He recruits a black cat (Sylvester) to eat him, but the suspicious cat thinks the bird is poison and refuses. For the rest of the film, the lovebird attempts to get Sylvester to eat him by persuasion, bribery, and force. The gag of a character wanting to be eaten and the cat refusing to is later repeated in the Hubie and Bertie cartoon Cheese Chasers.

Censorship

• When the cartoon was shown on Cartoon Network and The WB, the part where the lovebird thinks of different ways to commit suicide after his wife throws him out was cut.

Cast

• Mel Blanc as Sylvester
• Danny Webb as Radio Announcer

External links

• Life with Feathers at the Internet Movie Database
• Life with Feathers at Allmovie