Marc Antony & Pussyfoot | |
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Looney Tunes character | |
From left to right: Claude Cat, Pussyfoot and Marc Antony
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First appearance |
Marc Antony: Cheese Chasers (1951) Pussyfoot: Feed the Kitty (1952) |
Created by | Chuck Jones |
Voiced by | Mel Blanc (1952–1958) |
Information | |
Species |
Marc Antony: Bulldog Pussyfoot: Cat |
Marc Antony (referred to as Marc Anthony on his food dish in Feed the Kitty) and Pussyfoot (sometimes called "Kitty" or "Cleo" in some of the WB animation history books) are animated characters in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of five shorts, including Feed the Kitty, Feline Frame-Up, and Kiss Me Cat. Marc Antony is a burly bulldog that is usually brown with a tan belly and black ears, though his coloration varies in some shorts. He bears a close resemblance to Hector the Bulldog, but with thinner back legs and minus the outer fangs. Pussyfoot/Cleo, in contrast, is an extremely cute, blue-eyed black-and-white kitten to whom Marc is utterly devoted with motherly passion. The characters seem to be named as an allusion to Marc Antony and Cleopatra, who were lovers detailed in Plutarch's Parallel Lives . Chuck Jones, the creator, has discussed the efforts to maximize the kitten's sheer adorableness. All head and eyes, it is black with a white face and belly and a white tip on its fluffy tail. Fans frequently confuse Marc Antony for Hector, but by right they are not the same.
Pussyfoot has appeared in some Warner Bros. merchandising, and the pair have been featured in various Warner Bros. productions, such as the third segment of the 1983 Twilight Zone movie, and a 1999 Looney Tunes comic book story called "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. Interestingly enough, in the Buttons and Mindy short Cat on a Hot Steel Beam, the cat that Mindy follows throughout the cartoon is none other than Pussyfoot. Pussyfoot makes a cameo appearance in Chuck Jones' 1995 short Another Froggy Evening. Jones would later revisit the gimmick of a cute kitten with an unlikely protector in a MGM Tom and Jerry short, The Unshrinkable Jerry Mouse, with Jerry becoming a kitten's friend and protector against a selfish and jealous Tom (the plot of which was borrowed from Feline Frame-Up).