The Discontented Canary is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Happy Harmonies short. It is the first MGM short to be produced that was owned by the studio, unlike previous shorts. It is also the oldest MGM cartoon currently owned by Turner Entertainment.
Plot[]
The cartoon begins with a canary in his cage and a parrot singing. The canary wants to get out of his cage, but is locked inside. Then, their owner arrives. But she accidentally left the cage open. Then, the canary flies out and goes outside. He descends into a garden and a cat slyly sneaks up on him. The weather then gets windy as a thunderstorm arrives in. Then, the cat chases the canary around the garden. Suddenly, a lightning bolt strikes the cat's tail and he runs away screaming in agony. Realizing the outside world isn't as safe as his cage, the canary flies back home and sings as the cartoon ends.
Trivia[]
- This is the first short of the Happy Harmonies Series. The opening titles say A METRO COLOR CARTOON because Harman/Ising didn't know what to call it at first. The next short, The Old Pioneer would introduce the new title HAPPY HARMONIES.
- The shorts before this short (Ub Iwerks' Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper) are not owned by Ted Turner and are now owned by Film Preservation Associates. They were only distributed by MGM.[1]
- This is the first 2-hue color short. Only 15 MGM cartoons were in black and white.
- This is the first MGM short produced for MGM. After Happy Harmonies ceased production, MGM moved to stronger subjects such as Tom and Jerry, Tex Avery, and Barney Bear. Cartoons would become a staple of MGM's programming, until 1967.
- This short fell into the public domain in the United States in 1962 due to MGM failing to renew copyright in time. A black and white faded color print does exist in bad quality and it is censored. This print is missing the entire scene with the canary interacting with other wildlife. The censored print jumps from the cat lurking towards the bird to the start of the thunderstorm. [2] This print ended up on home video throughout the years, until the 1995 dubbed version came out and has the scene with the wildlife intact. The original print is on DailyMotion. Overall this is one of four shorts from MGM in the public domain.[3]
- The Turner dubbed print is on the Myrna Loy and William Powell Collection - Disc 2 (Evelyn Prentice) DVD. It has been restored with DNVR, hence the constant flickering. Before the dubbed 1995 print came out, finding an original copy was very rare.[4]