Robert Reynolds This is an early short in the Silly Symphonies series produced by Disney. There will be spoilers ahead:This is an atmospheric short with something of a plot, which wasn't typical for the early Silly Symphonies. The cat is put out (along with the milk bottle) and the short starts out slowly, in a most conventional manner, with the cat meowing on a fence and shoes being thrown.But the short turns on a dime when the cat stalks a bird on a weather vane, falls, hits the ground and nine cat ghosts begin to float skyward. The cat manages to wrestle the ninth soul back. That's when things go *BANG*! The cat is accosted by the bird, grown much larger, which then multiplies.Things simply get stranger from here, with scarecrows, bats, spiders and dead trees all in a competition to see which can make the cat's night the most disturbing. Finally, with dawn, things settle down, the cat wakes up and all ends mostly well. The end is very good.This short is available on the Disney Treasures More Silly Symphonies DVD set and both the short and the set are worth getting. Recommended.

MartinHafer "The Cat's Out" is a black & white Silly Symphony--a short from Disney that featured lots of music to accompany the otherwise silent film. This particular example is different from most of the films in this series up until this time because that is a much greater emphasis on story. Most of the other films just feature characters mostly dancing about doing nothing in particular. In this case, however, it's about the adventures the cat has when he's outside--and some of them are a bit scary for the creature. In fact, one even includes the poor thing losing one of his 9 lives! There also is a scene that looks like a homage to the much-heralded "Skeleton Dance" (also a Silly Symphony and one of the very best they made). Overall, one of the best shorts on the second volume of the Silly Symphonies from the Walt Disney Treasures Collection--it has a better story and a lot of nice laughs (as well as animal torment--though it all turns out well in the end). Sweet and clever.

TheLittleSongbird I do agree, it isn't quite as eerie as The Skeleton Dance, which is understandable, seeing how wonderfully creepy that was. But it is a noteworthy little cartoon, without being an absolute classic. The black and white animation is excellent, with atmospheric shades. If you ask me, I do think it's better black and white, it is more atmospheric you see. Also the music is wonderful, really fitting with the story and the action. The story is a simple one at that, but effective. You do feel sorry for the Cat at the end, I certainly wouldn't want to mess with those birds, and the spiders were somewhat cute. Overall, this is a noteworthy and very atmospheric cartoon. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Ron Oliver A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.It's dark and THE CAT'S OUT for the evening. A night spent screeching on the fence & stalking birds takes a strange turn when an accidental bang on the head throws kitty into a world of nightmare...This black & white cartoon is pleasant without being noteworthy. The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most interesting of series in the field of animation. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose.