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The Robber Kitten
Directed by	David Hand
Story by	Bill Cottrell
Produced by	Walt Disney
Starring	Shirley Reed Billy Bletcher Clarence Nash Elvia Allman
Music by	Frank Churchill
Animation by	Bob Wickersham Marvin Woodward Hardie Gramatky Hamilton Luske Bill Roberts
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	United Artists Pictures
Release date	April 20, 1935 (1935-04-20)
Running time	7:48
Language	English

The Robber Kitten is a 1935 Walt Disney Silly Symphonies cartoon, directed by David Hand. The short is based on a story of the same name written by Robert Michael Ballantyne with the pseudonym Comus.

Plot

A kitten named Ambrose is dreaming about running away and becoming a robber. Calling himself "Butch" at the beginning of the cartoon, he is seen play–acting a stagecoach robbery, which is interrupted by his mother calling for him to take a bath. Not wanting to take a bath in the first place, Ambrose runs away and becomes a robber, first stealing a bag of cookies. His first target turns out to be an actual robber: Dirty Bill the bulldog. Dirty Bill asks Ambrose if he has pulled off any robberies lately, and Ambrose tells him, "Just this morning, I held up a stagecoach." Then Dirty Bill asks Ambrose where his loot is, so Ambrose shows Dirty Bill the bag of cookies. Imagining that the bag is full of gold, Dirty Bill demands it and threatens Ambrose. Scared, Ambrose runs home and jumps into his bathtub, acting as if nothing else has happened.

Comic adaptation

The cartoon short was adapted in a Silly Symphony comic strip sequence by Ted Osborne and Al Taliaferro, which ran from February 24 to April 21, 1935. The storyline was titled "The Adventures of Ambrose the Robber Kitten". It was also translated and published in Austria (1938), Australia, Belgium (1952), Brazil (1979), Finland (1935), France (1935), Germany (2003), United Kingdom (1936), Italy (1935), Spain (1935), and Yugoslavia (1936).

Voice cast

• Ambrose: Shirley Reed
• Dirty Bill: Billy Bletcher
• Horse whinny, Ambrose's Tarzan yell: Clarence Nash
• Ambrose's mother: Elvia Allman

Home media

The short was released on December 4, 2001, on Walt Disney Treasures: Silly Symphonies - The Historic Musical Animated Classics.

It was also released on the Walt Disney Animation Collection: Classic Short Films Volume 5: Wind in the Willows DVD in 2009.

References

1. ^ "Walt Disney's "The Robber Kitten" (1935)". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
2. ^ Scott, Keith (3 October 2022). Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2. BearManor Media. p. 517.
3. ^ Merritt, Russell; Kaufman, J. B. (2016). Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series (2nd ed.). Glendale, CA: Disney Editions. pp. 158–159. ISBN 978-1-4847-5132-9.
4. "Walt Disney's "The Robber Kitten" (1935) |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved 2024-12-13.
5. Duvall, Earl; Taliaferro, Al; Osborne, Ted; De Maris, Merrill (2016). Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics, vol 1. San Diego: IDW Publishing. ISBN 978-1631405587.
6. "Silly Symphonies: The Historic Musical Animated Classics DVD Review". DVD Dizzy. Retrieved 20 February 2021.

External links

• The Robber Kitten at IMDb
• The Robber Kitten at the Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts

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• 1935 films
• Silly Symphonies
• 1930s Disney animated short films
• Animated films about cats
• Films directed by David Hand (animator)
• Films produced by Walt Disney
• Films scored by Frank Churchill
• American animated short films
• Animated films about dogs
• Films adapted into comics
• 1930s American films
• 1935 animated short films
• Disney animated film stubs