Go Fly a Kit (1957)

Along side Max Fleischer, former Disney animator David Hand and Japan's Hayao Miyazaki, Chuck Jones is one of favorite animators, and this short is one of my favorite shorts from the late '50s. I thought it was a sweet story about a flying kitten who was raised by an old woman eagle with a maternal instinct, and when he leaves the nest and sets forth into the world, he falls in love with a cute little girl kitten after saving her from a very mean bulldog.

I just love the backgrounds with their vivid colors. My favorite scenes are when our hero (The Flying Kitten) wants to join a chorus of blackbirds (tweet, tweet, tweet, meow). But when they see him they are so frightened that they bump right into each other even when they fly away. And also when our canine nemesis try to pounce on our hero; but our hero is too quick for him, during the struggle he use his propeller-like tail to get away and the dog found himself biting his own LEG!

All in all, I love every bit of it. It has got tenderness, the love he shares with his adopted-mother and his sweetie and sorrow, when he says goodbye when he leaves: first home and when he flies south every Fall (being part-bird). But every spring, he comes back and his girl would wait at the airport for him, just like the myth of Persephone and the origin of the seasons.