D' Fightin' Ones is a 1961 Merrie Melodies short (6 min.) directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Sylvester the cat.
It is a parody of The Defiant Ones, with Sylvester and an unnamed Bulldog (not Hector) in place of Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier as two escaped convicts handcuffed together, trying to evade the law (county animal control in this case) and break their shackles, if they don't kill each other first.
"D'Fightin' Ones" provides examples of:
- The Alcatraz: The threat of this is shown as the Bulldog and Sylvester try to escape by sneaking one another in a suitcase to a bus stop, only to run for their lives when they discover that the bus that comes up is actually a prison bus bound for Sing Sing Prison.
- Captivity Harmonica: One of the other dogs in the van is seen briefly playing one.
- Chained Heat: The premise of the short has Sylvester and a Bulldog being handcuffed together and attempting to get their chains off, all the while trying to avoid being caught by animal control after the van hits a number of bumps in the road on the way to the pound and dumps them out.
- Didn't Think This Through: All through the short as Sylvester and the Bulldog try to get their cuffs off:
- The first attempt has them try to chisel the cuffs off, but they are doing it on a ledge, and chisel said ledge right off.
- The second attempt has them using dynamite to break the chain, but that also fails.
- Finally, they decide to let a train run over the chains of their handcuffs in order to get free, but realize too late it's a bad idea since they're doing it on a trestle, and as soon as the chains break, they will fall hundreds of feet to the ground. Sure enough, it happens.
- Here We Go Again!: Sylvester and the Bulldog are freed from their handcuffs after the train runs over the chains, dumping them into the city dump hundreds of feet below the train trestle, but then, they get their legs stuck together in a rusty pipe. Cue animal control personnel being hot on their tail once again! Cue after that the iris-out.
- No Name Given: The bulldog.
- Shout-Out / Whole-Plot Reference: To The Defiant Ones.
