Release Date:

August 20, 1955

Main Character(s):

Sylvester

Summary:

An innocently destructive little girl named Suzanne is tired of her toys and wants a real live cat to play with, much to the objection of her mother who won’t let her have anything else until she learns to take proper care of her things. Meanwhile, Sylvester has been chased into Suzanne’s yard by a ferocious bulldog. In order to avoid the bulldog, Sylvester decides to put up with Suzanne’s obliviously destructive nature.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1350 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue.

Apart from his enthusiastic “yeah”’s about having “liver and sardines” for dinner (before finding out that he’s about to be fed mud), Sylvester does not have any dialogue in this cartoon.

The cartoon’s premise would be reworked for “A Waggily Tale” (1958), also directed by Freleng and written by Warren Foster.

Suzanne uses Tweety’s way of saying pussycat, “putty tat”.

Believe it or not, Suzanne actually got a series of comic strips of her own in a similar vein to kid-centric comics like “Peanuts” (which of course has had several media adapted from it), “Little Lulu” (which was also a cartoon series at Paramount/Famous Studios), and “Dennis the Menace” (which had a live-action TV series from 1959-1963).

The premise of “thinking your new child owner is better than your old life of being harassed” would be slightly reworked in the Garfield Show episode, “Neighbor Nathan” (2009), but with a plot twist. Tired of Garfield’s constant tormenting of him, Odie runs out of the house and befriends a seemingly nice kid named Nathan. Odie soon finds out that he’s much better off as Garfield’s housemate when Nathan is revealed to be an evil scientist, planning to turn Odie into a cockroach (fortunately, the attempt is foiled by Garfield and Squeak, resulting in Nathan falling into his own trap and being the one to get turned into a cockroach instead).

In this photo of Freleng’s animators and assistant animators at the time, Arthur Davis is seen animating a scene from this cartoon before he poses for this picture (it’s specifically the scene where Suzanne carries Sylvester into the kitchen to feed him milk).

Favorite Scene:

Suzanne feeds Sylvester a bowl of milk, but hides him in the fridge when her mother enters, asking if she has a cat in the house. Suzanne then imitates a cat by licking up the milk herself and saying “Meow”.

What Happens in This One:

In Suzanne’s yard, a trail of broken toys is seen in the walkway, implying that Suzanne abused them, much to her mother’s annoyance as she calls for her. Suzanne walks up to her and asks, “Yes, Mommy?” Mother scolds, “Suzanne, look at your toys! How can you be so destructive?” Suzanne sighs, “I guess they don’t make dolls like they used to”, before asking, “Can I have a weal-life putty tat to pway with? Their heads don’t come off! Huh? Can I? Huh?” The answer from Mother is, “I should say not! You get nothing else until you learn to take care of your things! Now go out and play!” (animated by Gerry Chiniquy)

As Suzanne sadly walks away from the door (animated by Chiniquy) and into the yard, she soon hears yowling noises from the other side of the fence, which turns out to be Sylvester being chased by the bulldog. Sylvester then scrambles over the fence and into the yard. As he’s behind a tree and panting for breath, he becomes startled by Suzanne walking up to him from behind and greeting, “Hello, putty tat!”, causing him to jump in fear and then slide back down, completely white. Suzanne assures him, “Don’t be scared, putty tat. I’m not going to hurt you. I’ll take good care of you!”, before picking him up and walking off with him, “My mommy don’t want me to have a cute wittle putty tat to pway with, but you’re diffewent”. Sylvester ends up sliding down and catching onto her arms, choking him to the point of turning blue in the face. Putting him down, Suzanne wonders, “How did you get your face all bwue?”, before she decides, “You need a bath, putty!” Upon hearing this, Sylvester runs off, with Suzanne’s attempt to stop him only causing some of his tail fur to get pulled off. Sylvester runs out of the yard, only for the bulldog to still be out there so he goes back in and reluctantly holds out his tail for Suzanne to take him to his bath (animated by Ted Bonnicksen).

Suzanne enters the basement, dragging Sylvester by the tail as she says, “We gotta be careful walking down these cellar stairs. We might get hurt”, oblivious that the way she’s dragging him is causing Sylvester’s right cheek to thump onto every stair going down. Seeing that Suzanne plans to give him a bath in the washing machine, Sylvester attempts to claw onto the sides in order to not get pushed in, to no avail. After he’s inside, he goes through each of the processes in the machine; “Wash”, “Spin”, “Rinse”, “Dry”, and “Fluff Dry”. Sylvester comes out of the machine as a floating puff ball (animated by Bonnicksen).

Bringing Sylvester into the kitchen, Suzanne prepares him a bowl of milk, which Sylvester begins happily lapping up. Mother’s voice is then heard, “Suzanne, have you got a cat in the house?” In order to not get in trouble, Suzanne hides Sylvester in the freezer, while she gets down on her hands and feet, laps up the milk herself, and imitates a cat by saying, “Meow”. Mother only tells her off, “Oh, stop being silly, Suzanne! Now go out and play!” Once Mother leaves, Suzanne takes Sylvester out and finds him frozen in a tray of ice (animated by Arthur Davis).

Suzanne has put a shivering Sylvester in an electric blanket to thaw him out, “This wectwic bwanket will thaw you all out, putty!” She turns it on too high, however, causing Sylvester to change from shivering cold blue to burning hot red. He screams in pain from it frying him and runs towards an electric fan to cool down (animated by Bonnicksen).

Back outside, Sylvester is seen with a napkin around his neck as Suzanne tells him, “Now Mommy’s got to cook dinner. Would baby wike a nice dish of liver and sardines?” Sylvester lets out a few enthusiastic “Yeah!”’s at this, believing he’ll get the actual stuff. Suzanne instead goes to a mud puddle and scoops out two respective globs into a dish referring to them as “Wiver and sardines”. Horrified, Sylvester attempts to run out, only to be confronted by the still-waiting bulldog. Coming back to Suzanne, Sylvester comes back sadly and allows Suzanne to feed him the unappetizing meal of mud as she instructs, “Now make it all gone!” (animated by Bonnicksen)

Later, Suzanne is pushing Sylvester on a swing. The bulldog climbs up a tree outside of the fence but right behind the swing, enabling him to pull Sylvester into the tree and start beating him up in there offscreen. Witnessing this, Suzanne goes into the house and comes back out dressed as a nurse. After having Sylvester bandaged from head to toe, Suzanne assures, “There you are, putty! All better!” This only renders Sylvester unable to walk, so he has to get around by hopping. Peeling them off of himself, Sylvester ends up ripping off most of his fur in the process, causing him to storm off in annoyance (animated by Chiniquy).

Sylvester then watches TV with Suzanne as the announcer makes an advertisement, “Watch for next week’s episode of ‘Capt. Electronic in Outer Space’!” Suzanne suddenly turns to Sylvester and tells him, “I got an idea, putty!” Sylvester runs off in fear and hides under the sofa, only for Suzanne to drag him out by the tail while assuring, “Aw, come on. We’ll have wots of fun!” Outside, Sylvester is dressed up in an army uniform while Suzanne pours the water and inhabitant of a fishbowl into a pail, before putting said fishbowl on Sylvester’s head for a helmet. With a small rocket strapped to Sylvester’s back, Suzanne lights the fuse with a match and imitates the spaceman on TV, “Captain Wectronic in Outer Space!” The rocket only zooms into Sylvester’s “helmet” and blows up from inside there, completely charring Sylvester’s face and also parts of his arms (animated by Davis).

Hearing Suzanne tell him, “Come, putty, wet’s pway another game!”, Sylvester decides he has had enough and runs away, still wearing the army outfit. Suzanne is stopped from chasing after him by Mother, who finally becomes aware of Sylvester’s presence, “Suzanne! Where did you get this mangy-looking cat!?” Suzanne explains, “I found him. Pwease can I keep him? Can I? Pwease?” Sounding somewhat reluctant, Mother agrees, “Well, alright, you can have it. But you better give him a bath. You better feed him and give him some medical attention”. Having heard all of this and not wanting to endure everything he just did again, Sylvester silently reacts in shock and runs out, deciding he’d rather be chased by the bulldog. Whistling for the bulldog, he finds him turning a corner before kicking him in the chin (animated by Davis up to here). The chase resumes as the cartoon ends (animated by Bonnicksen).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½