Release Date:

February 22, 1958

Main Character(s):

Tweety and Sylvester, Granny

Summary:

Granny and Tweety are vacationing in Venice with the latter catching the attention of an Italian-accented Sylvester, whose attempts at getting Tweety all fail once again.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1479 and was released as a Looney Tune.

This is the first cartoon to feature backgrounds by Tom O’Loughlin (though his last name is misspelled as “O’Laughlin” here), who would serve as Freleng’s background artist from this point up until the original studio closure in 1964 (although Boris Gorelick would do the backgrounds for Freleng’s next cartoon, “A Waggily Tale”, which is also Friday’s cartoon). O’Loughlin would continue to do backgrounds at DePatie-Freleng and contributed to a good number of the cartoons they produced for Warner.

The title is a play on words for pizza pie (and what Tweety is sometimes called due to his first pairing with Sylvester being “Tweetie Pie”, but with several folks missing the point of the title’s pun for that cartoon).

This is one of two times Mel Blanc would do an established characters’ voice in a different accent. He would also do this with both Daffy and Porky in McKimson’s “China Jones” (1959), giving them Irish and Chinese accents, respectively.

“Lowla Bridgeada” is a reference to the actress Gina Lollobrigida.

“Santa Lucia”, which is hummed by Granny near the start of the cartoon, and sung by Tweety at two separate points in the cartoon, would also be sung operatically by Tom in one of Jones’ Tom and Jerry cartoons, “Cat and Dupli-Cat” (1967).

A brief scene of this cartoon was used in the 1981 compilation movie, “The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie”.

This is one of the few cartoons where Granny is unaware of Sylvester’s presence (though she actively thwarts his final scheme).

Although Tweety himself never says his catchphrase in this cartoon, it is said at the end in unison by the imaginary birds Sylvester sees at the end from getting hit with a mallet (that Granny substitutes Tweety for in his lasso made out of a spaghetti strand).

For as much as I am admittedly not a fan of Italian food nor traveling to far away places (I’ve never even been out of the US, in fact, and I don’t ever plan to go anywhere outside of Georgia or any of its bordering states), I absolutely adore Milt Franklyn’s Italian-flavored score for this cartoon.

Favorite Scene:

Sylvester’s attempt to catch Tweety from a gondola he and Granny are taking a ride in ends with him accidentally hooking onto a speedboat, sending him water skiing across the canal. He becomes so pleased with himself at managing to avoid hitting a buoy that he ends up slamming into a low bridge.

Tweety’s singing of “Santa Lucia” (courtesy of Blanc) is also very enjoyable.

What Happens in This One:

At “Hotel Italia”, Granny brings Tweety’s cage out onto a table on the balcony of the floor they’re staying on, “Well, here we are, at last, Tweety. In Venice, with all its Venetian blinds (chuckles). You enjoy the scenery, Tweety, while I freshen up”. As Granny walks back into the apartment while humming “Santa Lucia”, Tweety looks at the canal below, and having not seen it before, doesn’t understand that there’s supposed to be water there, “Ooh, wook, Gwanny, wook! The dam must’ve bwoke! All the stweets are fwooded! My goodness, there must be a wot of barbershops in this town!”, referring to the buoys’ striped appearances when saying the latter (animated by Virgil Ross).

Tweety sits on the swing in his cage, singing “Santa Lucia” while strumming a mandolin (animated by Ross). From the building across the hotel, Sylvester is watching him as he licks his lips hungrily and then exclaims, “A-sufferin’-a succotash-a! A Tweety bird-a! A pizza pie-a! Little feathered-a paisano will make a delicious-a sandawich-a!”, briefly holding up two pieces of bread before running out (animated by Gerry Chiniquy). Sylvester runs out of his building with the two bread pieces but doesn't pay attention to where he’s running due to looking at Tweety the whole time. He ends up running off the ledge and falling into the water below (animated by Arthur Davis).

After climbing back up, Sylvester spots a nearby gondola docked against a wall and held by a rope, and climbs down said wall to get in it. He is unable to row across due to the gondola still being tied to the dock, so he drops his oar to cut the rope with a knife. With Sylvester no longer having the oar, he sinks along with the gondola (animated by Chiniquy).

Sylvester attempts to row to the hotel with a rubber raft, but Tweety slingshots a nail towards the raft, puncturing it, and causing it to spin around while deflating. Sylvester gets back onto shore with the deflated raft stuck on his tail. He pulls it off his tail and throws it on the ground before shooting an irritated glare in Tweety’s direction (animated by Davis).

Next, Sylvester swings from his ledge over to the balcony on a rope Tarzan-style, only to swing under the water and right into a waiting shark’s mouth. Wrestling around in there to get out, Sylvester quickly swims away (animated by Chiniquy).

Having tied a balloon to his chest, Sylvester gets himself floating with an electric fan. To his horror, however, the balloon instead sends him high into the air (animated by Ross). Calling up to Sylvester while preparing to slingshot another nail at him, Tweety assures, “Don’t wowwy, putty tat! I will save you!”, before letting it go. The nail pops Sylvester’s balloon, sending him falling back down. Thinking he’s going to land in the water, Sylvester puts on a swimming cap and goes into a diving position. He ends up landing smack on the concrete ground in front of the hotel offscreen, with the camera panning over to show the impact (animated by Chiniquy). Tweety laments, “Aw, the poor putty tat fall down!” (animated by Davis)

Upon coming to and realizing he landed in front of the hotel (animated by Davis), Sylvester gets up and enters the hotel through its lobby. He accesses the elevator and ascends it, only to see Granny carrying Tweety in his cage and going back down once he reaches their floor. Sylvester goes down after them, but his elevator goes all the way down into the water. After landing with a splash, a dazed Sylvester bobs up and down from the water outside of the hotel (animated by Chiniquy).

As Tweety and Granny take a ride on a gondola, with Tweety’s cage at the front and Granny in the middle, the latter sighs contently, “Oh, dear. This is so cacciatore”. From a bridge above (animated by Ross), Sylvester uses a fishing pole to try and catch Tweety’s cage from the gondola. The hook instead catches the front of a speedboat zooming past, taking the pole and Sylvester with it. Spotting a buoy approaching, Sylvester lifts up his tail and legs in order to avoid hitting it. He looks back at it with glee upon seeing he missed it completely, but doesn’t look at what’s in front of him, causing him to smack face-first into a bridge labeled “Ducka You Head. Lowla Bridgeada” (animated by Davis).

Back in the building he was in earlier- an Italian restaurant-, Sylvester sits at a table alone with a dish of spaghetti as he remarks, “Let’s-a face it-a. As-a long as I’m an Italiano pussycat-a, I’ll-a eat-a the spaghet!” As he begins doing that, he hears Tweety singing a reprise of “Santa Lucia” from his balcony. Sylvester ties one of his spaghetti strands like a lasso and throws it over to Tweety, where it catches him by the throat and interrupts his singing. Struggling to run away, Tweety yells in a slightly strained voice, “Help, Gwanny! A piece of spaghetti got me!” Granny comes out to witness this and exclaims in horror before grabbing the strand. Sylvester attempts to suck in his strand with what he still thinks is Tweety on the other end, oblivious that Granny tied a mallet in said other end. One final large inhale sends the mallet flying in and hitting Sylvester on the head. Dazed from the hit, Sylvester sees four imaginary birds fluttering around him before they all say in unison, “I tawt I taw a putty tat!” Sylvester jumps around trying to catch them as the cartoon ends (animated by Davis).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½