Release Date:

April 4, 1953

Main Character(s):

Tweety and Sylvester, Granny

Summary:

On Granny’s farm, Granny warns her bulldog, Hector, to make sure nothing happens to Tweety while she’s away or else. Hector foils Sylvester’s attempt at disguising as a scarecrow, before Sylvester chases Tweety into the henhouse and has to deal with a tough rooster and the hens who believe that Tweety is one of their chicks and Sylvester is trying to steal him.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1248 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue.

Notably, the cartoon shows a crueler side to Granny as she outright threatens to gun Hector down if he fails to prevent something bad happening to Tweety. Hector even imagines her doing so near the end! Yet more proof that anybody who claims these cartoons are for kids clearly don’t know what they’re talking about.

The bulldog in this cartoon (as is the one in “A Street Cat Named Sylvester”, released five months later) is named “Hector”. The Internet likes to say that numerous Warner cartoon bulldogs and Hector are all the same character, but that simply isn’t the case because it’s common to reuse character designs (just see Wile E. Coyote and Ralph Wolf, for instance).

The title is a pun for “foul weather”.

Interestingly, there is a book by Bob Tarte that has the same title as this cartoon. I only know this as my family took a getaway vacation up in Blue Ridge, Georgia this past September (which was actually the same weekend after we begun the 1950’s to be exact). We explored a book store at one point (where they had Mozart’s beautiful “Piano Concerto No. 21” playing) and that book was one of the ones present.

Apart from yelling, “Ah, shut up!” near the start of the cartoon, Sylvester does not speak in this one.

Favorite Scene:

Sylvester disguises as a hen, but after the rooster is seemingly fooled and flirts with him, he forces him to lay an egg, revealing that he’s not fooled at all. When Sylvester fails to do so, the rooster makes him “hatch” one out- a grenade.

What Happens in This One:

Granny exits her house singing “Down in Nashville, Tennessee”, and bidding goodbye to both Tweety and Hector in the midst of her singing. “Bye, bye Tweety. Be a good little birdie while Granny’s gone”. She warns Hector, “Hector, don’t let anything happen to Tweety or- (mimics machine gun fire with umbrella)”. After Granny leaves while still singing, Hector turns to the audience and does the cuckoo sign in response to Granny’s threat. Peeking out from behind a barn, Sylvester sports an evil smile while watching Granny leave in her buggy, pulled by a horse (animated by Manuel Perez).

Tweety is swinging in his cage while singing, “Kiss Me Sweet”, oblivious that the scarecrow behind him in the distance is Sylvester in disguise. When he notices it disappear, he asks, “Where did the carecrow go?”, before figuring, “(laughs) He must’ve gone to care a crow!” He continues singing before sensing Sylvester’s presence. “What’s the matter? Is something going on behind my back?” Sylvester ducks down before Tweety can see him to which Tweety believes, “I tawt I taw a putty tat!” Sylvester grabs him as Tweety realizes, “I did! I did taw a putty tat!” (animated by Virgil Ross)

Sylvester hears snarling noises (animated by Ross) and finds Hector barking up at him. He yells, “Ah, shut up!” and hits Hector on the head with one of the stilts he’s using in his scarecrow disguise. Hector bites onto this stilt and pulls it out of the disguise, causing Sylvester to fall down and forcing him to run away on only one stilt as Hector chases him into the distance (animated by Ken Champin).

Tweety decides, “Well, as wong as I’m out of my cage, I might as well wook awound a bit”. He greets the various farm animals such as a cow chewing, “Hewwo, moo-moo cow”, and a pig wallowing in mud, “Hi there, dirty piggy”, to which the pig looks at him with an annoyed expression. Tweety then greets a goat with, “Hewwo, putty tat”. The shocked “goat” comes out into full view, revealing that it is indeed Sylvester, who was wearing a goat mask. Sylvester chases Tweety towards the wire fence protecting the henhouse. Tweety crawls through it due to being small enough. Sylvester climbs it (animated by Perez up to here), and chases Tweety into the henhouse, only to be chased out by a squawking hen pecking him on the head (animated by Arthur Davis).

Sylvester gets out a wind-up toy soldier carrying an American flag, and winds it up to go into the henhouse marching in tune to “Columbia the Gem of the Ocean”. Showing their patriotism, the hens all stand up saluting the soldier as Sylvester looks into their nests for Tweety. In a nest with three other chicks, Tweety shivers, “Brr! It’s cold!” and asks the chicks, “Hey, kids! Ask your mommy to sit down again. I just WOVE those warm feathers!”, only for him to be snatched by Sylvester shortly. The chicks alert their mother about this, to which this hen goes after Sylvester while squawking at him (animated by Davis).

Upon seeing the hen following him, Sylvester bumps into the rooster while running away. The rooster interprets the hen’s squawking as Sylvester stealing one of her “chicks”. Looking at the rooster giving him an angry stare, Sylvester puts on a friendly facade and pats Tweety on the head before sheepishly giving him back to the hen. Tweety confides, “You see, he’s weawwy a nice putty tat” before groaning “Eee!” in disgust. After the hen walks away contently with Tweety, the rooster deals with Sylvester by taking out a foldable wardrobe and beating him up from behind it, so the audience doesn’t see Sylvester getting beaten up. Sylvester shortly staggers out from behind the wardrobe with a lump on his head, and a few bits of fur missing (animated by Champin).

Later, the hen and chicks are scratching for their food. Not understanding chicken behavior, Tweety says to himself, “I don’t know what all the scwatching’s about, but-” and begins to do so himself. Disguised as a chicken with a rubber glove as a comb and tail feathers stuck to a suction cup, Sylvester comes in and imitates a hen. Tweety notices a small green worm pop up out of the ground and calls it, “Well what do you know? A piece of spaghetti with eyes!” He then warns the worm, “Oh, you’d better hide, spaghetti, or the chickens will get you!”, as he puts a rock over the hole he popped out of to hide him. Tweety then hears the disguised Sylvester squawking like a chicken while “scratching”, so he tells the worm, “I gotta go, spaghetti. My mommy is cawwing me!” (animated by Champin)

Tweety comes up to Sylvester and asks, “We gotta do more scwatching? Okay. I’ll scwatch!”, and continues scratching. Sylvester attempts to grab for Tweety, but then stops upon seeing the rooster watching him in a suspicious manner, so he continues acting like a chicken. Seemingly fooled, the rooster wolf-whistles and licks his hand to groom his comb like hair. He then picks Sylvester up in his arms and flirts, “I like you, baby. You’re different. You’ll be my favorite”, while walking him back to the henhouse (animated by Champin). Once inside, the rooster shoves Sylvester down onto a random nest with his change of tone signifying that he’s actually on to Sylvester, “Okay, chicken! The flirtation’s over! Get busy! Lay eggs!” Sylvester sweats in fear while sitting on the nest, before the rooster lifts him up to look under him. “No eggs!? Are you sure you’re a chicken!?” Sylvester nods in fear, so the rooster decides while taking out a grenade, “Okay! I’ll give ya one more chance! If ya can’t LAY an egg, let’s see ya HATCH one!” He puts the grenade under Sylvester and holds him down to prevent him from leaving. After the explosion (which blows Sylvester’s disguise off), the rooster watches Sylvester run out of the henhouse (animated by Davis) and cool his burning behind off with the water pump (animated by Perez).

Meanwhile, Hector is seen happily walking back to the house before he notices Tweety’s not in his cage. “Jumpin’ Jupiter! The bird’s gone!” Thinking Sylvester consumed him, Hector runs up to Sylvester and grabs him by the throat, asking him, “Where’s the bird at, cat?” Sylvester shrugs since he also doesn’t know Tweety’s whereabouts, but Hector doesn’t believe him so he reaches down Sylvester’s throat. “Eh, gimme that bird!” His anger soon turns to fear upon hearing Granny returning home and actually visualizes Granny shooting him to death for failing to guard Tweety. In desperation, Hector runs into a work shed with Sylvester, and paints the latter yellow from head to toe before shoving him in the cage and ordering, “Sing, you buzzard!” (animated by Perez)

Sylvester nervously whistles a tune while swinging. Granny passes by and is surprisingly fooled. “Hello, Tweety. I see you’re safe and sound”. She then pats the smiling Hector on the head, “That’s a good doggy”. Granny then walks back into the house (animated by Ross) just as Tweety comes out and sees the yellow Sylvester acting like a bird. Laughing sarcastically, Tweety decides, “Ho, ho! If he’s a birdie, then that makes me a putty tat!” He proceeds to act like one by means of meowing and hissing, as Hector watches him in shocked confusion (animated by Champin).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½