Release Date:

April 3, 1948

Main Character(s):

Tweety and Sylvester

Summary:

Sylvester’s mistress is unaware that he’s been consuming all of her canaries, so she orders another one. This next one happens to be Tweety, who outsmarts Sylvester at every turn.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1072 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. The original title card was found in 2012, while the full original titles were found in late 2023.

The cartoon was produced in Cinecolor, resulting in it being finished early. It also uses the 1948-1949 green rings with the red background.

The cartoon was also produced after Tedd Pierce and Michael Maltese were no longer writing cartoons together for both Jones and Freleng. As a result, in release order, this is the first post-war Freleng cartoon where Pierce is his sole storyman.

This is the second pairing of Tweety and Sylvester.

The cartoon is a reworking of “Puss N Booty” (which was the last black and white Warner cartoon), and even uses the same address as the mistress in that cartoon, 1605 Maple Drive.

In release order, this is the first Warner cartoon to have animation by Pete Burness, who had previously been an animator at MGM. At Warner Bros., he frequently rotated between Freleng and McKimson’s units before leaving in 1950. In the 1950’s, Burness became a director at UPA, and directed most of the cartoons with their biggest star, Mr. Magoo.

This is also the first postwar cartoon to feature recurring in-jokes in Paul Julian’s backgrounds: slipping in the names of fellow artists. In this case, these include: “Grandma Champin’s Oatmeal Cookies” (a reference to Ken Champin), “Ross Raisins” (a reference to Virgil Ross), “Hadley Pert and Co. Soda” (a variation on Hawley Pratt), and a canister labeled as “Friz” (a reference to Freleng).

The full cartoon was included in the 1975 documentary, “Bugs Bunny Superstar”. This is also the latest cartoon to be included in that documentary.

This is one of a few cartoons where Tweety wears a sailor cap (somewhat similar to the one Donald wears).

In one scene, Sylvester accidentally eats a jar of alum, but is still able to suck Tweety in with a straw. Nine years later, in “Birds Anonymous”, when Sylvester has alum poured into his mouth, attempting to suck in Tweety with a straw doesn’t work that time.

Unfortunately, due to a blackface gag, this is a cartoon Warner is refusing to put out on disc restored, which is again very frustrating as they have had absolutely no trouble putting out other cartoons with racial gags or stereotypes out on disc before and since.

What I Like About This One:

As the mistress is wondering of the whereabouts of the fifth canary she’s lost this month, Sylvester knows but is not saying anything, apart from hiccuping a few feathers out of his mouth and quickly hiding them (animated by Gerry Chiniquy).

Hearing the mistress ask for the next canary (Tweety) to be delivered to 1605 Maple Drive, Sylvester opens a curtain shade where it’s revealed he has secretly stamped out four silhouettes of the previous canaries he consumed and stamps a fifth one to signify that he has eaten five (animated by Chiniquy).

Once Tweety’s cage is first seen, Sylvester peeks into it and sees Tweety taking a bath. Feeling a draft on his “fwagile wittle body”, Tweety goes to shut Sylvester’s eyelid, which he mistakes for a window. He then realizes he tawt he taw a putty tat as Sylvester watches him swinging on his perch. When Tweety goes down to him, he keeps moving about, so Sylvester can’t catch him, much to his frustration. “Oh, come on. Stand still. How do you expect me to grasp you when you jump around like a flea on a hot brick?” Pretending to understand, Tweety stands still and Sylvester puts him in his mouth (animated by Chiniquy).

Inside Sylvester’s mouth, Tweety wonders where the putty tat went to and calls down Sylvester’s throat. He only gets the answer from offscreen voices in unison: “There’s nobody down here but us mice!” (animated by Chiniquy with Manuel Perez animating the shot of Tweety’s reaction to the answer)

Since it’s dark in Sylvester’s mouth, Tweety lights a match to see where he is (animated by Perez). Seeing smoke coming out of his mouth, Sylvester spits Tweety out. Tweety mallets Sylvester’s paw so he can fly back in and retrieve his hat before deciding they play “tag”, making Sylvester “it” by slapping his nose hard (animated by Virgil Ross).

Tweety flies to the pantry and hides in there, putting his hat on a jar of alum. Since Sylvester can’t see what the hat is actually on, he unknowingly puts the jar in his mouth before spitting it out upon realizing this isn’t Tweety. By the time, he gets the actual Tweety, however, his lips shrink. Despite this, he is still able to suck Tweety in with a straw (animated by Perez). Inside Sylvester’s mouth again, Tweety decides to develop his little muscles by using Sylvester’s uvula as a punching bag (animated by Ross).

With his head rattling from Tweety punching his uvula, Sylvester spits him out, but Tweety flies in once more as he forgot his hat again (animated by Ross).

Tweety attempts to shut a door on Sylvester, but Sylvester narrowly misses it, so Tweety shuts a second door on the hinges on him (animated by Chiniquy).

Sylvester next disguises as a Swedish-accented maid who has to clean out the birdcage so he can grab Tweety. After he thinks he’s grabbed him, Tweety whistles to him from the table his cage is on. Sylvester finds that he instead grabbed a dynamite stick, which explodes and causes him to imitate Rochester (animated by Chiniquy).

Seeing Sylvester sneaking up on him, Tweety claims Sylvester is mad at him so he decides to “calm him down” by hitting him with a mallet. When Sylvester slumps down from the hit, Tweety decides he “calmed him down too much” and revives him with water (animated by Ken Champin).

Tweety gets Sylvester to play hide and seek with him (animated by Pete Burness) but Sylvester uses this as an excuse to ambush Tweety. Tweety takes his time looking for Sylvester and once he enters the room Sylvester is in, Sylvester accidentally mallets his own foot (animated by Champin).

Sylvester decides to try again with the mallet (animated by Champin) just as Tweety brings in a bulldog to “help” him find Sylvester (animated by Perez). Sylvester accidentally mallets the bulldog, to which the mallet crumbles to pieces after the hit. To avoid the bulldog attacking him, Sylvester jumps up to the ceiling, hanging on with his claws (animated by Champin). Tweety feels pity for him being stuck on the ceiling (animated by Burness), and goes to the second story to get them out with a hammer as the bulldog is anticipating the outcome (animated by Champin).

A chase between Sylvester and the bulldog ensues with Sylvester taking refuge in Tweety’s cage and taunting the bulldog. Feeling bad for Sylvester being lonely, Tweety pushes the bulldog into the cage with him and covers up the sheet as the bulldog and Sylvester fight inside with the cage (animated by Ross). With the in-cage fight continuing outside, Tweety reminds them to play nice (animated by Perez).

In the end, the mistress calls the pet shop for another cat (animated by Chiniquy) as Tweety is seen in Sylvester’s bed. Upon hearing the mistress say the new cat will be very happy in this home, Tweety laughs and confides, “Her don’t know me vewy well, do her?” and opens the curtain to reveal a cat-shaped silhouette now stamped alongside the canary silhouettes (animated by Perez).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕