Release Date:

December 15, 1951

Main Character(s):

Tweety and Sylvester

Summary:

In a national forest, Sylvester finds an unhatched egg and decides to hatch it out with devious intentions. After Tweety hatches out of the egg, the usual chase ensues.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1196 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue.

This cartoon subverts the usual trope of males having to sit on eggs and hatching them out. Here, Sylvester intentionally does it in order to get a bird meal that way.

This is the last Warner cartoon to have backgrounds by Paul Julian as he left the studio around this time. He would soon be replaced by Irv Wyner as Freleng’s background artist, but Julian’s “Meep! Meep!” recordings were still used for the Roadrunner even past the end of the Golden Age.

The title is presumably a pun for “sweet sweet Tweety”.

The pump gag is reused from “A Fractured Leghorn”.

The image on the title card for this cartoon was used as one of the collectible “Looney Cards” in Looney Tunes Dash (2014-2018). This is also the only instance where the image on a title card was used instead of a scene from a cartoon (as was the case with all the other “Looney Cards”).

This is one of three Tweety and Sylvester cartoons where “Ain’t She Sweet” plays under the opening credits. The other two include “Ain’t She Tweet” and “A Bird in a Guilty Cage” (both released in 1952).

Tweety sings a variant of the Gilded Cage song at one point.

Favorite Scene:

The scene where Sylvester attempts to reach Tweety with a swing that is too close to a pile driver.

What Happens in This One:

Popping out of a door on his owners’ trailer with his name above it, Sylvester spots a nest on a high branch from a tree and excitedly runs toward it on all fours. The game warden trips him, since the sign the warden’s standing next to reads, “Bird and Game Refuge. No Hunting or Fishing. By Order of Game Warden”. He warns, “Don’t get any ideas into that head of yours! Now get goin’, cat!” To this, Sylvester meekly tiptoes away (animated by Manuel Perez).

Sylvester climbs up to the branch and sneaks up to the nest to pounce on what he thinks will be a small bird in there but is not happy upon what he instead sees: “Sufferin’ succotash! A egg!” Hearing something rattling in there, he chuckles evilly and says, “I know what I’ll do. I’ll hatch it out!” He then sits on the egg and waits, but after a while, he becomes very bored to the point that he nearly falls asleep, but snaps out of it when his arm slides off of his knee. Shortly, out of the egg, hatches Tweety, who pops up from under Sylvester. Immediately realizing, “I tawt I taw a putty tat!”, he struggles to get out from under him and realizes, “I got to think of a way to get that putty up off of me! Uh oh! I thinked it!” as he pricks Sylvester in the behind with a needle, causing the latter to jump up into the air while screaming in pain (animated by Virgil Ross).

After Sylvester falls back into the nest headfirst, Tweety realizes, “Uh oh. I can tell he don’t wike me” (animated by Ross). Sylvester chases Tweety into a hole in the tree, but Tweety pops up out of a hole in the branch from Sylvester’s left. Sylvester uses a pump to force Tweety out of the hole in the branch but when he attempts to pump rapidly, a dynamite stick is pumped out instead, with the explosion blowing off all of the fur on Sylvester’s head, leaving his head completely bald (animated by Arthur Davis). “Oh, the poor putty tat had an accident”, Tweety laments. Sylvester then chases him to another branch but Tweety saws it off, causing Sylvester to fall. After he crashes offscreen, Tweety confides, “Aw, the poor putty tat’s parachute didn’t open!” (animated by Perez)

Later, in his nest, Tweety sings to the tune of the Gilded Cage song as it’s revealed that Sylvester has gotten bruised and bandaged from Tweety having lined the tree with barbed wire, “I’m a wee wittle birdie, twapped high in a twee. I wonder if putty will ever catch me. I’m hardwy a mouthful, I weawwy can’t tee, what putty would want with poor wittle me!” He finishes with an added line sung to a different but lively tune, “I weally mean it, what putty tat would want with me!” (animated by Ross)

After Tweety’s song, Sylvester gets an ax and starts chopping the tree as Tweety figures, “Ooh, that putty tat’s sure gonna get me this time!” As he’s standing in the gap he chopped out, the tree starts to vibrate from only being held together from the lone piece of bark Sylvester didn’t chop, so he moves out of the way. When it stops, he attempts to chop at the final piece, only for it to give away and sandwich him (animated by Ken Champin).

Sylvester attempts to use a swing to get Tweety from the branch, oblivious to the fact that it’s very close to a nearby pile driver. It eventually crushes Sylvester offscreen, and when the swing goes up to him without Sylvester, Tweety wonders, “Now, where’d that putty tat go?” A flattened Sylvester appears on the swing shortly, and disgruntledly asks, “Does this answer your question?” (animated by Champin)

Tweety is shown being admired by tourists and photographers: “Oh, isn’t he cute?”; “He’s certainly a rarer specimen”; “Never saw a Tweety bird”; “Hey, this’ll add to my collection!” Sylvester sneaks up on him disguised as a photographer and has his head come out through the lens in order to eat Tweety from there. The game warden grabs him by the shirt and spanks him on the head to make him spit Tweety out, “Oh, no, you don’t! Drop it! Drop it! Drop it!” After Tweety lands on the ground, he encourages, “Attaboy, officer! Give him a hit in the head!” (animated by Champin)

Sylvester next chases Tweety into a large hole in the ground and finds that this hole is actually the geyser, “Old Faithful”, which will erupt at 12:00. It’s 11:56 so Sylvester moves the minute hand for the clock to read 12:30 so the geyser will have passed its eruption time. Tweety pops out of a smaller hole and moves the minute hand to 12, resulting in the geyser erupting with Sylvester on top of the gushing water (animated by Davis).

Tweety runs to a log in the river and uses it to row away, while taunting Sylvester, “You bad ol’ putty tat! You’ll never catch me out here!” In response, Sylvester runs to a rowboat and uses that to go after him. Tweety then sees that the river leads toward a dam with a waterfall, so he jumps off onto the dam just before his log goes down the falls. Sylvester obliviously continues rowing downward, before he realizes to his horror where he is, and turns his boat around to frantically row back up to the dam. Tweety ensures him, “Keep wowing, putty tat. I’ll tave you!” He turns the wheel for “Emergency Control” which shuts off the waterfall. It turns out that Sylvester is still rowing in mid-air, but now without any water. Realizing this, Sylvester waves a meek “bye-bye” before falling (animated by Davis). Watching the fall, Tweety confides, “You know, that putty tat gonna hurt himself if he not more careful!” (animated by Perez)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕