Tweety Ahoi

Tweety's SOS (1951)

*** (out of 4)

Sylvester is out looking for dinner when he spots Tweety on a ship. The rest of the cartoon as the cat trying to work his way around Granny so that he can eat the little bird. I'm sure I'm not alone but I find Tweety to be cute but incredibly annoying. I watch all of these shorts just hoping Sylvester will eat him even though I know it's not going to happen. The actual chase is what makes this worth viewing as it remains fun seeing the poor cat try and try again no matter how many times he fails. There are some pretty good jokes in this short with the best being the sea sickness stuff. Sylvester turning green leads to some great jokes including the one at the end.

This is one of those Tweety and Sylvester cartoons that made this legendary pair second only to Bugs Bunny in terms of Looney Tunes popularity.

Besides having all of the stock situations for this duo (Sylvester feeding out of garbage cans, the "I tawt I taw a putty tat" line, etc.), Tweety's S.O.S also stars Granny, who is one of those types of supporting characters that these Warner Bros. classics had in abundance to enrich the color and flavor of them. This time out the cat and bird are aboard an ocean liner and the gags that are extracted from this situation are creative and lively.

What a day that was in cartoon history when Friz Freleng decided to pair his Sylvester with the departed Robert Clampett's little yellow bird.

People who say that some of what the Looney Tunes cartoons show is inappropriate for children have apparently forgotten something: they weren't originally intended for children. They were produced for the cinema, to be shown before feature films, and so they could show anything that they wanted. "Tweety's S.O.S." has that bad puddy tat Sylvester finding Tweety aboard an ocean liner and boarding the ship to try and get him. But two things work against Sylvester: Granny is vehemently protecting the canary, and Sylvester easily gets seasick (we don't see him throwing up, but with his green face, they make it perfectly clear that he was doing just that!). And then of course, the seemingly cute Tweety has a bad-ass streak.

It's just great to see how these cartoons weren't afraid to go all out; whatever they thought about showing, they showed. We need to understand that cartoons weren't always supposed to be cute entertainment for children. Really funny.

Sylvester is hanging around the dock trying to scavenge for food from the bins when he spots Tweety Pie in a cabin on a cruise ship. Sylvester boards the ship to try and catch himself some breakfast but finds getting the bird isn't as easy as he hoped - especially with granny on the case.

Most Tweety Pie cartoons leave me sort of unsure of why they were so big. Tweety himself is always a bit bland and Sylvester quite often just ends up outwitting himself and Tweety just observes at times. Here however Tweety is actually pretty active in terms of moving and running around. The action is all pretty funny and flows well with Tweety having some good actions and delivering gags as opposed to the usual observing.

Sylvester is funny and he does give himself more trouble than he gets from Tweety. Tweety does have a better presence here than he often does, but Granny is a little bit poorly animated but has a better presence as well.

Overall this is a fun cartoon with gags that go beyond just purely physical laughs and has some witty little bits. For once both Tweety and Sylvester are both good characters to the degree that even Granny has a bigger part than normal!

Tweety's SOS isn't what I consider Sylvester and Tweety's best, like Hyde and Go Tweet and Red Riding Hoodwinked but I still liked it. I agree the cartoon has moments that are somewhat hit-and-miss moments, I personally didn't care for the seasickness joke myself, but it has enough enjoyable moments I feel.

The animation is pretty excellent particularly in the colours, while the music has just the right amount of quirkiness. The dialogue is funny and clever, Granny gets the best of them especially the lines about her glasses and the sight gags are good. Sylvester is fun to watch as always, like Wile E.Coyote he is a cunning sort of character whose traps constantly backfire, and Tweety and Granny are good as well, Tweety especially is more active than he usually is. And as always, Mel Blanc does a stellar job with the voice work. In conclusion, flawed but enjoyable. 8/10 Bethany Cox