Tweety Ahoi

Sylvester the cat stowaway upon a ship that Tweety bird happens to be on with his owner Granny. Oh I don't even have enough words to convey how much I disdain both the Tweety and Granny characters. They simply are not funny to me and made this short quite the chore to sit through indeed. Sylvester is a great character on his own, but there's only so much he can do when confronted by the sheer awfulness of that accursed bid and senile old witch of a Granny. This animated short can be found on disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 and features an optional commentary by Micheal Barrier.

My Grade: D+

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.

Before I forget, let me say the artwork in here is outstanding. From garbage cans to the huge cruise ship, the drawings are beautifully done. If this wasn't animated, critics would be lauding the "direction" in here, because it's really good.

To the story: Sylvester is picking through the garbage at the shipyards but the pickins' are slim. While brooding at the dock next to a big ship, in a porthole he spots Tweety in his cage. Tweety spots him, too, and you know his first comment - the same one he always makes when he spots the cat. Anyway, Sylvester runs over, opens the porthole and says, "Hello, breakfast!" Tweety slams the porthole window on his face and says, "You bad old peeping tomcat!" The cat falls into the water.

The undaunted Sylvester quickly sneaks back aboard ship, tiptoes into Tweety's cabin, grabs him and is ready to leave when - wham! - there's "Granny" at the door with her umbrella. Sylvester takes a beating as the old lady protects her pet bird once again. But, "flippety gibbet," says Granny, "I've dropped my glasses. I can't see a thing without 'em. Heavens to Betsey, where are those cheaters."

Now Sylvester has the upper hand....and the normal cat-trying-to-catch-bird shenanigans are on again, like Granny's glasses. Sylvester's most clever act was to take her glasses and paint a picture of Tweety on them, so when she woke up and put them on, she'd see the bird and think it was okay.

Overall, a very entertaining animated short that was a lot of fun to watch. As you can tell by the quotes, I love the dialog in some of these old cartoons.

As I have said before, I am NOT a fan of Tweety. He's just so aggravating I wish Sylvester would just eat him and get it over with.

In this cartoon Sly is homeless once again and is back to feeding out of garbage cans. He spots a cruise ship leaving port nearby and decides to hop aboard when he spys Tweety is one of the passengers.

The ship provides an adequate stage for the following hijinks and Sly desperately tries to catch the annoying bird and avoid seasickness. If only for once he's succeed by chewing and swallowing, thus finishing of the irritating Canary forever. But, as cartoons starring Tweety go, this one is quite good, but it's ALL thanks to that brilliant cat.

Wonderful Sylvester and Tweety short directed by Friz Freleng. This one's pretty much a textbook example of the series and would probably serve well as a great introduction to these characters for anyone who hasn't seen them before. The plot is simple - Sylvester is starving so he tries to get at Tweety on a cruise ship, only to be repeatedly (and painfully) thwarted by Granny. The animation is very nice with great colors. There are many fun gags and lines with the funniest bit for me being Sylvester's seasickness. Solid voice work from Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet. Really a great cartoon all around. The ending is a hoot, too.