Canta, dulce Piolín

Wonderful Sylvester and Tweety short, directed by Robert McKimson, that has the duo in a national park with Sylvester up to his usual tricks. Beautifully animated with well-drawn characters and backgrounds. Great colors, too. The waterfall scene alone is among the best animation from any Looney Tunes short I've seen. Some very funny gags and dialogue in this one. Tweety is adorable as ever but also delivers some of the best lines. I realize some fans don't like the "cute" characters, of which Tweety is probably the poster child, but I do as they long as they aren't cloying. One of the best parts of this cartoon is when Tweety sings an amusing variation on his theme song. Great voice work from Mel Blanc. Fun music from Carl Stalling. A really good short that is, for my money, one of Sylvester and Tweety's best.

Friz Freleng's 'Tweet Tweet Tweety' is one of the dullest cartoons in a series I don't particularly like, the Sylvester and Tweety shorts. Set in a national forest, 'Tweet Tweet Tweety' proceeds to run through a series of tired gags with only the setting to distinguish them from past usage. There are a few inventive moments here and there, including a highly unusual beginning where Sylvester actually has to hatch Tweety out to get at him. However, once Tweety arrives on the scene the cartoon takes a nosedive. As a big fan of the original Bob Clampett take on Tweety, Freleng's cutesy pie version has always grated on me and in 'Tweet Tweet Tweety' (a title which betrays the dearth of ideas surrounding this project) the little yellow bird is especially obnoxious and irritating. He even manages to spoil an otherwise fine climax in which Sylvester rows up a waterfall with a quip that doesn't even try to be funny. With Freleng's Tweety, the writers obviously wanted to emphasise the cuteness in favour of gags but a big pair of blue eyes is no substitute for a decent wisecrack. The only other noteworthy feature of 'Tweet Tweet Tweety' is a nifty little gag in which Sylvester and Tweety actually turn time backwards and forwards in order to effect what time a geyser will erupt. Unfortunately, the inevitable payoff of the gag is badly directed and utterly anticlimactic. All in all, 'Tweet Tweet Tweety' recalls the levels of tedium reached in the similarly dull 'Bad Ol' Putty Tat', a cartoon which 'Tweet Tweet Tweety' actually reuses footage from.

Here is another funny Looney Tunes effort but I really appreciated was the beautiful artwork. The browns, golds and blues in here of the national forest are spectacular. The restoration process on these Golden Collection DVDs really are apparent on cartoons like this one. This episode is on Vol. 2 of the set.

As for the story, we are in a beautiful national forest with huge redwood-type trees and Sylvester's family has the camper in the trailer park. Sylvester has his own compartment door which he swings open at the first sound of a bird. He rushes out, but a park ranger is there to quickly remind, "Don't get any ideas in that head of yours. Now, get going, cat!" Sylvester slinks away.

The cat spots a nest high up in a tree, investigates, finds an egg, decides to sit on it and hatch it....and out comes Tweety. From that point, it's a chase a la Tom and Jerry and some clever sight gags. One strange sight: Sylvester with all the fur blown off his face. An orange, stubble-faced cat was really a weird thing to see!

While accompanying his owners to a certain national park, Sylvester finds a nest and decides to wait for the egg to hatch. Guess who comes out! While most of "Tweet Tweet Tweety" has the usual sorts of gags - albeit in a forest setting - there was one thing that I saw that should be of particular interest to Looney Tunes fans: the Acme factory. That fictional corporation from which Wile E. Coyote receives every catch-the-Road-Runner gadget ever conceived of turns out to be located in this national park (we find this out when Sylvester goes there and...well, I'll let you see what happens!).

But even ignoring that entirely, this is a really funny cartoon. True, we know what sorts of things are going to happen, but it's just a pleasure to watch them happen, and to see Tweety turn into a bad-ass (he actually did have kind of a mean streak when you think about it). Worth seeing.

I have to say something in general here about the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons: while I can fully understand why they would try to prevent Sylvester from making Tweety a satisfying belch, I am puzzled when humans in the shorts seem shocked or angry that he wants to absorb bird calories into his system-he's a cat and cats try to do that as often as possible. It's like a Frenchman and wine or Garfield and picking on Odie-a natural law of the universe.

Poor Sylvester never has a chance. Tweety had a "no consumption" clause put in his contract. So the park ranger piling on is adding insult to injury. I have a better chance of dating Angelina Jolie than Sylvester has of eating Tweety! Lots of sight gags and fun to watch, but pity the poor cat. Well worth watching and recommended.