Paseo en Tren

I always enjoy watching this cartoon, with Sylvester trying to catch Tweety on a train, rather than at Grandma's house. It's actually a standard fare, but entertaining, especially when Tweety pulls the emergency stop cord. One of my complaints about this is how sloppy the animators were with the train. When you watch this over and over, like my little boy did (who loves trains, which is why he liked it so much), you begin to notice some things.

Throughout this short, the position of the baggage car changes on the train, either 3rd, 4th or 5th, and in long shots not at all. The engine has either the number 651 or 814, or none at all. The coal tender has either the number 99, or the letters "S.P. & Q.R." on it, or no number or letters at all. The coaches carry the "S.P.Q.R." without the "&" in long shots, and then in closeups it has the words "SouthEast and Western."

All of this doesn't interfere with the story, but the production details were obviously not looked into very carefully.

Still this cartoon is among my favorites with Sylvester and Tweety.

It so happens that Tweety and Sylvester are on the same train. Of course fur and feathers fly. There isn't anything unusual about this one, but the animation and the story line work quite well. Sylvester is more enterprising here as he does a kind of Wile e Coyote thing, never being deterred. It's no secret who will win the ultimate confrontation, but it's fun getting there.

Tweety Bird is being transported on a train by itself and placed next to Sylvester Cat in the cargo compartment. A train employee stops Sylvester and puts Tweety high up safe from the cat. That doesn't stop Sylvester. There is also a big snarling bulldog.

This is Tweety and Sylvester and other characters. The other characters can sometimes feel like they get in the way. I like it better when Tweety doesn't get help from other characters. I don't mind the dog. Tweety often uses them. I don't like the human intervention and this one isn't even the old lady owner. This is mostly a good Tweety cartoon.

Tweety run... Tweety hide... Tweety fly away - 'Cause that bad, ol' putty-tat is out to get you and you've gotta have a good escape plan in order to avoid being caught in his clawing clutches.

For the most part - I found "All a Bir-r-r-d" to be a fairly enjoyable "Merrie Melodie" where that conniving feline, Sylvester gets a whole lot more than he bargained for after he defiantly mouths off at the snarling bulldog in the cage next to him.

Yep. You can be sure that Sylvester is now in big-big trouble (much to the relief of the harassed little Tweety, who's now gonna be awfully lonesome from here to Pasadena).

As someone who does enjoy the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons better than most and who doesn't have a problem with Tweety, All a Bir-r-r-rd was very easy to like. It is very formulaic with a set-up that has been seen many times with Sylvster and Tweety(in a way though you can deem their cartoons as a formula series) and Tweety's final line is not that funny and is easily the cartoon's worst line. However, All a Bir-r-r-rd has some very colourful animation, with very bright colours and smooth drawings. The music is bouncy and brings real character to the action and chase scenes, together with lush orchestration and clever use of existing and familiar tunes. The dialogue is witty and raises a laugh more than once, the cartoon's crisply paced and the gags do feel fresh rather than tired and don't feel repetitive in the slightest, although Tweety pulls the train cord more than once what happens to Sylvester is different each time. It's the interaction between Sylvester and the bulldog that provides the cartoon's funniest moments, and All a Bir-r-r-rd has some violence but never in a sadistic way though enough to allow us to feel empathy for Sylvester, something that the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons were always great at doing. The characters work really well together, Tweety is cute but not in a forced way and while not as anarchic as he was in some of his earlier cartoons there are shades of that and the conductor has some amusing lines. But they are outshone by the bulldog and especially Sylvester, the bulldog works wonders with Sylvester and is a brutish but funny foil, while Sylvester provides and takes the laughs brilliantly- a lot of the time his facial expressions are on par with the gags in terms of entertainment value- and we are sympathetic towards him as well. In conclusion, entertaining and colourful. 8/10 Bethany Cox