Tarte aux tweets

I didn't like "Tweety Pie". He was a nasty and manipulative little critter who used all his butter-wouldn't-melt tactics to thwart the perfectly reasonable efforts of "Thomas" to do what cats do. Eat him! This time, it's a very snowy garden that finds these two "playing", but as ever it's their owner who saves the feathers! She's determined that her two favourite pets are going to learn to play nice - but what chance, eh? Tom constructs ever elaborate plans to get the bird from it's cage but is consistently outwitted, usually quite painfully, but his scrawny nemesis. Why did he bother though? There's no meat on the thing, anyway! This is good fun with loads of action, a few quite fun contraptions used and by the end of this, I hated that bird even more!

Before I review TWEETIE PIE, I am going to rant a bit. So, hold on tight and I'll get this over with as quickly as I can. In the history of animated shorts, few would argue that there were any better than those of Warner Brothers in the 1940s and 50s. While some of the MGM and Disney cartoons may have looked better (though all three had wonderful animation), none were as consistently funny and entertaining as the Looney Tunes shorts from Warner. However, oddly, this group of amazing artists won very few Oscars. Tom and Jerry (which I love), although highly repetitive, did great at the Oscars. And, amazingly, crap like the UPA shorts (with characters like Gerald McBoing-Boing and Mr. Magoo) cleaned up at the Oscars in the 1950s even though the animation quality was light-years behind Warners. Somehow, the Oscar folks did Looney Tunes dirty again and again...and I have no idea why. Perhaps they just thought that their cartoons weren't artsy enough or hated that they were intended for the common person out there.

Now, despite my rant, on occasion the Academy got it right--such as in the case of TWEETIE PIE. This is exactly the type of short that usually didn't win, as it was funny and extremely sadistic--two things necessary for a great short!! While some even better shorts by Looney Tunes have been ignored (such as the amazing FEED THE KITTY and CANNED FEUD), at least here they got it right.

This is the first pairing of Sylvester and Tweetie, though the cat is called 'Thomas' in this short. Still, it worked well and the combination seemed like a natural--with this first pairing actually being one of their best, if not the best. Great animation, great humor and a generous sprinkling of violence--this is one wonderful Oscar-winning cartoon.

There are better Looney Tunes cartoons than the Sylvester and Tweety series but the series is still entertaining and nice to watch. Sylvester and Tweety are not among Looney Tunes' greatest duos, but at least their duo makes sense and doesn't feel odd(unlike Daffy and Speedy). Tweetie Pie signals their debut together- having been seen before solo- and it is a great one and one of their better cartoons. The cruelty of Sylvester/Thomas' owner is a turn-off point, the one character here who you dislike from the get go, but that's a personal nit-pick above all else. The animation is vibrant and detailed and with plenty of bounce, both Tweety and Thomas/Sylvester well and recognisably drawn and Thomas/Sylvester's facial expressions are expressively done. Carl Stalling's music not only is orchestrated beautifully but rhythmically it bursts with character and it gives great energy to the action. It's not just it sounding nice and that it's action-enhancing but also how well it accompanies the gestures and expressions of the characters and even the sound effects too. The dialogue is sharp and the gags while not surprising are made funny, in some instances hilarious(especially the one with Thomas/Sylvester trying to fly up to the cage via an electric fan), by the interactions between the duo and Thomas/Sylvester's facial expressions. Which like with Wile E. Coyote induces some of the laughs on their own, I don't think the fireplace gag would have worked quite so well without his reaction to that he was burning. Tweetie Pie is violent but actually not in a sadistic or bizarre way that it churns the stomach like the Gene Deitch Tom and Jerry cartoons did. Tweety has the cute- but not too sickly sweet- persona that he is now famous for but he also has shades of the anarchic personality that was given to him in the Bob Clampett outings. But Thomas/Sylvester makes the biggest impression, not just because he has the funniest moments but you also root for him, and this is in general not just here. He may have a different name and be fatter but the voice and the catchphrase are unmistakable. The two work great together and as aforementioned at the beginning of the review their chemistry makes sense, plus as usual Mel Blanc voices superbly. All in all, a great debut for this bird and mouse duo, one of their best if not their very best. 9/10 Bethany Cox

If you watch a number of these Tweety and Sylvester cartoons you'll notice the two stars with different owners. "Granny" is the usual owner of Tweetie, but not always. Here, in this cartoon we see a woman who already owns Sylvester, taking in Tweetie whom she thinks is an abandoned bird. She calls our cat here "Thomas," too, and she's a nasty woman. She would be reported for animal abuse, in this day and age, as she constantly beats Sylvester with a broom.

This gets off to a good start as Tweetie is outside freezing in the show. Sylvester is hidden inside a snow man waiting for the right time. That comes along quickly and Sylvester jumps out, puts on his snow shoes and starts stalking the little bird. When he pounces, he grabs the little heater that Tweety was using to get warm, instead of the bird. A second try succeeds, but the cat's owner comes out and demands to know what he's hiding inside his paws. She winds up taking in the bird.

The rest of the cartoon is the standard material of the cat trying to catch the bird who is in his cage way up in the ceiling.

This was passable but I didn't care for the beatings "Thomas" took from the owner. I understand this was the first pairing of the two main characters, so it explains why we see different names and different owners. I'm glad "Granny" took over from this woman and Sylvester didn't have to hang around this house for too long.

Move over, Gallagher and Sheen, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott ans Costello, Lunt and Fontaine: it's Sylvester and Tweety! In a pairing so obvious as to be almost automatic, Tweety and Sylvester meet up for the first time and take the prize-Oscar, of course. One of the better ones, this pairing is perfect. Highly Recommended.