Qu'importe le Flocon

Sylvester Cat and Tweety Bird are trapped in a snowstorm in Granny's mountain cabin. Tweety doesn't need to worry food-wise as there's plenty of bird seed around, but Sylvester has only the bird to think about eating. There's also a mouse who gets into the act. Only 2 Tweety shorts to go on this DVD, these are quite the chore as my loathing of that damned speech impediment having bird is by now well known. I find it hard to be fair-minded with a character I actively detest and fear my reviews for the Tweety cartoons are suffering because of it & am so very glad that the next short is the last one I'll have to review, until Volume 3 of the Golden Collection at least. This animated short can be seen on Disc 3 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2.

My Grade: D+

Grannie comes to a halt in a blizzard as she heads toward her cabin. In the cabin are Tweety and Sylvester, co-existing. Unfortunately, food has run out and all that there is is tons of bird seed. Well, you can imaging. The kicker, however, is a ravenous mouse who torments the poor cat. Sylvester's natural instincts are never given any respect and he has to try to cope with the cruelty done him.

I actually felt sorry for poor Sylvester as a mouse, not Tweety, comes out of his hole and torments the poor cat throughout much of this Looney Tunes cartoon. Sylvester is eaten, burned and pounded from head to toe by a sadistic and hungry mouse.

It all begins when Granny gets the word that a blizzard has knocked out the roads to her cabin on top of the mountain. "Oh, flibbertigibbit," says Granny. "My bird and cat will starve up there. I'll have to find a way." (Is fibbertigibbit a word?)

It's calm up at the cabin, however, and - shocking as it may sound - Sylvester and Tweety are lounging together at the fireplace. Sylvester even kisses Tweety! However, the cat hears on the radio that "all roads might be closed for up to six weeks," he panics, says "I'll starve," and starts looking around for food, but all there is available is bird seed. From there, it goes from bad to worse for your always-unlucky cat. At least Tweety gets off the hook, as this mouse comes out of a hole and terrorizes poor Sylvester.

This was entertaining but I didn't find it that humorous. The brutal mouse made the story almost sadistic in nature.

In 1953's "Snow Business" Tweety, Sylvester, and Granny have, once again, been brought together in yet another animated "Merrie Melody" where the comic activity doesn't take but a minute to shift into high-gear.

And, the question is - Will Granny be able to arrive in time at her snowbound cabin in the hills where her 2 beloved pets (Tweety and Sylvester) are gonna be looking for their next meal real soon?

Well - In the meantime - It doesn't take long for Sylvester (being a typical putty-tat that he is) to get ideas into his feline head that sweet, little Tweety would certainly make a delicious snack.

And so - With that in mind - All hell breaks loose when a ravenously snippy rodent gets into the act which promptly thwarts Sylvester's plans to make mincemeat out of Tweety.

After the feeble 'A Bird in a Guilty Cage', Friz Freleng finally injected some life into his repetitive Sylvester and Tweety series with the brilliant and novel 'Snow Business'. Owing a good deal of its success to a superbly inventive script by Warren Foster, 'Snow Business' opens with Tweety and Sylvester as the best of friends. Only when they are stranded in a cabin by a snowstorm do the starving cat's thoughts turn to eating his former playmate. A great twist on the straightforward formula, 'Snow Business' has a few more tricks up its sleeve. For one, Tweety remains oblivious of the danger he's in throughout the whole cartoon as Sylvester convinces him that a ride in a boiling hot cooking pot and skating on a greased frying pan are enormous fun. This unusual set-up creates a whole new refreshing dynamic between the cat and bird. The real star of 'Snow Business', however, is a psychotic little mouse who, driven crazy with hunger, decides he wants to eat Sylvester. It is this final bizarre plot twist which pushes 'Snow Business' from great to brilliant and the emaciated little rodents attempts to devour a creature ten times his size are hilarious to watch. 'Snow Business' is, in all probability, the very best of all the Tweety and Sylvester shorts. It's a genuinely funny and odd script brilliantly directed by Freleng.